Memphis police on Saturday announced the disbanding of the special unit involved in the beating that led to the death of a young African-American in early January. This video shook America.

On Saturday, police in Memphis, Tennessee (southern United States) said in a statement that “It is in everyone’s best interest to permanently disband the SCORPION unit,Police officers currently assigned to the unit have agreed“, adds the press release. The family of Tyra Nichols welcomed the decision through a statement from their attorneys, noting that “Both appropriate and proportionate to the tragic death of Tyra Nichols” but “civil and just for all citizens of Memphis,

kicks, punches and jabs

Shocking images of the fatal arrest of Tyre Nichols, 29, by five black police officers have sparked horror and bewilderment in the United States, which has yet to lead to the same social explosion of the summer of 2020 that officials feared Was. , Video released by police shows an intolerable thrashing after a routine traffic stop on Jan. 7 in Memphis. Police attacked the young man with fists, feet and batons, fired tear gas and targeted him with Taser electric shock guns. At no point do we see Tyra Nichols retaliate. He tries to escape, gets caught. ,Mother. Mother. Mother!“, he shouts in one of the extracts. Tyr Nichols died three days later in a Memphis hospital.

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Rallies ranging from a few dozen to a few hundred people were held Friday night in several cities, including Memphis, New York and Washington. Several dozen protesters gathered in the rain and cold outside Memphis City Hall, a massive concrete block building, on Saturday afternoon. to the voices ofno justice no peaceand with asking signs”justice for tyre nicholsThe protesters then marched through the otherwise quiet streets of Memphis.

Five police officers were fired, charged with murder, and imprisoned. Four of these were later released on bail. The family declared themselves on Friday, saying they were “frightened”.SatisfiedAppreciated the charges leveled against the five police officers and “paceabout the action taken against them.

“Institutional Police Culture”

,It Could have been meIn place of Tyra Nichols, Demarcus Carter, a 36-year-old African American living in Memphis, reacted after seeing the video, who had expected the protest to grow larger. But once a test has been done,If the decision is wrong then the protest will be bigger“, he predicted. Some questions remain unanswered after the arrest footage was released. The video, for example, does not show the beginning of a conversation between Tyra Nichols and the group.

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The new death, following an arrest, has reignited the debate over police violence in a country where memories of George Floyd, who was killed by a white police officer in 2020, are fresh, with a sense that the massive demonstrations that followed Did not solve the problem.

Ben Crump, one of the attorneys for the family of Tyree Nichols and who defended the family of George Floyd, made a “institutional police culture,It doesn’t matter if the policeman is black, Hispanic or white (…). unwritten rules that excessive force can be used if a person is from a certain ethnic group“, he said Saturday on the MSNBC channel.