United States: Kamala Harris at the funeral of Tire Nichols, victim of police violence in Memphis
A tribute to Tire Nichols, this 29-year-old African-American, killed by the police in Memphis.
AP - Paul Kitagaki Jr.
Text by: David Thomson Follow
3 mins
The funeral of Tire Nichols takes place this Wednesday, February 1 in Memphis, Tennessee.
This 29-year-old black man died three days after being beaten by the police on January 7 after a banal traffic stop.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris will attend the funeral.
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From our special correspondent in Memphis
,
Friday evening, the images of this
beating
shocked the whole country.
For the inhabitants of Memphis, it is always a shock, and also a misunderstanding, because the five police officers who have all been charged with murder are all African-Americans, like their victim.
This is what makes the disappearance of Tire Nichols even more difficult to bear, recognizes his own mother.
“
The fact that Tire was killed by black police officers makes his death 10,000 times worse for us because it shows us that police brutality is not just a white police problem, it is a global problem unique to all the American police and we have to change that
,” said this African-American resident of Memphis, whom he met at the scene of the tragedy, and came to meditate in front of an improvised mausoleum.
An analysis shared by representatives of the
Black Lives Matter
movement .
According to them, even if these police officers are black, racism may have played a role in this tragedy.
In the 65% African-American city of Memphis, the police are mostly black, but for the
Black Lives Matter
movement , even black police officers can have racist reflexes: “
When you integrate this police system,
explains Amber Sherman, member of Black Lives Matter Memphis
, you are indoctrinated into this system regardless of race.
We learn to consider blacks as a threat.
And so even though they are black themselves, these police officers dehumanized Tire because they saw his skin color as a threat
.
»
A major police reform that is still pending
And yet, after the death of George Floyd, which had shaken the United States in 2020, Joe Biden promised major police reform, but in Memphis, after this new tragedy, the activists met no longer believe in it: “
Joe Biden made beautiful statements in front of the cameras, but concretely, he did nothing for us
, ”explains the
Black Lives Matter Memphis
movement .
The major police reform promised by Joe Biden during his campaign and which bears the name of
George Floyd
was buried in Congress for lack of a majority, the result little or nothing has changed on the legislative level, but what may have changed, on the other hand, is the way in which the authorities now manage these tragedies.
The famous lawyer Ben Crump who defends the family of Tire Nichols even spoke of a management model by the Memphis authorities since in less than a month the five police officers were charged with murder.
The images of the beating were made public in transparency, this is what undoubtedly helped to appease the anger of the street and that no violent protests took place after the death of Tire Nichols.
►
To read also: United States: the death of Tire Nichols revives the debate on police violence
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