‘Horrible and Unbelievable’: Civil rights activist disturbed with video of police officers beating Tyre Nichols

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - On Friday, the Memphis Police Department released video footage showing Tyre Nichols being beaten by police officers who held the Black motorist down and repeatedly struck him with their fists, boots, and batons as he screamed for his mother.

As you can imagine, this video is not sitting well with people all across the country, including right here in the capital city.

“You don’t do a dog like that,” said Hezekiah Watkins, who’s a civil rights activist. “This is a young man whose life has been taken from him. We don’t know what was in store for his future because now there is no future.”

Watkins was Mississippi’s youngest Freedom Rider and has spent decades fighting for equality.

After watching the 60-minute video, Watkins said he was disturbed by a number of things, including the fact that so many officers were beating Nichols.

He also has issues with no one on the scene trying to break things up.

Watkins said he is also troubled because this incident involves African American officers doing this to another African American man.

The civil rights activist calls this the worst case of police brutality he has ever seen.

“You go back to George Floyd, I would have thought George Floyd would have surpassed Rodney King, but this one here, after seeing this young man lying up in the hospital, after seeing this young man pleading out for his other like Rodney King did, it was just horrible,” Watkins expressed. “Unbelievable in 2023 we have officers who are supposed to be out protecting us, that are out killing us.”

As of today, five former Memphis police officers have been fired and arrested.

They are now facing murder charges in this case.

However, after watching the video, Watkins believes more officers will be arrested and charged for this crime.

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