Gerald Herbert/AP
- Five Memphis police officers were charged with second-degree murder within 20 days of the death of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols.
- Civil rights attorney Ben Crump said this example of "swift justice" should set a precedent for future cases of police aggression.
- Tyre Nichols died three days after being held at a traffic stop and beaten by Memphis police officers.
MEMPHIS, TENN. — The recent charges of five police officers involved in the death of Tyre Nichols should act as a standard for police accountability, according to Ben Crump, attorney for the Nichols Family.
Standing next to Nichol's parents at the pulpit at Memphis' Mount Olive CME Church downtown, Crump told a crowd of dozens of locals that the race of the police officers is irrelevant when evaluating what happened.
There is a cultural problem within policing that allows officers — no matter their race — to inflict harm on Black citizens, he said.
"We have never seen swift justice like this," Crump said at a press conference in Memphis' Mount Olive CME Church. "We want to proclaim that this is the blueprint going forward for any time any officers, whether they be Black or white, will be held accountable. No longer can you tell us we got to wait six months to a year."
On Friday January 20th, Officers Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith were fired from the Memphis Police Department for the death of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols. Six days later, each officer was indicted on second-degree murder charges.
According to the 2021 Police Violence Report, less than 3% of all deaths at the hands of police officers result with the officers being charged with a crime.
Such swift legal action is unprecedented in cases of police aggression, but the Nichols family representative still warns of a longer path to justice.
Crump called out the "institutionalized police culture" that he attributes for the death of Tyre Nichols. In addition to judicial action, legal representative Antonio Ramanucci called for an end to the "now corrupted" SCORPION unit, the MPD team specializing in violent crime that is involved with the death of Nichols.
"When we look at how these five Black officers, who were caught on camera committing a crime, and when we look at how fast the police chief and the police department terminated them. And we look at how swiftly the district attorney brought charges against them in less than 20 days, then we want to proclaim that this is the blueprint going forward," Crump continued at the press conference. "We won't accept less going forward."