United States: America shocked by the video of the fatal arrest of Tire Nichols

A long night beating, with fists, kicks, truncheons: the Americans discovered Friday evening with horror the extremely shocking video of the fatal arrest of Tyre Nichols, an African-American who died at the age of 29 years.

The images show the violence inflicted for long moments by the five black police officers, in the wake of a banal traffic check in Memphis, in the State of Tennessee, on January 7. Tire Nichols, sprayed with tear gas and targeted by a Taser gun with electric shocks, tries to flee but is then caught by the agents, who are unleashed, apparently insensitive to the pleas of the motorist.

Reacting some thirty minutes after the explosive video was made public, President Joe Biden said he was “outraged” and “deeply bruised”. “Mom. Mom. Mom!” shouts Tire Nichols in one of the excerpts. In another, we see him on the ground, beaten for long seconds. On Friday, the first demonstrations began in various cities across the country, including Washington, New York and Memphis.

A sign that the case is potentially explosive, Joe Biden had urged that the rallies be “peaceful” and spoke on the phone in the afternoon with the mother and stepfather of Tire Nichols. Because his death recalls that of the African-American George Floyd, killed by a police officer in May 2020. Demonstrations against racism and police violence then set the country ablaze, united around the slogan “Black Lives Matter” (Black lives matter). “When my husband and I arrived at the hospital and saw my son, he was already dead. They had reduced him to mush. He had bruises everywhere, his head was swollen like a watermelon,” said RowVaughn Wells, Tyre Nichols’ mother, in tears in an interview broadcast by CNN.

Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis has warned that the video showing the arrest of this man for a simple traffic violation was “comparable, if not worse” to that showing the violent police arrest of Rodney King in 1991. The acquittal a year later of the four police officers involved sparked unprecedented riots in Los Angeles.

The authorities had been calling for calm for several days, anticipating demonstrations after the publication of a video deemed “appalling” by David Rausch, the director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. Tire Nichols’ family have themselves called for peaceful gatherings. “Please demonstrate, but demonstrate safely,” said her stepfather, Rodney Wells.

In Memphis, protesters marched as the video was released, chanting, “Say his name. Tire Nichols”. “You didn’t want to listen to us”, proclaimed the procession in this city where Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968. In Washington, demonstrators had started to gather even before the publication of the video. “No justice, no peace,” they intoned, as a video of Tire Nichols was projected onto the facade of a nearby building.

Elsewhere in the country, the police were preparing for possible overflows. Two Joe Biden advisers have spoken to the mayors of 16 US cities about the protests.

Tire Nichols, hospitalized, died three days after his arrest. The five African-American police officers, since dismissed, were charged with murder and imprisoned. Four of them were later released on bail. FBI Director Christopher Wray said he was “horrified,” and Attorney General Merrick Garland said a federal investigation had been opened. While expressing their horror, the family’s lawyers as well as the parents of the young man wanted to salute the “speed” of the measures taken against the police.

Reverend Al Sharpton, a famous civil rights figure who will deliver the funeral oration for Tire Nichols, said the fact that the police were black made the event “even more shocking”. “We are against all police brutality, not just police brutality by white people,” he said.