Several dozen people gathered to demonstrate in Uptown Saturday, a day after authorities in Memphis released videos of the police killing of Tyre Nichols in Memphis.
The peaceful crowd marched from the county courthouse to CMPD headquarters to Marshall Park, calling for an end to police brutality.
What’s happening: On Friday, Memphis officials released police body camera and neighborhood security camera footage that showed multiple Memphis Police Department officers kicking, punching and striking Nichols with a baton as he screamed for help, as Axios’ Sareen Habeshian reported.
Zoom out: All over the U.S., communities expressed shock and sadness after viewing the footage, from Washington, D.C., to New York City to Chicago.
What they’re saying: “Someone else will lose a child or husband or brother or cousin. We have to dismantle this system,” Corine Mack, NAACP Charlotte president, told the crowd. “That doesn’t mean policing is not necessary. It is. But the system as it stands now is a racist system.”
CMPD chief Johnny Jennings said after viewing the footage, it seemed that the officers involved “stopped becoming police officers and started becoming criminals at that point.”
“It was hard to watch and I feel that we as a profession across the country still have a lot of work to do,” Jennings said.
What’s next: Another demonstration is planned at Marshall Park on Sunday at 3pm.
Photos: Alexandria Sands/Axios
