Civil rights leaders say

Memphis, tenn. – After three former police officers in Memphis, the ventilation of the death of Reifen Nichols was acquitted on Wednesday, the managers of the community and civil rights were outraged by a further disappointment in the long advance according to police reform.

Nichol's death on a traffic stop more than two years ago triggered nationwide protests and called for the demands for systemic change as a first case according to George Floyd, which resulted in the limits of an unprecedented settlement of racist injustice in black America.

Now the release on Wednesday is once again showing the need for reforms at the federal level, said civil rights leader.

“Tyre and his family earn true justice – not only in the courtroom, but also in the congress, by saying the legislation of the police reform once and for all,” said Naacp President Derick Johnson on social media. “Traffic stops should never be a death sentence, and a badge should never – never – be a sign of accountability.”

The Rev. Al Sharton, who spoke to Nichol's mother and stepfather on Wednesday, said they were outraged.

“Justice can still be delivered,” added Sharpton in a statement and referred to the upcoming conviction of the civil servants in a federal civil rights procedure. “The death of Tire was avoidable, unused and tragic.”

The 29 -year -old Nichol was on the way home on January 7, 2023 when he was stopped because of a suspected traffic violation. He was pulled out of his car by officers, one of which shot on him with a taser. According to video material, Nichols ran away, which brutally showed him from five officers. An autopsy found that he died of strokes on the head.

Three officials were acquitted on Wednesday by all state charges, including a second degree murder. All five officials, the city of Memphis and the chief of police are sued by Nichol's family for 550 million US dollars. An attempt is planned for next year.

“Let this be a rally and a scream: We have to face the broken systems that enable this injustice and require the change in our country – and the inheritance of Tire -,” said Benjamin Crump, the lawyer of civil rights, who represents the family in the lawsuit.

After the murder of Floyds in 2020 by a former police officer in Minneapolis, the states adopted hundreds of police reform proposals and, among other things, caused the civil surveillance of the police, more anti-bias training and stricter operational limits. However, the Federal Reforms of George Floyd Justice in Policing Act stuck in the congress without enough non -partisan support to come into force during the bid administration.

The case of Nichols triggered a 17-month investigation by the federal government into the Memphis police, which found a large number of violations of civil rights, including the application of excessive violence, obtaining illegal traffic and disproportionately against black.

Last year, after the death of Nichols by GOP Governor Bill Lee, Memphis were lifted in Memphis despite the request of the civil rights lawyers.

One of the regulations had banned the traffic stops for reasons that had not dealt with driving a driver, such as: B. a broken rear light and other minor violations. Lee repeated arguments of republican legislators who said that Nichol's' death had to lead to responsibility for officers, abuse power, and no new limits of traffic stops.

After the acquittal on Wednesday, the district prosecutor of Shelby County, Steven Mulroy, said: “Our office will continue to urge everyone who violates the law, even if not, especially those who are sworn in, to maintain it.”

“If we want to have a silver strip from this dark cloud of both the event itself and in my opinion, it must be that we have to reaffirm our commitment to the reform of the police,” he said.

Thaddeus Johnson, a former police commander of Memphis and senior scholarship holder of the Council for Criminal Justice, said that Nichols' blows and the acquisition of acquittal on Wednesday from generations of police problems in the majority black city.

“I think the reform is local, but I believe that this somehow did things in mind,” Johnson told the AP. “People have the feeling that the police cannot be held accountable. Or they are not held accountable.”

Andre Johnson, a pastor at Gifts of Life Ministries in Memphis and an activist of the community, said he was disappointed, but not surprised at the verdict.

“It is extremely difficult to condemn civil servants, even if they are in front of the camera,” he said, giving the acquittal a loud and clear recognition that certain groups of people are irrelevant. “

“For many people who have associated themselves with police officers, the message is loud and clear: Even if we bring them in front of the camera, they cannot do justice to what they did with tires.”

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Brewer reported from Norman, Oklahoma. Mattise reported from Nashville. The AP writer Travis Loller in Nashville contributed.