After Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis released the footage which she described as “heinous, reckless, and inhumane,” protesters shut down the Memphis-Arkansas bridge, spanning the Mississippi River. Local activist Amber Sherman spoke into a megaphone, leading the way.
Chivona Newsome and Hawk Newsome (foreground), co-founders of BLM Greater NY, were part of an action that started in Union Square, in downtown Manhattan. Protesters walked to Midtown — chanting “No Justice, no peace, fuck these racist-ass police” — where they joined up with another protest.
A snowstorm didn’t slow down about 20 demonstrators in downtown Detroit, which was organized by the Detroit chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, which was instrumental in organizing protests across the country.
Local activists Kevin Cramer and Nadine Seiler protested in Lafayette Square, a site of mass demonstrations during the 2020 protests. They went to the square ahead of the release of the beating footage of the police homicide of Tyre Nichols.
Protests in Portland, Oregon have been known to erupt into violence, but last night, hundreds demonstrators peacefully marched through the city to remember Nichols and demand change in American policing. The march began at the Burnside Skatepark — a nod to Nichols’ love of the sport — before crossing the Burnside Bridge to the Justice Center in downtown Portland.
In Seattle, about 80 protesters marched through the city, demanding justice for Tyre Nichols. They also paused for a moment of silence in the South Lake Union neighborhood, where 23-year-old Jaahnavi Kandula was killed by a police car, which was speeding to a medical incident in the area.
The chief of the Los Angeles Police Department condemned the Nichols video, calling what it contained “behavior [that] goes against every principle of the law enforcement profession.” But in Los Angeles — where 31-year-old Keenan Anderson was killed while in police custody on Jan. 3 — a vigil for the young men killed by cops turned into a protest.
In Nichols’ home city of Memphis, protesters blocked traffic on Friday night, after the deeply disturbing footage of his beating death was released to the public.
The men who beat Nichols to death are charged with Murder — but protesters across the country are demanding a complete rethinking of the American policing system. In Chicago, where below-freezing temperatures and gusty winds kept crowds to a minimum, a handful of protesters demonstrators gathered Downtown and in Pilsen.
Protesters braved the cold and snow to demand change from the policing system after the release of brutal footage.
In a rally organized by the anti-war Party for Socialism and Liberation, demonstrators stood outside in Lafayette Square, near the White House, to demand and end to police violence.
In New York, demonstrations remained nonviolent, though there was some minor destruction of property.