“The View” co-host Whoopi Goldberg and other panelists expressed outrage and called for police reform on Monday in response to the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols in Memphis.
The talk show hosts discussed the horrific camera footage showing Nichols, who was black, being beaten by five black law enforcement officials – Tadarrius Bean, 24, Demetrius Haley, 30, Emmitt Martin III, 30, Desmond Mills Jr., 32, and Justin Smith, 28.
“When will the brutality finally result in some police reform from the bottom up? Clearly it doesn’t matter if it’s a white policeman or black policeman. It’s the issue with the policing itself,” Goldberg said in the beginning of the episode.
“Seems things don’t make sense to people unless it’s anyone they will feel or they will recognize,” Goldberg continued. “Do we’d like to see white people also get beaten before anybody will do anything? I’m not suggesting that, so don’t write us and tell me what a racist I’m. I’m just asking, is that what people must see with the intention to get up and realize this affects us all?”
Whoopi Goldberg said “policing itself” is the issue.ABC
The footage released last Friday showed the events that transpired in the course of the Jan. 7 traffic stop that led to Nichols’ death. The video showed officers pepper-spraying and beating Nichols, who was black, with their fists and batons. Within the video, Nichols could be heard crying for his mother.
The five officers who were arrested were charged with second-degree murder and other offenses.
A minimum of two of the five officers were a part of an “elite” SCORPION task force tasked with combating major felonies in high-crime neighborhoods. The Memphis Police Department is disbanding the unit.
Tyre Nichols seen within the hospital following the brutal beating.Family of Tyre Nichols
The bodycam footage was released last Friday.City of Memphis
A sixth officer, Preston Hemphill, who’s white, was placed on administration leave following the incident.
Co-host Sonny Hostin said she had yet to observe the video, adding she feared it showed her “worst nightmare.”
Five Memphis law enforcement officials were charged over Tyre Nichols’ death.AP
Ana Navarro said the Memphis cops involved within the beating death were “blue before they were black.”ABC
“We got a variety of energy about gas prices, and debt and inflation. I would love to see that very same energy directed towards police reform because we’re also paying for police brutality out of our tax dollars,” Hostin said.
Ana Navarro also weighed in with a scathing rebuke of the officers.
“What we saw, on this case, is that good cops are available in any gender, any class, any color. And bad cops could be any gender, any color, and these cops were blue before they were Black,” Navarro said. “These cops were a part of the SCORPION Unit. It couldn’t have been more aptly named because they were crammed with poison and hatred and the need to kill.”
Mediaite earlier reported on the segment.
