The Justice Department accused five Memphis officers. The officers are believed to have beaten Tyre Nichols to a bloody pulp in January.
The beating took place after these officers did a traffic stop and a foot chase. The officers punched, kicked, and stomped on 29-year-old Tyre Nichols. Additionally, the beating was so bad Nichols had to get sent to the hospital. Three days later, while he was at the hospital, doctors reported him dead.
Following that charges that are being faced by the officers are:
- Conspiracy.
- Obstruction offenses which resulted in Tyre’s death.
- Second-degree murder.
- And civil rights violations.
Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Tadarrius Bean, Justin Smith, and Desmond Mills jr. are the officers who were involved in the beating. This means each police officer is facing up to 20 years to life locked up away.
They Pled Not Guilty
But the five officers have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
During the same day that the officers were charged, Kirsten Clarke, who is the assistant attorney general of the department’s civil rights division, made a statement in a conference. “The Constitution gave every single American basic rights, even in the case of interacting with law enforcers,” she stated. “These rights make us free from any excessive force and give us the right to get other officers involved to stop these acts of excessive force. And when in custody, get medical attention correctly, without any carelessness.”
Tyre should be alive if they upheld these rights.
Furthermore, Kristen wasn’t the only one with something to say about this situation. Merrick Garland Attorney General stated, “These officers who violate the civil rights of the people they are meant to protect will always be held accountable for their betrayal of their oath and actions.”
More on what the defendants and other officers had to say
The Tyre Nichols case is a tragic one, that’s for sure. Additionally, General Attorney Garland added, “I think it’s a complete shame that the country witnessed Tyre Nichol get pepper-sprayed, punched, kicked, and even tased and all he did was cry out how he just wanted to go home.”
Additionally, the five men were part of a specialized scorpion unit that was made two years ago to help patrol hot spots for crime in Memphis. Their focus on crime was all types of gang activity, anything drug-related, and automobile thefts. This group was disassembled after Nichol’s murder due to a large amount of public criticism of the excessive force.
Also, after Tyre Nichol’s death, his family filed a civil rights lawsuit against Memphis, the police department, and its officers who were involved in his homicide.
There was reason to believe these former officers didn’t inform the Memphis medical personnel about how Nichols got his injuries. Additionally, the defendants are alleged to have removed their body cameras while they were talking about the beating that occurred in January. They had said, “Everybody was rocking his ass, and I felt like he wasn’t gonna fall.”
However, on January 27, they released the body cam footage to the public. This body cam and surveillance footage showed Tyre Nichols’ arrest and the beating that was done.
In the police report, the officers said Nichols fought back and tried to grab one of their guns. But in the footage, he didn’t fight back at all, nor did he try to grab their gun. Additionally, the five suspects didn’t mention the punching and kicking they inflicted on Tyre.
By Samuel Cruz
Sources:
CNN: 5 former police officers involved in deadly beating of Tyre Nichols indicted on federal charges
The Washington Post: Ex-Memphis officers charged with civil rights violations in Tyre Nichols killing
Featured and Top Image by Shane T. McCoy / US Marshals Courtesy of Office of Public Affairs Flickr Page–Creative Commons License
Inset Image Courtesy of V Smoothe Flickr Page–Creative Commons License
