A man who loved his family and had a passion for skateboarding and photographing sunsets. This is how they define their acquaintances Nichols tiresthe 29-year-old died in early January after a clash with the Memphis police and is at the center of a new episode of police brutality which threatens to shake up the United States.
the family was a central aspect of Nichols’ life. She had a 4 year old son to whom she dedicated her life and had her mother’s name, RowVaughn Wells, tattooed on her arm.
“That made me proud,” the woman said. “Most children don’t put their mother’s name. My son was a beautiful soul“, he added, in statements gleaned from The New York Times.
According to available information, it is known that at the time of his death Nichols worked for fedexthe transportation, postal, and shipping company that has a large presence in the State of Tennessee, where the man lived.
He had been hired by the company nine months earlier and worked the evening shift. According to his mother, the man always came to his house during the 19:00 break to have dinner together.
According to presentations by attorneys for the Nichols family, during his confrontation with police on January 7, which eventually resulted in his death, the one thing he asked over and over again was let him go home with his mother.
The house was just over 90 meters of the place where his confrontation with the police took place.
A new George Floyd?
It is inevitable to notice the Similarities between the case of Nichols and that of George Floydthe black man whose death at the hands of the police in 2020 unleashed a cataract of protests against police violence in the United States that shook the country and even moved to other latitudes.
On May 25, 2020, a Minneapolis police officer named Derek Chauvin arrested and held George Floyd, pressing the man’s neck with the knee for almost ten minutes, indifferent to the protests of passers-by and the moans of the victim.
It was precisely the online publication of the footage of the episode, which had been filmed by multiple people present at the scene, what triggered the wave of demonstrations demonstrations against racism and police violence.
The release of footage of what happened in the Nichols case, which Memphis authorities promise will happen this Friday night, is already causing concern, both in Tennessee and in other states that have had similar experiences.
The Memphis Police Department has already warned him the shooting content is difficult to seebut that he will make it public to maintain transparency.
The public prosecutor, Steve Mulroy, said in this sense that the footage, which will be published with minimal censorship, “will leave no doubts about the legitimacy of the allegations” against the 5 police officers involved in the incident which ended in Nichols’ death.
Memphis political and civilian leaders, as well as the Nichols family, have called for the protests to be peaceful.
President Joe Biden issued a statement Thursday calling for a “prompt, full and transparent investigation” into the case.
The president also added that the violence “it must have no place among peaceful protestswhile acknowledging that police killings affect Black communities “unevenly.”
Editorial board clarion With information from the New York Times and the Associated Press
Source: Clarin
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.