People protest the fatal police assault on Tyre Nichols outside the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center in Detroit, Michigan on January 27, 2023. Cities across the country prepare for a night of protests against police brutality. Five Memphis police officers, all black, were also charged with beating Tire Nichols, who died in hospital on Jan. 10 after being arrested on suspicion of reckless driving.・Photo by Kowalski/AFP) (Photo by Jeff Kowalski/AFP by Getty Images)
Jeff Kowalski | Afp | Getty Images
Lawmakers on Sunday launched efforts to pass substantive police reform after Memphis officials released a video on Friday showing the death of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old black man, at police hands. Said it needed to be revived.
Five officers involved in the deadly encounter were charged Thursday with murder, kidnapping, assault and other charges. The specialized unit was disbanded on Saturday.
Negotiations for police reform collapsed in parliament in 2021 after lawmakers failed to reach a bipartisan agreement. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, a Democrat of Illinois, said on Sunday that passing these reforms would be “the right start” but ultimately “not enough.”
Durbin knows that law enforcement officers risk their lives for Americans every day, but many of these same officers have engaged in “horrible acts” to change things for the better. There is a need.
“What we saw on the streets of Memphis was inhumane and terrifying,” he told ABC’s “This Week.” I don’t know what caused the outrage to congratulate, but it literally happened.”
Durbin added that he would not rule out a federal investigation into the entire Memphis Police Department following Nichols’ death.
Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan said while reform could happen, he believed no Congress could explain the “evil” and “lack of respect for human life” he saw in the video. He said he doesn’t believe these five officers represent the majority of law enforcement agencies.
Jordan told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, “Look at what you think makes sense to help with this to make sure they’re getting the right training. I’ll keep going, but the amount of training won’t change what you see in the video.”
In Memphis, some police reforms had already been implemented at the time Nichols died, including the need to mitigate situations that saw officers using excessive force. Attorney Ben Crump, who represents the Nichols family, said Sunday that he blames a police culture that has perpetuated the use of extreme force.
“Just as these cops are responsible for Tyre Nichols’ death, they are also responsible for the police culture of implicit bias that exists in America,” Crump told ABC’s This Week.
Crump believes this culture will only begin to change if federal police reforms are implemented. rice field.
Reform and training can have an impact, but another effective deterrent to such behavior is that police officers across the country know what will happen to them if they engage in this kind of violence. That’s right, said Jason Armstrong, a former police chief in Ferguson, Missouri, who led the Ferguson Police Department, which was overhauled following the shooting of Michael Brown in 2014.
Armstrong said officers have realized this behavior is unacceptable since five officers were fired and charged. He said it doesn’t matter if they wear it or if there are witnesses, it still resorts to violence and the culture needs to be eradicated.
“Unfortunately in this case, violence was the natural thing for these individuals,” Armstrong told ABC’s This Week on Sunday. What we must do is identify these individuals within our organizations and police departments and remove them from the profession before this happens.”