Black Lives Still Matter, Con't

The Memphis PD body cam footage of the brutal murder of Tyre Nichols at a traffic stop earlier this month was released to the public, and it is even worse than most experts feared. I won't post it here, but it is available at the NBC News story linked.

 

Video released by authorities in Memphis Friday shows police officers beating Tyre Nichols after a traffic stop that ended with his hospitalization and death.

The four videos released by the Memphis Police Department include video from surveillance and body worn cameras.

The city’s top police official, Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis, has previously described the conduct captured in the disturbing and graphic video as “heinous, reckless and inhumane.”

Nichols, 29, was hospitalized in critical condition and died three days after Memphis police officers stopped him Jan. 7. Details about what occurred between Nichols and the officers have been sparse; police initially said Nichols ran during the reckless driving stop and that a "confrontation" occurred in an effort to detain him.

However, Davis told MSNBC Friday that an investigation and review of available camera footage could not "substantiate" the reckless driving claim.

Nichols' family was offered a private viewing of the video Monday. His mother, RowVaughn Wells, made it only through the first minute, family attorneys Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci said.

While she hasn’t seen all the footage, Wells said “what I’ve heard is very horrific.”

“Any of you who have children, please don’t let them see it,” she added during a news conference Friday.

 

The utterly brutal thing about this particular murder by cop is that the officers were all Black, and they killed him anyway.  They were all part of the department's "Scorpion Squad", supposedly elite officers with the training to respond to the city's Black neighborhoods.

And they still butchered him.

The Justice Department and FBI chief Chris Wray are making a full investigation, so hopefully we'll see these assholes in a box somewhere. Police Chief Cerelyn Davis has fired the officers, and all have been charged with murder.

We'll see what happens, but I'm hoping very long prison sentences.

Black Lives Still Matter.