Caribbean American legislators angry over police killing of Black man
Caribbean-American legislators on Friday expressed profound outrage over the police killing of an unarmed Blackman in Memphis, Tennessee on January 7.
Late Friday, Memphis Police released body camera and surveillance footage of police officers kicking and punching Tyre Nichols, 29, who died in the hospital three days later.
The Shelby County District Attorney in Tennessee has charged five Black Memphis Police Department officers with second-degree murder, aggravated assault and kidnapping, and official misconduct and oppression.
“Tyre Nichols should be alive today. Time and time again, Black Americans have been forced to confront the senseless violence and deaths of Black men at the hands of law enforcement,” Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC). “My heart and condolences go out to Tyre Nichols’ family and friends as we share in grief and mourn his loss.”
“As New Yorkers, we are well accustomed to the painful truth that our country has a shameful history of turning a blind eye to the hate, bigotry and violence of police brutality that has led to the torture, abuse, and death of unarmed Black and Brown people,” added Clarke, first vice chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, who represents the 9th Congressional District in Brooklyn, New York.
“Last Congress, I helped lead the passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which holds our legal system and police accountable. And I intend on fighting for this crucial legislation again and again, until it is finally signed into law,” she continued. “This must end. We cannot rest, we cannot falter, we cannot sit idly by as we continue to watch our brothers and sisters die at the hands of law enforcement.
“No more hashtags, empty promises, or meaningless lip service,” the congresswoman said. “We need justice, and we will keep fighting until we have it.”
New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, the son of Grenadian immigrants, said: “I can’t bring myself to watch the video of Tyre Nichols’ murder, just as I still can’t view the deaths of George Floyd, of Ahmaud Arbery.
“I know what it shows — a system that values preserving and asserting power over Black lives; a pain that emanates from this incident and across the screens and the souls of Black people across America,” he told CMC. We are not okay.
“I pray for Tyre Nichols’ family, and for all who carry the burden of knowledge that this will happen again and again – that not only is public safety not entirely dependent on law enforcement, but is threatened by it,” Williams added. “Injustice remains ingrained in culture, and can’t be sanded down or sanitised.
“Accountability is critical, and it is urgent,” he demanded. “Together with individual accountability for the officers who perpetrated this act, though, must come an examination of who these systems are willing to condemn. Nothing about this is simple. Nothing about this is isolated. Nothing about this is okay.”
New York City Council Member Crystal Hudson, whose grandmother hailed from Jamaica, said: “Here we are, once again, at a moment with which we’re all too familiar: the vicious murder of an unarmed Black person by cops.
“This time, his name was Tyre Nichols. This time, it was in Memphis, Tennessee,” said the representative for the 35th Council District in the heart of the Caribbean community in Brooklyn. “This time, and every time, chiefs of police are calling for calm because responsibility and accountability don’t apply to them; because, to them, the hurt, anger and sadness of our communities is something they can brush off with tear gas and riot gear, kettling and pepper spray; because, reforming the police is an impossible task when, since their inception, they have been a force defined, applauded, and encouraged by their use of violence against Black people, Brown people, and poor people.
“I ask New Yorkers to stand strong in calling for justice for Tyre Nichols, to be relentless in their organising against police brutality,” Hudson continued. “I ask New Yorkers to love each other and protect each other, because, in moments like these, we are all we have.
“I ask New Yorkers to uplift one another in our mourning of Tyre and in our celebration of his life,” she said. “He should still be here today.”
