Tyre Nichols case revives calls for change in police culture

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — An unarmed Black man dies after a videotaped beating by police. The officers involved are fired. After a thorough review of the evidence, criminal charges are swiftly filed against the offending officers.

Investigation, accountability and charges.

This is often the most Black citizens can hope for as the deaths continue.

Nationwide, police have killed roughly three people per day consistently since 2020, according to academics and advocates for police reform who track such deaths.

Tyre Nichols’ fatal encounter with police officers in Memphis, Tennessee, recorded in video made public on Friday night, is a glaring reminder that efforts to reform policing have failed to prevent more flashpoints in an intractable epidemic of brutality.

Nearly 32 years ago, Rodney King’s savage beating by police in Los Angeles prompted heartfelt calls for change.

MELBOURNE – Rio Tinto Ltd apologised yesterday for the loss of a tiny radioactive capsule believed to have fallen from a truck that has sparked a radiation alert across parts of the vast state of Western Australia. It is unclear how long the radioactive capsule, part of a gauge used to measure the density of iron ore feed, has been missing. The gauge was picked up by a specialist contractor from Rio’s Gudai-Darri mine site on Janaury 12.

Investigations

SAMOA’S Ministry of Health has started investigations into how a disused district hospital in Maasina Village at Fagaloa is now being used as an animal farm. The Samoa Observer reports the Minister for Health, Valasi Tafito Selesele, addressed the issue in Parliament in response to a request from Vaa-o-Fonoti MP, Mau’u Siaosi Puepuemai, for a new hospital at Fagaloa.