Home » Death in the US of an Afro-descendant fuels fear of tensions

Death in the US of an Afro-descendant fuels fear of tensions

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Death in the US of an Afro-descendant fuels fear of tensions

The death of an African-American after his arrest by police, whose video will be made public on Friday, revives fears of racial tensions in the United States, where President Joe Biden called for calm and demanded a speedy investigation.

Five police officers were charged and jailed Thursday in the January death of 29-year-old Tire Nichols, authorities said.

These Memphis, Tennessee, police officers, all of whom are African-American, have been indicted for manslaughter, battery and battery, as well as kidnapping, prosecutor Steve Mulroy announced at a news conference.

President Biden called in a statement for a “prompt, complete and transparent investigation” into the case.

The video of the arrest will be made public on Friday after 6:00 p.m. local time (00:00 GMT on Saturday).

“I think they’re going to be shocked” when they see the footage, Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis admitted Wednesday.

Considering the organization of demonstrations likely, he called not to “incite violence or destruction.”

In his statement, Biden said he joined the Nichols family in calling for the demonstrations to be “peaceful” because “outrage is understandable, but violence is never acceptable.”

“It’s a beating”

On January 7, the cops wanted to arrest Nichols for a traffic violation. As officers approached, “a standoff ensued” and “the suspect fled,” according to police.

Finally Nichols was caught up by the agents and arrested. But he complained of having difficulty breathing during the arrest and was hospitalized. He died three days later.

The details of the arrest are unclear: the video has so far only been shown to relatives and their lawyers.

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According to them, “the policemen beat him beyond recognition.”

“It is a beating, pure and simple, without interruption, of this young man for three minutes,” said lawyer Antonio Romanucci.

What happened was “inadmissible” and “criminal” and “shouldn’t have happened,” said David Rausch, director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, who was “shocked” and “disgusted” by what he saw. “In a word, it’s absolutely terrifying,” he said.

The accusation against the police officers “gives us hope as we continue to demand justice for Tyre,” said lawyers for the victim’s family, which includes Ben Crump, who had represented the relatives of George Floyd.

On Thursday, recalling his encounters with the Nichols family, prosecutor Mulroy painted a portrait of an “almost perfect son,” “a jovial, happy person who loved to skateboard.”

The five accused officers were fired last week. The internal investigation by the police concluded that they had used excessive force.

Other officers are still under investigation.

The accused agents are “directly responsible for physical violence committed against Mr. Nichols,” Davis declared on Wednesday, estimating that it was not “only a professional error, but a lack of humanity.”



police violence

The case finds a particular echo in a country still marked by the death of George Floyd at the hands of the police in May 2020 and the Black Lives Matter demonstrations, against racism and police violence, that followed.

And the drama has reignited the debate over police brutality in the country.

“We cannot ignore the fact that deadly police interventions hit black people the hardest,” recalled Biden, who is seeking to get Congress to vote on a police reform bill, passed in the House of Representatives in 2021 but stalled in the Senate. .

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Since the death of George Floyd, Congress has been unable to enact ambitious police reform, not even a ban on chokeholds.

The president of the NAACP civil rights organization, Derrick Johnson, called on lawmakers to watch video of the arrest and then take action. “We can name all the victims of police violence, but we cannot name a single law that they have passed to address the problem,” he said.

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