Memphis police chief disbands Scorpion unit
The Memphis police chief disbanded the city’s so-called Scorpion unit on Saturday, citing a “cloud of dishonor” from newly released video that showed some of its officers beating Tyre Nichols to death after stopping the Black motorist.
Police Director Cerelyn ‘CJ’ Davis acted a day after the harrowing video emerged, saying she listened to Nichols’ relatives, community leaders and uninvolved officers in making the decision. The video renewed doubts about why fatal encounters with law enforcement keep happening despite repeated calls for change.
Protesters marching though downtown Memphis cheered when they heard the unit had been dissolved. One protestor said over a bullhorn that “the unit that killed Tyre has been permanently disbanded”.
What the unit does
The unit is composed of three teams of about 30 officers whose stated aim is to target violent offenders in areas beset by high crime. It had been inactive since Nichols’ January 7 arrest. Scorpion stands for Street Crimes Operations to Restore Peace In Our Neighborhoods.
Davis became the first Black female chief in Memphis one year after George Floyd was killed at the hands of Minneapolis police. At the time, she was chief in Durham, North Carolina, and had called for police reform.
Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, lawyers for the Nichols family, said the move was “a decent and just decision”.
It’s not clear why the traffic stop happened. One officer can be heard on video saying that Nichols wouldn’t stop and then swerved as though he intended to hit the officer’s car.
Murder charge
The five disgraced officers — Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr., Emmitt Martin III and Justin Smith — have been fired and charged with murder and other crimes in Nichols’ death, which came three days after the arrest . They face up to 60 years in prison if convicted of seconddegree murder.
The video images released Friday show police savagely beating the 29-year-old FedEx worker for three minutes while screaming profanities at him in an assault that the Nichols family legal team has likened to the infamous 1991 police beating of Los Angeles motorist Rodney King. Nichols calls out for his mother before his limp body is propped against a squad car and the officers exchange fist-bumps.
Non-violent protests
Cities had braced for demonstrations after the video emerged, but protests were scattered and non-violent. Several dozen demonstrators in Memphis blocked the Interstate 55 bridge that carries traffic over the Mississippi River towards Arkansas. Protesters also blocked traffic in New York City, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon.
Davis acknowledged that the police department has a supervisor shortage and said the lack of a supervisor in the arrest was a “major problem”.
It’s not clear why the traffic stop happened in the first place. One officer can be heard on video saying that Nichols wouldn’t stop and then swerved as though he intended to hit the officer’s car. The officer says that when Nichols pulled up to a red light, the officers jumped out. But Davis said the department cannot substantiate the reason for the stop.
How events unfolded
“We don’t know what happened,” she said, adding, “All we know is the amount of force that was applied in this situation was over the top.”
After the first officer roughly pulls Nichols out of the car, Nichols can be heard saying, “I didn’t do anything,” as a group of officers begin to wrestle him to the ground. Nichols calmly says, “OK, I’m on the ground,” and that he was just trying to go home. Moments later, he yells at them to “stop.”
Nichols is then seen running as an officer fires a Taser. The officers start chasing Nichols.
Others are called, and a search ensues before Nichols is caught at another intersection. The officers beat him with a baton, and kick and punch him. The attack continues even after he collapses. It takes more than 20 minutes afterwards before any sort of medical attention is provided.
During the wait for an ambulance, officers joke and air grievances. They complain that a handheld radio was ruined and that someone lost a flashlight.