President Joe Biden said he joined the family of Tire Nichols in calling for peaceful protests after five Memphis, Tenn., police officers were charged in the killing of the 29-year-old.
“As Americans mourn, the Justice Department continues its investigation, and state authorities continue their work, I join Tire’s family in calling for peaceful protests,” Biden said in a statement. “Hate is understandable, but violence is never acceptable. Violence is destructive and against the law. It has no place in peaceful protests seeking justice.”
The officers accused of killing Nichols conducted a traffic stop on January 7. According to his family, Nichols ran because he feared for his life, but officers caught up with him and beat him for three minutes. The family’s attorney says body cam footage shows officers using pepper spray, a stun gun and restraint tactics on Nichols. He was eventually taken to hospital, where he died three days later.
A photo of Nichols — a young black man, father and FedEx employee — released earlier this month showed him in a hospital bed with bruises and other injuries so severe that he was.”Unrecognisable” his family said. An independent autopsy found that Nichols “suffered extensive bleeding from a severe beating,” said family attorney Benjamin Crump.
The officers charged in Nichols’ death are Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmit Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith, all black men who have been with the department for at least two years. The first four were all charged with one count of second-degree murder, two counts of official misconduct, one count of official oppression, one count of aggravated assault and two counts of aggravated kidnapping. Smith received the same fees, but the bills doubled.
In his statement, Biden said law enforcement agencies should be held accountable when they violate their oath. He also asked Congress to send him the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, a police reform bill aimed at increasing accountability for law enforcement misconduct and limiting certain police practices, including racial profiling.
“Public trust is the foundation of public safety, and there are still too many places in America today where the bonds of trust are broken or broken,” Biden said in the statement. “Tyre’s death is a painful reminder that we must do more to ensure that our criminal justice system lives up to its promise of fair and impartial justice, equal treatment and dignity for all.”
Biden, who promised to push for police reform during his campaign, signed an executive order on the issue last year that includes a new national database monitoring police misconduct and a ban on chokeholds, but both apply to federal law enforcement agencies only. Although the country’s 18,000 local police forces are encouraged to follow suit, there is little enforcement, police reform advocates say.
Since the media began tracking police killings in 2015, The Guardian noted, those deaths are still around 1,100 a year and have not decreased.
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