After Tyre Nichols’ funeral, Biden faces calls for police reform

• Harris stated that Washington will accept ambitious federal legislation to end police violence.
• Tyre Nichols’ beating by police reignited efforts to abolish police brutality in the nation.
• Efforts to enact the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act stalled in Congress more than a year ago.

Lawmakers and civil rights activists in the United States are urging President Joe Biden’s administration to do more to advance police reform.

After the violent arrest of a Black motorist in Memphis earlier this month reignited efforts to abolish police brutality in the nation.

Vice President Kamala Harris stated at Tyre Nichols’ funeral on Wednesday that Washington would accept nothing less than ambitious federal legislation to end police violence. Tyre Nichols passed away on January 7 after being beaten by police.

“This violent act was not in pursuit of public safety,” Harris said in reference to the beating, as she addressed mourners from the pulpit of Memphis’s Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church.

“Was he not also entitled to the right to be safe?” she asked of the 29-year-old father and FedEx worker. “Tyre Nichols should have been safe.”

The vice president concluded her remarks by urging Congress to pass federal police reform legislation. “We should not delay and we will not be denied. It is non-negotiable.”

However, the reforms have had trouble moving forwards. Republican opposition to the legislation’s provisions caused bipartisan efforts to enact the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act to stall in Congress more than a year ago.

The bill has the name of a man whose death by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 2020 sparked worldwide demonstrations calling for an end to police brutality and anti-Black racism.

An executive order with the same name as Floyd was signed by Biden in May, forcing federal agencies to evaluate and amend their use of force rules.

It limited the use of no-knock warrants and chokeholds and required the establishment of a national database of police wrongdoing.

However, advocates claim that much more has to be done following Nichols’ violent beating this month, which was caught on police body cams.

On Thursday, Biden and Harris will meet with members of the Congressional Black Caucus to explore whether the federal legislation can get back on track. “

I am working to make sure that we have a clear plan,” said Democratic Congressman Steven Horsford, who chairs the caucus.

Representative Jamaal Bowman, another Democrat, urged Biden to take more decisive action, saying the president was “missing the opportunity to be a historic president when it comes to the social issues that continue to plague our country”.

Bowman described Biden as “a champion of the status quo in many ways”, and he said Biden needs to be “a champion of a new vision for America”.

My heart goes out to Tyre Nichols’ family as we mourn his loss.

I remain committed to finding legislative solutions to ensure that police officers who use excessive force are held accountable through the criminal legal system.

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— Rep. Steven Horsford (@RepHorsford) January 28, 2023

When footage of Nichols’s beating was made public on Friday, Jim Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, the largest police organization in the US, said he was in contact with the White House to see if the event may serve as a spark to “get things moving again.”

The union had participated in previous attempts to reach a bipartisan deal on police reforms, and Pasco said, “We welcome any constructive effort to help us do our jobs better.” The union’s president, Patrick Yoes, earlier condemned Nichols’s killing and said, “Our entire country needs to see justice done — swiftly and surely.”

However, Pasco said Republicans recently regained control of the House of Representatives, making legislative progress harder. “You’ve got to look at the political realities here,” he explained.

Five of the Memphis police officers who were involved in the shooting death of Nichols have been fired by the force, and last week, prosecutors filed charges against them for second-degree murder, assault, kidnapping, official misconduct, and oppression.

Two additional cops who may have been involved in the incident have been suspended or relieved of duty and are the subject of an enquiry.

On Monday, the city’s fire department fired two paramedics and their on-scene supervisor, and two Shelby County sheriff’s officers were suspended as well.

“We cannot continue to let these people brutalise our kids,” Rodney Wells, Nichols’s stepfather, said during the funeral.

Ben Crump, the family’s human rights attorney, said he anticipated similar prompt action in other cases of police misconduct involving white officers.

Black people make up the five former Memphis police officers accused of killing Nichols.

“No more can they ever tell us when we have evidence on video of them brutalising us, that it’s going to take six years, that it’s going to take a month, that it’s going to take three years,” Crump told the mourners.

“Every time you kill one of us on video, we’re going to say the legacy of Tyre Nichols is that we have equal justice swiftly. Swiftly! Swiftly!” he said.

We came together as a community in Memphis, TN. to let the country know we say no more! Police must face swift accountability for killing Black men — we’re humbled to support the Nichols family during their time of tragedy and demand equal justice for Tyre Nichols! pic.twitter.com/7pRbjM3q2D

— Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) February 2, 2023

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