Tyre Nichols and the promise of police reform
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 30 January 2023
⏱️ 20 minutes
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Summary
After Tyre Nichols —a young Black man — was beaten to death by police in Memphis, the fact that the five officers charged are Black has prompted activists to grapple with the complex pervasiveness of institutional racism in policing.
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Tyre Nichols was a 29-year-old Black man who died after sustaining injuries from a police beating in early January. Five officers were fired and charged with second-degree murder. A sixth officer, who is White, has been suspended, the police department said Monday. Video footage of the attack was released Friday. Protests have been subdued— in part, Robert Klemko says, because the five officers charged are also Black men.
“The fact that these officers were Black took the wind out of a lot of folks' sails and created, specifically in communities of color, this feeling of sorrow as opposed to anger,” Klemko says.
Today, how another death of a Black man at the hands of police officers illustrates institutional racism in policing — regardless of the race of the officer.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In a video posted on Tyrone Nicole's Facebook page, he's dancing to Footloose. |
| 0:11.4 | He's singing along, he's holding a cigarette, and the sun is shining behind him. |
| 0:15.6 | He looks happy and kind of goofy. |
| 0:18.3 | Tyrone was a beautiful person. |
| 0:27.8 | He loved to take pictures, he liked to go, see the sun said, and most of all, he loved |
| 0:38.2 | his mother, and he loved his son. |
| 0:42.6 | Tyrone Nicole's was a 29-year-old skateboarder, photographer and FedEx employee who was driving |
| 0:49.9 | on January 7th in the evening and pulled over for reckless driving. |
| 0:55.7 | Although the police haven't offered any video proof of the reason for the stop. |
| 1:02.4 | And the video that we've seen that's been since released to the public last week shows |
| 1:08.4 | officers approaching his car, demanding that he exit the vehicle, forcing him to the |
| 1:13.6 | ground, and after a struggle, Tyrone escapes, and they catch up with him, several blocks |
| 1:21.3 | down the road as he's running towards his mother's home. |
| 1:25.1 | This is Robert Clemko. |
| 1:26.6 | He covers criminal justice and police reform for the post. |
| 1:29.9 | At one point in the pursuit, several minutes later, they catch up with him and a handful |
| 1:34.3 | of officers, all of them black, beat him with batons, kicks, punches, at one point an |
| 1:43.1 | officer tees up a kick to his face while he's on the ground. |
| 1:47.4 | At another point, an officer swings punches at him as he's being restrained while standing. |
| 1:54.7 | And after several minutes, this last about three or four minutes, he's handcuffed and |
| 2:03.2 | the officers then begin fist bumping each other. |
| 2:08.5 | That happened on January 7th. |
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