After the body camera video from Memphis police officers beating Tyre Nichols was made public on Friday, protesters assembled in New York and New Jersey on Saturday. At 12 Springfield Avenue, the Lincoln statue in Newark, a rally was held at noon.
A justice ride and march were held in New York City at 2:30 p.m. at Union Square and 5 p.m. in Washington Square Park, respectively.
Friday night, demonstrators gathered in Manhattan’s Times Square and Union Square to protest the police shooting of Nichols. Traffic was stopped as a result of the protesters, who could be heard yelling, “Call him by name! The Tyre Nichols!”
The NYPD is getting ready in case there are protests this weekend all around the city. Following the vandalism of a police car by demonstrators on Friday night, a few arrests were made.
While New Yorkers had the right to oppose the decision, they needed to do it peacefully, Mayor Eric Adams, a former member of the NYPD, had emphasized earlier in the day on Friday.
“I believe that New Yorkers should have the right to peacefully voice their concern if the video is what we anticipate it to be.”
— Mayor Eric Adams
As a former child victim of police abuse, Adams added, “I know the effects of it, and I know that the years I’ve spent recruiting and promoting different groups to be a part of the wonderful profession of policing, that it is a sad moment for me personally and professionally.
The job that several of us tried to complete appears to have been soiled by these cops, according to the report. When the video was posted on Friday shortly after 7 p.m., protests were already underway in Times Square and Union Square.
After an altercation with five police officers on January 7 in Memphis, Tennessee, Nichols passed away three days later, abandoning his 4-year-old boy without a father and his family in the dark.
The FedEx employee was brutally assaulted by authorities for three minutes, according to Nichols’ family members and their attorneys, who compared the incident to the infamous Rodney King police beating in 1991.
On Thursday, charges of murder and other offenses were brought against the cops, who are all Black.
Statement from NYPD Commissioner Keechant L. Sewell pic.twitter.com/NcrypCdLe4
— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) January 28, 2023
The officers’ conduct, according to Memphis Police Director Carolyn Davis, was “heinous, reckless, and brutal,” and her agency has been unable to prove the claim of reckless driving that led to the stop.
She said on ABC’s “Good Morning America”: “As far as I know today, I do believe that the stop itself was quite problematic.”
Schools in the Memphis region postponed an event that was supposed to happen on Saturday morning and canceled all after-class activities as a precaution. The University of Memphis and the community offices of the local electricity utility also experienced early closures.
RowVaughn Wells, the mother of Nichols, urged peaceful demonstrations while cautioning supporters about the “horrific” content of the video.
See thread below for Saturday, 1/28 event adds: https://t.co/3ImNx3NZYH
— PRO_NYC (@protest_nyc) January 28, 2023
Because that’s not what her son stood for, she said on Thursday, she doesn’t want us to set our city on fire or tear up the streets. You will protest peacefully if you are here for Tyre and me, you guys.
After the video’s release, Davis again advised restraint. None of this is a “calling card” for instigating violence or devastation against our citizens or our community, she emphasized.
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