Joe Biden reacts to Tire Nichols’ death after police arrests

President Joe Biden said he joined Tire Nichols’ family in calling for a peaceful protest after five Memphis, Tennessee, police officers were charged with the 29-year-old’s murder.

“As Americans mourn, the Justice Department conducts its investigation, and state authorities continue their work, I join Tyre’s family in calling for a peaceful protest,” Biden said in a statement. a statement. “Outrage is understandable, but violence is never acceptable. Violence is destructive and against the law. It has no place in peaceful protests seeking justice.

Officers charged with Nichols’ murder arrested him during a traffic stop on January 7. According to his family, Nichols fled the scene in fear for his life, but officers caught up to him and beat him for three minutes. The family’s attorney said police body camera footage showed the officers using pepper spray, a stun gun and restraint tactics on Nichols. He was eventually taken to hospital, where he died three days later.

A photo of Nichols – a young black man, father and FedEx employee – released earlier this month showed him in a hospital bed with bruises and other injuries so severe he was “unrecognizableHis family said. An independent autopsy found that Nichols “suffered profuse bleeding from a severe beating,” family attorney Benjamin Crump said.

The officers charged in Nichols’ death are Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmit Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith, all of whom are black men who have been with the department for at least two years. The first four were all charged with one count of second degree murder, two counts of official misconduct, one count of official oppression, one count of aggravated assault and two counts of kidnapping worsen. Smith received the same charges, but the counts were duplicated.

In his statement, Biden said law enforcement officers must be held accountable when they violate their oath. He also called on Congress to send him the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act – a police reform bill aimed at increasing accountability for law enforcement misconduct and restricting certain police practices, including racial profiling.

“Public trust is the foundation of public safety and there are still too many places in America today where the bonds of trust are frayed or broken,” Biden said in the statement. “Tyre’s death is a painful reminder that we must do more to ensure our criminal justice system delivers on the promise of fair and impartial justice, equal treatment and dignity for all.

Biden, who pledged to advance police reform during his campaign, last year signed an executive order on the issue that includes a new national police misconduct database and a ban on chokeholds. – but both apply only to federal law enforcement officers. While the country’s 18,000 local police forces are being encouraged to follow suit, there is little to enforce this, say advocates of police reform.

Since the media began tracking police killings in 2015, The Guardian noted, those deaths have still hovered around 1,100 a year and have not declined.