Protesters in San Diego denounce Tyre Nichols’ beating death, police violence
SAN DIEGO —
About 50 protesters gathered in downtown San Diego on Friday night to denounce the beating death of Tyre Nichols by police in Memphis and speak out against violence by members of law enforcement.
The hourlong protest was held outside the San Diego County Administration Building, on the same day Memphis authorities released video footage that shows Nichols being beaten and pepper sprayed by police after a traffic stop on Jan. 7.
Nichols died three days later at a hospital.
Some of the San Diego protesters held a banner that read: “The People Demand: Jail Killer Cops! Nothing Less.” Others held signs that read, “JUSTICE FOR TYRE NICHOLS Jail Killer Cops!” and “The people demand: END POLICE TERROR.”
At one point, the group held a minute of silence to honor Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, FedEx employee and father of a 4-year-old son.
The San Diego protest was among many that took place across the country Friday night after the release of the video footage showing police beating Nichols.
The videos, most of them recorded on the officers’ body-worn cameras and one from a surveillance camera, show police punching and kicking Nichols for several minutes while yelling profanities at him.
Five Memphis police officers, all of whom are Black, are charged with second-degree murder and other felony charges in connection with Nichols’ death.
Among the protesters in San Diego was Cole Maravilla, a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, who said he was not satisfied with the criminal charges against the officers.
“If they actually wanted to change anything, they would change the systems of policing that enable this to happen over and over again,” Maravilla said in an interview. “Just charging people who are doing what their job asks them to do fundamentally is nothing.”
Maravilla called Nichols’ death an “especially brutal murder” and “extra inhumane.”
“I grew up as a Black man in America,” he said. “The entire history of my people in this country is police brutality, murder and lynching. Unfortunately it’s just not surprising.”
Maravilla also spoke to the crowd, recalling that as a kid his mother told him that if police ever beat him, not to fight back — to protect his head.
Another speaker was Yusef Miller, of the North County Equity and Justice Coalition, who said the nation’s policing system has seen no substantial changes despite several killings by police in recent years, including the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis nearly three years ago.
Floyd’s murder led to protests in San Diego and across the nation in the summer of 2020.
“We have not had a moral shift in policing because of George Floyd — make no mistake,” he said.
Miller said he was hurt by the fact the officers accused in Nichols’ death are Black. But, he added: “The fact is they are not Black, they’re not White, they’re blue,” he said, referring to the color of a police uniform. “That’s the issue. … Law enforcement is taking these lives.”
He also questioned whether authorities would have taken swift action in charging the officers if they were White.
As for the footage of Nichols’ beating death, Miller said: “I saw a man trying to survive. I saw a man trying to live.”
Officials from various government and law enforcement agencies around the country reacted to Nichols’ death, the charges filed against the Memphis officers and the violent images seen in the videos.
In San Diego, Mayor Todd Gloria and Police Chief David Nisleit issued a joint statement saying the city shares “the grief and outrage felt across the country.”
“We — inclusive of our entire San Diego Police Department — condemn this betrayal of the badge and the public trust, and we support the firing and prosecution of the officers involved,” the statement read in part. “What happened in Memphis will never be tolerated in San Diego.”
San Diego County Sheriff Kelly Martinez issued a statement that read in part: “We condemn the actions of officers who act willfully and criminally in the performance of their duties. The amount of force, and lack of intervention by the officers is deeply troubling, upsetting and unprofessional.”
Other protests were held in Los Angeles and Sacramento, where Nichols had lived before moving to Memphis.
The Associated Press and Public Safety Editor Dana Littlefield contributed to this report.
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