After Dyer Nicholas’s death
More charges against five US police officers
September 12, 2023, 11:53 pm
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The video of the death of 29-year-old African-American Dyer Nichols has caused a stir in the United States. Five former police officers charged with murder now face federal charges of a cover-up.
The US federal Department of Justice has filed charges against five former police officers in the January beating death of African-American Dyer Nichols in Memphis. In the indictment, which has just been decided, all five are accused of violating Nichols’ civil rights. They also allegedly conspired to cover up their crime and made false statements. For example, the defendants did not inform operational management at headquarters or their superiors about their activities during the audit.
“The nation watched in horror as Tyre Nichols was kicked, punched, tasered and pepper-sprayed,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a video. “We all heard him screaming for his mom and saying, ‘I’m trying to get home.'”
Nichols was assaulted by five police officers on January 7th during a traffic stop in Memphis, Tennessee. The 29-year-old died in hospital three days later. The videos of this incident were released after a few weeks and caused great excitement and shock.
The accused were African American
Five police officers — who, like the victim, were also African American — were fired by the local Memphis justice system and charged with second-degree murder. In Tennessee, this is somewhere between manslaughter and murder. Now there was an additional charge at the federal judicial level.
Cases of police violence against black people in the US have sparked repeated protests. Often, though not in the Nichols case, the perpetrators are white police officers. The most high-profile case in recent years is the brutal police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota in May 2020. White police officer Derek Chavin pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck as he was arrested and laid on the ground. , over nine minutes.
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