PRESIDENT REACTS TO TYRE NICHOLS VIDEO; TELLS CONGRESS TO PASS GEORGE FLOYD ACT
“Like so many, I was outraged and deeply pained to see the horrific video of the beating that resulted in Tyre Nichols’ death,” Biden says
President Biden reacted to the Friday release of video of the brutal beating death of motorist Tyre Nichols.
Biden pledged to push Congress to approve the George Floyd Act as well as called for peaceful protest of the killing of Nichols in an encounter with several police officers.
Authorities in Nashville, Tenn., made public more than an hour of footage of the violent beating of Nichols in which officers held the Black motorist down and struck him repeatedly as he screamed for his mother.
A father of a young child, Nichols was pulled over January 7 for what police said was reckless driving. After attempting to flee on foot, Nichols was aggressively beaten by police, newly released police video shows. Three days later, he died in the hospital.
Five now-former officers were indicted and jailed in connection to Nichols' death. Those former each face several charges, including second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression.
Like Nichols, all of the former officers — who were fired before Thursday's indictments — are Black.
Biden said there needs to be a full and swift investigation into this matter and that that is something that the family deserves. Biden had the opportunity to speak with the mother and stepfather of Tyre Nichols, and there is a very rare video, captured by reporters from The Washington Post of the family receiving that phone call.
During the call, the president said that he told Nichols's parents that he would push for police reforms in the wake of their son's killing.
“I spoke with Tyre’s mother and expressed my condolences, and told her that I was going to be making the case to the Congress to pass the George Floyd Act. We should get this under control. I can only do so much in an executive order at a federal level,” Biden said later.
Named for the Black man in Minneapolis, Minn., murdered by police officers in the spring of 2020, the George Floyd Act would deliver a number of police reforms — including new resources to investigate and prosecute police wrongdoing — but the legislation stalled in 2021 amid opposition by Republicans in the Senate.
The White House also released a statement by the president, in which he called for peaceful protest.
Mostly peaceful protests broke out in cities across the U.S. following the release of the videos, with demonstrators leading marches and chants against police brutality and shutting down highways and intersections in some cities.
“Like so many, I was outraged and deeply pained to see the horrific video of the beating that resulted in Tyre Nichols’ death. It is yet another painful reminder of the profound fear and trauma, the pain, and the exhaustion that Black and Brown Americans experience every single day,” the statement added.
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