According to the chief of the Memphis Police Department, the video of police striking a black driver shows “acts that defy humanity.”
Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old black man, was beaten to death earlier this month in the United States. Five police officers have been charged with murder in connection with the incident, and the city of Memphis has released a horrifying video of the confrontation.
A day after the officers were charged with second-degree murder, assault, kidnapping, official misconduct, and oppression, the video from police body-worn and dashboard cameras was put on the city’s Vimeo page on Friday evening.
The video depicts the officers, who are all black, striking the FedEx employee for three minutes in an assault that the Nichols family’s legal team compared to the infamous Rodney King police beating in Los Angeles in 1991.
In one video, Nichols can be heard screaming, “Damn, I didn’t do anything,” as police remove him from the wheel of his vehicle. They force him to the ground and tell him to lie on his stomach while yelling, “I’m just trying to get home.” They then pepper sprayed him in the face.
One officer shouts, “Get on the ground,” while another can be heard, “Tase him!” Tap him!
Soon after being forced to the ground by force, Nichols responded coolly, “OK, I’m on the ground.” “Man, I’m on the ground,” Nichols says as the officers keep shouting.
Put your hands behind your back before I break your [expletive]! yells a police officer.A policeman then says, “[Expletive], put your hands behind your back before I break them,” a little while later.
Nichols yells angrily at the officers, “You guys are really doing a lot right now.” “I just want to get home,” you say.
He cries, “Stop, I’m not doing anything,” a second later.
After a brief moment when the camera is hidden, Nichols is visible sprinting as an officer uses a Taser on him. The police then began to pursue Nichols.
In a different video, the following battle can be seen after the police reappear and begin beating Nichols. Two officers are seen holding him down while a third kicks him, another punches Nichols, and a fourth appears to strike him with a rod.
READ ALSO: In occupied Palestine, seven Israelis were shot and killed outside of an east Jerusalem synagogue
After the beating, the police officers stood around talking for a time as Nichols leaned against the car before collapsing to the ground.
While at the hospital, he succumbed to his wounds and passed away three days later.
Following their altercation on January 7, the five cops were discharged from the police department last Saturday.
“Battered to a pulp.”
Uncertainty surrounds the incident’s precise circumstances. When Nichols was stopped by the police, “an argument” followed in which the officers pepper sprayed him and Nichols attempted to run away on foot, according to the local district attorney who announced the charges against the former policemen.
Nichols’ mother, RowVaughn Wells, told CNN on Friday, “They had beaten him to a pulp.” He was covered with bruises. Like a watermelon, his skull was bloated. The edoema was so bad that it was busting his neck. His neck was broken.
I knew my son had left when I saw that. Even if he had survived, Wells said, he would have been a vegetable.
Wells claimed during the news conference on Friday that she has not yet had time to grieve the loss of her son. This was not expected to occur. She added, “My son was supposed to be here with me today.”
“No mother, no mother at all, should experience what I’m going through right now.” to lose their child in the same horrific manner as I did.”
Following the violent altercation between Nichols and the police officers, US President Joe Biden expressed his “outrage” and “deep grief” on Friday.
In a statement, Biden stated, “Like so many, I was horrified and terribly pained to watch the awful video of the beating that led to Tyre Nichols’ death.”
He continued by saying that the Nichols family deserves a prompt, thorough, and open investigation.
RESOURCES: NEWSPAPERS AND AL JAZEERA
