Tyre Nichols updates: Funeral renews calls for police reform as up to 20 hours of video yet to be released

Vice President Kamala Harris has urged Congress to pass the Justice of George Floyd Police Act, a bipartisan police reform bill that passed the House in 2021 but stalled in a Senate stalled by Republican opposition.

The bill, named after a black man murdered by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020, was co-authored by then-Senator Harris.

“May the memory of Tyre illuminate the path to peace and justice,” Harris said in a brief greeting.

Vice President Kamala Harris was invited by her mother and stepfather to attend Tyre Nichols’ funeral, while Reverend Al Sharpton invited her to address a congregation gathered in Memphis on Wednesday.

She told her parents, “The people of our country grieve with you,” praising their “strength, courage, and grace.”

Tyre Nichols’ funeral in Memphis on Wednesday revived calls for justice for George Floyd in the Police Act, a federal law passed by the House of Representatives in 2021.

“Police are partisan actors like other people in power,” wrote Independent‘s Josh Marcus reflects on his coverage of police and criminal justice. “It’s important to take their claims with a grain of salt.”

The Memphis Police Department’s now-disbanded SCORPION unit (which stands for “Street Crime Operation to Restore Peace in the Neighborhood”) was introduced in October 2021. Tire disbanded after his Nichols’ death.

Independent‘s Graeme Massie investigates several similarly controversial units in departments across the United States accused of abuse and excessive force.

Far-right MP Marjorie Taylor-Green cited the fatal shooting of Capitol mob Ashley Babbitt after referring to Tyre Nichols being fatally beaten by police.

She then suggested that those incarcerated for their role in the riot face “civil rights violations” in prison.

Green went on to say that Congress has done nothing to address the treatment of other participants in the attacks, many of whom remain in prison before their respective trials.

There’s a simple reason for that. Mr. Babbitt was part of the crowd actively trying to break down the barricaded door to the exclusion zone. She was shot by a police officer when she tried to climb through a window that her fellow mobsters broke. Federal prosecutors closed the case and the officers were spared abuse.

A leaked incident report regarding the arrest and fatal beating of Tyre Nichols by Memphis police officers contains glaring inaccuracies revealed after the release of body camera and surveillance footage.

The report, written two hours after Nichols was beaten on January 7, said the 29-year-old boy was “furious”, refused legal custody, tried to get into a fight with police, and was accused of harassing police. He claimed he tried to steal the gun. first roadblock.

According to recently released personnel files, four of the five former Memphis Police Department officers charged with the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols have been suspended or disciplined for previous incidents while working for the police force. had received

According to the city’s record of incidents, police officers faced few, if any, consequences and were praised on at least two occasions, with other officers describing their actions as a one-off event.

Latoya Isar, whose mother was the godmother of Tire Nichols, read the poem at his funeral and recalled what he said to the police the night he was beaten.

“I’m on my way home,” she read from the lectern of Mississippi Boulevard Baptist Church in Memphis.

In his tribute, Reverend Al Sharpton said, “A home is more than just a place.”

“Home is where you rest. Home is where you don’t have to keep a duke. Home is where you aren’t vulnerable,” he said. “A home is a place where everything is in order.”