President Joe Biden said he joined Tire Nichols’ family in calling for peaceful protests after five Memphis, Tennessee, police officers were charged in the 29-year-old’s shooting death.
“As America grieves, the Justice Department investigates, and state authorities continue to work, I join the Tire family in calling for peaceful protests,” Biden said in a statement. “Rage is understandable, but violence is unacceptable. Violence is destructive and illegal. There is no place in peaceful protests seeking justice.
The officers charged with Nichols’ murder pulled him over in a traffic stop on January 7. According to his family, Nichols fled the scene because he feared for his life, but the officers caught him and beat him for three minutes. The family’s attorney said police body camera footage showed officers using pepper spray, stun guns and other tactics to restrain 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 shows him in a hospital bed with bruising and other injuries so severe that he “cannot be understood,” the family said. An independent autopsy found that Nichols “suffered profuse bleeding from severe blows,” 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 of whom are black men who have been with the department for at least two years. The former 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 fee, but twice the amount.
In his statement, Biden said law enforcement officers should be held accountable when they violate their oath. He also called on Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act – a police reform bill that aims to increase accountability for law enforcement misconduct and limit certain policing practices, including racial profiling.
“Public trust is the foundation of public safety and there are still many places in America today where the bonds of trust are broken or broken,” Biden said in a 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 advance police reform during his campaign, signed an executive order on the matter last year that included a new national database that tracks police misconduct and banned chokeholds — but both only applied to federal law enforcement agents. While 18,000 local police forces have been urged to follow suit, little has been done, police reform advisers say.
Since media outlets began tracking police killings in 2015, The Guardian noted, the number of deaths has remained at around 1,100 a year and has not decreased.