The Death of Tyre Nichols
Recently, footage of the brutal beating of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols was released to the public on January 28th. On January 7 in Memphis, Nichols was pulled over for a routine traffic stop, police officers claimed they pulled Nichols over for reckless driving. What should have been a routine and conflict-free stop quickly turned into a violent and deadly encounter.
Nichols was not known to have a violent past or a criminal record of any kind. There is no evidence that suggests he was violent in nature. He was a father to a 4 year old son, a passionate skateboarder, and nature photographer in Sacramento, California. His grandmother, who spoke at his funeral said he was,”...one of those people who made everyone around him happy.” This is not the man you would assume required 5 men to show a deadly amount of force in order to restrain him.
The officers involved in this case had body cams that only revealed audio of the event. The officers involved could be heard saying,”Give me your hands!’’ and, “Stop resisting!”. This paints a pretty clear picture favoring officers involved. The only factor that tells the real story of what happened to Nichols that night was a nearby street camera capturing
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The public demanded to see footage of that night and they were granted that request on January 28th after Shelby County District Attorneys’ office deemed it a ”reasonable request from the public”. Following the release of footage, peaceful protests against police brutality have broken out across America along with small gatherings in Memphis churches to reflect and heal on this violent event. The police officers involved have been fired and arrested on charges including; second degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct, and official