‘I’m just trying to go home’: Video of police brutally beating Tire Nichols sparks protests across the US

Authorities released video footage Friday showing Tire Nichols being beaten by five Memphis police officers who detained the black motorist and beat him repeatedly with their fists, boots and batons as he screamed for his mother.

The video is filled with violent moments where the officers, who are also black, can be seen chasing and beating Nichols and causing him to lean against a patrol car on the sidewalk as they clash their fists and celebrate their actions.

The footage emerged a day after officers were charged with murder in Nichols’ death.

The chilling footage of another black man killed at the hands of police reignited troubling questions about how fatal encounters with law enforcement continue even after repeated calls for change.

Demonstrators gathered for mostly peaceful demonstrations in multiple cities, including Memphis, where several dozen protesters blocked the Interstate 55 bridge that carries traffic across the Mississippi River into Arkansas. Trucks stood back a little.

In Washington, dozens of protesters gathered in Lafayette Park, across the street from the White House and near Black Lives Matter Plaza.

Other cities across the country braced for demonstrations, but the media reported only scattered and nonviolent protests. Protesters sometimes blocked traffic as they chanted slogans and marched through the streets of New York City, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon.

Nichols’ relatives urged supporters to protest peacefully.

“I don’t want us to burn down our town, tear up the streets, because that’s not what my son stood for,” Nichols’ mother, RowVaughn Wells, said Thursday. “If you are here for me and Tire, you will protest peacefully.”

Christopher Taylor was one of the protesters at the Interstate 55 bridge on Friday. He said he watched the video. The Memphis resident said it was terrible that the officers seemed to laugh when they stopped after the beating.

“I cried,” he said. “And that there, since I am not only a father myself, but also a son, my mother is still alive, that could have been me.”

U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris both condemned the assault of Tire Nichols by the Memphis Police Department, which ended in his death.

The president said in a statement that he was “outraged and deeply pained to see the horrific video” of the beating and said people who see it will be “justifiably outraged”.

But he also urged protesters to avoid violence.

“Yet America once again mourns the life of a son and father brutally cut short by those sworn to protect and serve,” Harris said.

She said the video footage would “open wounds that will never fully heal.”

Earlier on Friday, Biden said he had spoken with Nichols’ mother earlier in the day and told her he would “make a plea” for Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act “to get this under control.” to get”.

The legislation, which has stalled, aims to address police misconduct and excessive force and boost federal and state accountability efforts.

“Stop, I’m not doing anything”

The footage shows police savagely beating the 29-year-old FedEx employee for three minutes as he yelled abuse at him during the attack.

The Nichols family legal team has likened the attack to the infamous 1991 police beating of Los Angeles motorist Rodney King.

After the first officer roughly pulls Nichols out of a car, Nichols can be heard saying, “I didn’t do anything,” as a group of officers try to wrestle him to the ground.

A cop is heard yelling, “Tase him! Touch him!

Nichols calmly says, “OK, I’m on the floor.”

“You guys are really doing a lot right now,” says Nichols. “I’m just trying to go home.”

“Stop, I’m not doing anything”, he shouts a little later.

Nichols can then be seen as an officer fires a taser at him. The agents then begin to chase Nichols.

Other officers are called and a search ensues before Nichols is caught at another intersection. The officers beat him with a baton and kicked and punched him.

Security camera footage shows three officers surrounding Nichols as he lies in the street, cornered between police cars, with a fourth officer nearby.

Two officers hold Nichols to the ground as he walks around, and then the third appears to kick him in the head. Nichols sinks more fully to the curb with all three officers around him. The same cop kicks him again.

The fourth officer then walks over, draws a baton and holds it at shoulder height while two officers hold Nichols upright as if he were sitting.

“I’m going to beat the hell out of you,” you hear an officer say. His body camera shows him raising his baton with at least one other officer holding Nichols. The officer hits Nichols on the back three times in a row with the baton.

The other officers then appear to hoist Nichols to his feet, with him flopping like a doll and barely able to stay upright.

An officer then punches him in the face, while the officer with the baton continues to threaten him. Nichols trips and turns, still held up by two officers.

The officer who hit him then walks over to Nichols’ front and hits him four more times. Then Nichols collapses.

Two officers can then be seen on top of Nichols on the ground for about 40 seconds, with a third close by. Three more officers rush over, and one can be seen kicking Nichols to the ground.

As Nichols leans against a car, none of the officers offer assistance. The body camera footage shows a first-person view of one of them reaching down and tying his shoelaces.

After Nichols is beaten and stood on the doorstep, it takes more than 20 minutes for any kind of medical attention to be provided, even though two firefighters with medical equipment arrived at the scene within 10 minutes.

In the videos, officers make claims about Nichols’ behavior that are not supported by the footage or that the district attorney and other officials have said did not happen.

In one of the videos, an officer claims that Nichols reached for a gun during the first traffic stop before fleeing and almost had his hand on the handle, which is not shown in the video.

After Nichols leans handcuffed against a police car, several officers say he must have been high. Later, an officer says no drugs were found in his car, and another officer immediately replies that Nichols must have dumped something as he ran away.

‘Horrible, reckless and inhumane’

Authorities have not released an autopsy report, but they said there appeared to be no justification for the traffic stop and nothing of note was found in the car.

The video raised questions about the role and possible guilt of the other officers at the scene, in addition to the five charged. The images show that a number of other officers remain standing after the beating.

Memphis Police Director Cerelyn “CJ” Davis has said other officers are being investigated for their part in the arrest. Davis described the actions of the five officers as “heinous, reckless and inhumane”.

During the traffic check, the video shows the officers “already stepped up, around 10,” she said. The officers were “aggressive, loud, used profane language and probably scared Mr. Nichols from the start.”

“Police are trained to understand that people can flee just because they are afraid,” said Geoffrey Alpert, a criminologist at the University of South Carolina who studies the use of force.

Court records showed that all five former officers – Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr., Emmitt Martin III and Justin Smith – had been taken into custody.

The officers are each charged with manslaughter, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression. Four of the five officers had posted bail and were released Friday morning, according to the court and jail.

First-degree homicide is punishable by 15 to 60 years in prison under Tennessee law.