In a Saturday rally in Harlem, Rev. Al Sharpton addressed the latest body camera footage release of the deadly Memphis police beating of Tyre Nichols and pledged to continue to take on any police brutality against African Americans no matter the race of the police officers.
“It is time to come to terms with policing in America,” the president of the National Action Network (NAN) said at his weekly rally at the House of Justice in Harlem. “The nation was shocked at seeing that black and white video of the police beating Rodney King senselessly over a traffic violation.”
FOOTAGE OF OFFICERS BEATING TYRE NICHOLS RELEASED
“Here I am now, in 2023, and I’m looking at another video. This [new video] in color where I’m seeing another black man being beaten to death. Rodney didn’t die. This is worse — being beaten to death with no mercy and on no crime that they can even find that he committed,” he continued.
Sharpton took aim at the five former police officers involved in incident, “To make it even more egregious, [he was] beaten by five black cops! Did you think because you’re black, we wouldn’t say nothing? Did you think you would hide behind your blackness?”
“I want to say loud and clear, we will fight black cops, white cops, and any color cops that commit crimes against us!” the civil rights leader said.
Sharpton reflected on how he started his organization around the time of the beating of Rodney King, a black man who was a victim of Los Angeles police brutality in 1991. The Friday night release of the police body camera footage showing a traffic stop turned fatal physical attack on 29-year old Nichols has been receiving Rodney King comparisons.
Ben Crump, the Nichols family attorney, told CNN ahead of the body camera footage release would “remind you of Rodney King.”
On Friday, Cerelyn “CJ” Davis, chief of the Memphis police, said that she was “outraged” after seeing the video and called it “perhaps worse” than the footage of Rodney King.
Sharpton reflected on his conversations with Nichols’s parents and shared his observation that he found it “stunning” how the police officers made conflicting messages in what they said and did in the body camera footage. He went on to allege the officers were setting up “a cover up while they were committing the act.”
He went on to allege their actions were done “intentionally” and said the police never explained to the Nichols what crime he had committed.
“If someone grabbed you out of the car and hit you, and you know what police will do. You’d run too!” Sharpton told the audience on Saturday.
He explained to the crowd that policing and voting were the defining issues of our time in race relations.
“No matter how much they try to run away from it, it keeps coming back because unless you change the laws, you’re going to keep going from one incident to the next,” Sharpton said.
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In a statement released on Twitter, Sharpton called on convictions for the former Memphis police officers.
“The video should be all a jury needs to convict each of the five officers who relentlessly beat Tyre Nichols to death. Justice needs to be delivered for Tyre and his family, ” he wrote.
