The memphis police (Tennessee, USA) announced this Friday that it fired a sixth agent in the framework of the investigation opened by the deadly beating against the young african american Tyre Nichols during his arrest for an alleged traffic violation.
Preston Hemphill He had already been suspended from his duties after the incident and now he was fired when it was determined that he had incurred “in multiple violations” of the policies of the police department, the police force announced in a statement.
Specifically, Hemphill is accused of several administrative offensesbetween them, bad behavior and falsehood when informing their superiors about what happened.
The other five officers who have been fired – all of them African-American – are in custody and face various criminal charges by nichols deathwho was arrested on January 7 in Memphis.
The video of the arrest, released on January 27, shows how the police officers detained the young man, forcibly removed him from the vehicle and beat him, giving him kicks in the headhitting him with a baton and even using a stun gun electric shock or taser.
When the brutal beatingThey dragged Nichols to a police car, sat him on the ground and bumped their fists in celebration.
The aggressive arrest, which caused his death three days later, has revived the demands of protesters and members of the Congress for there to be a culture change in the United States police, accused of using force disproportionately against the black community.
during the funeral nicholsheld last Wednesday in Memphis, attendees clamored for a reform to end violence by the agents.
The ceremony took place at the Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church, with the Nichols family in attendance; the US Vice President Kamala Harris; well-known civil rights activist, Reverend Al Sharptonand relatives of other African-American victims of police brutality such as George Floyd.
The constant throughout the religious service were the requests for Congress to approve the “George Floyd Police Justice Act”which advocates a police reform.
Nichols’ mother, Rowvaughn Wells, said: “We need to get this law passed. With the next boy who dies, the blood will be in their hands (of the congressmen)”.
The ceremony began with a choir of 70 people who sang “Strength Like No Other”, which caused many of the attendees to rise from their seats.
In her speech, Kamala Harris recalled that in the past, when she was a senator in the federal Congress (2017-2021), she was one of the legislators who drafted the “George Floyd Police Justice Act” initiative.
Harris noted that, now as vice president, requires Congress to pass the bill.
Said initiative, initially presented in 2020 and again in 2021, stipulates the creation of a national registry of bad police practices to avoid that agents are immune from their actions as soon as they move to a different jurisdiction.
Also, seeks to reform “qualified immunity”, a legal doctrine that protects state and local officials, including law enforcement officers, from individual liability unless they have violated a clearly established constitutional right. Critics of this doctrine complain that it serves as a shield for abusers.
(With information from EFE)
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Protests intensify in the US after the publication of videos of the beating of Tire Nichols
Source-www.infobae.com