Caribbean American legislators in New York on Friday expressed profound outrage over the police killing of an unarmed Tyre Nichols in Memphis, Tennessee on January 7.
Late Friday, Memphis police released body camera and surveillance footage of police officers kicking and punching Nichols, 29, who died in hospital three days later.
The Shelby County District Attorney in Tennessee has charged five Black Memphis Police Department officers with second-degree murder, aggravated assault, kidnapping, official misconduct, and oppression.
“Tyre Nichols should be alive today. Time and time again, Black Americans have been forced to confront the senseless violence and deaths of Black men at the hands of law enforcement,” Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC). “My heart and condolences go out to Tyre Nichols’ family and friends as we share in grief and mourn his loss.”
“As New Yorkers, we are well accustomed to the painful truth that our country has a shameful history of turning a blind eye to the hate, bigotry and violence of police brutality that has led to the torture, abuse, and death of unarmed Black and brown people,” added Clarke, first vice chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, who represents the 9th Congressional District in Brooklyn, New York.
“Last Congress, I helped lead the passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which holds our legal system and police accountable. And I intend on fighting for this crucial legislation again and again, until it is finally signed into law,” she continued. “This must end. We cannot rest, we cannot falter, we cannot sit idly by as we continue to watch our brothers and sisters die at the hands of law enforcement.
“No more hashtags, empty promises, or meaningless lip service,” the congresswoman said. “We need justice, and we will keep fighting until we have it.”
New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, the son of Grenadian immigrants, said: “I can’t bring myself to watch the video of Tyre Nichols’ murder, just as I still can’t view the deaths of George Floyd, of Ahmaud Arbery.
“I know what it shows — a system that values preserving and asserting power over Black lives; a pain that emanates from this incident and across the screens and the souls of Black people across America,” he told CMC. We are not okay.
“I pray for Tyre Nichols’ family, and for all who carry the burden of knowledge that this will happen again and again – that not only is public safety not entirely dependent on law enforcement, but is threatened by it,” Williams added. “Injustice remains ingrained in culture, and can’t be sanded down or sanitized.
New York City Council Member Crystal Hudson, whose grandmother hailed from Jamaica, said: “Here we are, once again, at a moment with which we’re all too familiar: the vicious murder of an unarmed Black person by cops.
CMC/
