‘SOMETHING HAS TO CHANGE’
Conn. protests after release of video from deadly police beating of Tyre Nichols
Protesters gathered in Hartford on aturday after officials in Tennessee released video showing the brutal beating of Tyre Nichols at the hands of Memphis police officers earlier this month.
Hartford activist Cornell Lewis, founder of the Self Defense Brigade, led a crowd of about 30 people in a peaceful protest against police brutality. The group, some of whom were bearing arms, gathered at Lozado Park in Hartford for a rally before dispersing to head to the Hartford Police Department a short distance away.
“We’re trying to let the people know that we’re concerned about the death of Tyre Nichols,” Lewis said, likening the Memphis man’s fatal beating by Black police officers as a “gang curb stomping.”
“Something has to change,” Lewis said.
After rallying in the park, demonstrators drove to the Hartford Police Department, where protesters marched into the building, chanting “No justice, no peace.”
The demonstration prompted Hartford Police Chief Jason Thody to come outdoors and address questions from the crowd.
“What I saw on the video — just like everybody else saw — was not human,” Thody told the demonstrators. “The only thing I can do is continue our commitment to have these conversations to better ourselves … there’s no training, no policy, there’s nothing that explains how you can allow that to occur. It’s just so wrong.”
“Things happen and move forward because of the way you approach these issues,” Thody continued. “It is easy to be angry and lash out. It is hard to be peaceful and real
ly push the ball forward and get change.”
The police chief said that since the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020, “that’s the way how our community has conducted themselves, and that’s the reason I think we’re going to continue to see change.”
Several other state, municipal and police officials meanwhile issued blistering statements condemning the actions of the five officers involved in the assault.
“Tyre Nichols should be alive today. His life matters, and my heart breaks for his family, friends, and loved ones. His last word was ‘mom,’" Gov. Ned Lamont said in a written statement issued by his office.
“I was struck by the beautiful photos taken by Tyre, which serve as a stark contrast to the horrifying video and images released last night. His family and our nation deserve a swift, thorough, and transparent investigation,” Lamont said. “We cannot continue this way. We must create a more just society for everyone, I’m committed to continuing that work here in Connecticut.”
Footage the Memphis Police Department released to the public Friday evening, days after showing it to his family, shows Nichols, who is Black, crying out for his mother as he is punched, kicked and struck with batons by the five officers following a traffic stop on Jan. 7. He was then left propped up against a police car as the officers fistbump and appear to celebrate the assault.
Nichols, the father of a 4-yearold son, died days later at the hospital. He was 29.
The five officers, including Bloomfield High School graduate, Desmond Mills Jr., all of whom are Black, have been fired and face charges that include second-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated assault stemming from the incident.
“We need to send a resounding voice out loud to law enforcement that we’re not antilaw enforcement who is antiBlack, we have to deal with you accordingly; that there is no place for you in our police departments across our country, period,” said state Sen. Herron Keyon Gaston.
The Democratic state senator, whose district includes Stratford and Bridgeport, spoke Saturday morning during a news conference at the First Cavalry Baptist Church in New Haven organized by members of the clergy.
Gaston said the state has been able to do some legislation, “but you know you can’t legislate always bad conduct,” he added. “We have to have a moral fibrillator that helps to change the hearts and minds of individuals in terms of the way they treat Black and brown bodies in this country.”
Demonstrations broke out across the country hours after the release of bodycam footage of the beating. Protesters gathered in Memphis, Washington, D.C., New York, Atlanta and several other major cities. The protest were mostly peaceful. Arrests were reported in New York.
In Hartford, protesters began gathering at 1 p.m. in Julio Lozada Park for a demonstration billed as a “rally against police oppression,” according to a flyer distributed on Twitter.
The rally was peaceful and proceeded without incident. A Hartford police spokesperson said earlier in the day that police were prepared if violence did occur.
“We are monitoring social media and national tends,” Hartford police spokesperson, Lt. Aaron Boisvert, said. “We are not expecting any violence but will be prepared if needed.”
Ivelisse Correa, vice president of Black Lives Matter 860, one of the groups helping to organize the protest in Hartford, said the group hopes to repeal qualified immunity, the legal principle that shields police from civil law suits.
“Besides getting the repeal of qualified immunity, we do want to send a message that it’s not going to be any of our sons,” she said.
Correa said she began crying watching the video. “I saw my son,” she said.
“I know there’s been a lot of commentary on the race of the officers, similar to Freddie Gray,” Correa said, referring to a 25-year-old Black man who died in Baltimore police custody in 2015 after he was placed in the back of a police van unsecured. Six officers were charged in Gray’s death, but the charges were later dropped.
“It is a racist system of policing,” she added.
In a statement Saturday, Thody, the Hartford police chief, called the officers’ actions “sickening,” and said that incidents like it erode community trust “even when the incident occurs hundreds of miles away.”
“What those officers in Memphis did was deplorable and a fundamental violation of the oath they swore to uphold,” he said. “In this case, those sworn to protect and maintain public safety became violent criminals while wearing a badge of public trust.”
In Danbury, Police Chief Patrick Ridenhour and Mayor Dean Esposito issued a joint statement calling the video “appalling.”
“There is no rightful place in this profession for brutality under any circumstances,” the joint statement said.
In New Haven, Mayor Justin Elicker and Police Chief Karl Jacobson also issued a joint statement condemning the officers’ actions, saying they felt “horror and disgust” watching the video Friday night.
“We grieve with the Nichols family, the City of Memphis, and the nation at these abhorrent acts of police brutality and violence. We condemn them in the strongest possible terms, and we are glad that the officers involved will be held accountable for their criminal acts,” the statement said.
Another demonstration was planned for 3 p.m. in Manchester.
Keren Prescott, the event’s organizer, said people are planning to gather at the center of Manchester on Main Street. The exact plan for the demonstration was still being organized Saturday morning.
“People are shocked but they’re not sure why they are shocked,” said Prescott, who is the founder of POWERUP Manchester, the group organizing the rally. “People are heartbroken, angry, disappointed, frustrated, tired, exhausted.”
“How did we go from a summer of uprising not even two and a half years ago, and now we’re back here and it’s worse than what it was two years ago?” she added.