Protests and vigils honoring 29-year-old Tyre Nichols—who grew up in Sacramento where he was an energetic member of the skateboarding community—have sprung up around Northern California and the U.S. after Friday’s release of bodycam footage showing five Memphis law enforcement officials beating Nichols during a traffic stop on Jan. 7—an incident that led to his death three days later.
The Anti-Police Terror Project announced a rally and march to demand police get out of traffic enforcement that can happen at 5 p.m. Sunday at Oscar Grant Plaza, aka Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, outside City Hall in Downtown Oakland.
The event will occur roughly 48 hours after a 5 p.m. Friday protest drew dozens of demonstrators to San Francisco’s Powell Street cable-car turnaround, who gathered to march down Market Street. Similar rallies occurred in Recent York City, Philadelphia, San Diego and Washington, D.C., on Friday.
Local NAACP Calls Out White Supremacy
Ahead of Friday’s footage release, the Greater Sacramento NAACP held a press conference at Sacramento City Hall.
In a press release, the NAACP chapter said, “We weep with the community here as we add the name Tyre Nichols, one other local Black man killed by a system rooted in white supremacy. The 29-year-old father, brother, cousin, friend and son was a beloved free spirit who called Sacramento his home until his move to Memphis, TN in 2020.”
Except for skateboarding, Nichols, a father of a young son, was a music lover with diverse tastes who also usually posted about sports and his social justice concerns—including his support of Black Lives Matter—on social media, in line with reporting by the Recent York Times. His mother, RowVaughn Wells, told the paper he particularly loved to practice amateur photography, often going out to shoot sunsets after which posting his images on his Wix website.
On Thursday, five Memphis law enforcement officials, all Black men, were charged in reference to the case on counts of second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression. The officers—Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith—were also fired by the department last week.
The Greater Sacramento NAACP stated that it “applauded the Memphis District Attorney and police chief for swiftly investigating, arresting, and charging the officers related to this heinous act. Nonetheless, we proceed to look at closely to see whether these standards of civil servant accountability are applied consistently across racial lines within the U.S.”
“When anyone joins that system, whatever the race of that officer, they’re indoctrinated to the traditions and practices of that system to keep up the establishment whatever the person’s intent,” said Betty Williams, the chapter’s president. “That’s the character of white supremacy culture—it lives within the systems unless we actively change the culture and structures of those systems.”
Sacramento, like San Francisco and Oakland, has been the middle of police brutality protests within the recent past. In 2019, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 392, which was prompted by the police killing of 22-year-old Stephon Clark in Sacramento in 2018. AB 392, which was authored by Assemblymember Shirley Weber (D-San Diego) and went into effect Jan. 1, 2020, prohibits California law enforcement officials from firing on suspects who’re running away in the event that they don’t present a direct danger.
San Francisco Officials Issue Statements
Since Fridays’ footage release, multiple Bay Area police organizations and native officials have released statements condemning the police violence that led to Nichols’ death.
“The actions of the Memphis law enforcement officials that resulted within the tragic death of Tyre Nichols are horrific and inhumane,” San Francisco Mayor London Breed wrote in a press release Friday evening. “We’re offended and disgusted by one more senseless lack of lifetime of an unarmed black man by the hands of those that are sworn to serve and protect all people.”
“What I, and everybody else, saw on the video images reflect a disregard for the sanctity of human life and is the antithesis of the oath we as law enforcement professionals were all sworn to uphold,” said SF Police Chief Bill Scott in a video posted Friday. “This incident, again, raises the pervasive issue that has occurred for generations—and continues to occur—regarding using force on people of color, specifically Black and Brown men.
“Those of us who’ve chosen policing as a occupation all have a responsibility to make the difficult and courageous decisions essential to alter this narrative for the higher,” he continued. “This incident […] underscores the importance of San Francisco Police Department’s work on policy and training revisions; reducing disparities in stops, arrests and uses of force; and reducing nonlethal and lethal force to meet the promise of bias-free and equitable policing.”
The information-science website Police Scorecard reports that between 2013 and 2021, San Francisco police killed 21 people, and civilians made 3,966 complaints of police misconduct.
“Based on population, a Black person was 9.7x as likely and a Latinx person was 4.3x as more likely to be killed by police as a White person in San Francisco from 2013-21,” the web site states about San Francisco.
Police officer unions from San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles and the state of Hawaii got here together to put out a press release on Friday condemning the actions of the Memphis cops and pledging to work with Congress to create national policing standards regarding use of force and training on de-escalation, intervention and rendering aid.
Police unions, historically, have shielded police from accountability and made it difficult to punish cops who engage in misconduct and to enact reform, in line with a 2020 evaluation by the Washington Post.
