SENSELESS KILLING NOW UNDER INVESTIGATION
On January 7, 2023, Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old, African-American male, was stopped by members of the Memphis Police Department’s Scorpion unit, while he was driving in the City of Memphis.
Almost immediately after the traffic stop, the officers cursed and yelled at Mr. Nichols as he tried to comply with their orders. What followed was a brutal beating by a cohort of officers against a defenseless man.
The events were captured by police bodycams and cameras that had been mounted on poles in the incident's vicinity. Those videos show the officers repeatedly striking Mr. Nichols with their fists, service batons, and kicking him in his head while he lay on the ground helpless. (He was hospitalized in critical condition and died some three days later.)
Five officers involved in the incident were immediately fired and have been charged with second-degree murder.
Asked to comment on the case by The Guardian, BBC and CBC, Prof. Randolph M. McLaughlin, who is affiliated with Haub Law School, and also serves as Co-chair of Newman Ferrara's Civil Rights Practice Group, observed, “At the end of the day, the final video shows someone being beaten and abused like he’s in a pinball game. It’s like the ball is just being knocked from one end to the other.”
May the Nichols family find justice ... and peace.
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LINKS
You may also listen to Professor McLaughlin's BBC interview here: