‘Tyre Nichols should have been safe’: Kamala Harris calls on Congress to pass policing bill at Tyre Nichols’s funeral
Rachel Schilke
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Vice President Kamala Harris called on Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act while giving a speech at Tyre Nichols’s funeral in Memphis, Tennessee.
Nichols, 29, died on Jan. 10 after being critically injured by five Memphis officers in a traffic stop. They violently beat, pepper sprayed, and tasered him. The officers have since been fired and charged with second-degree murder and other charges.
TYRE NICHOLS SPARKS LONG-SHOT PUSH FOR POLICE REFORM
Harris said the “violent act” was not in pursuit of public safety or keeping the public safe.
“One must ask, was not it in the interest of keeping the public safe, that Tyre Nichols would be with us here today?” Harris asked. “Was he not also entitled to the right to be safe?”
“Tyre Nichols should have been safe,” the vice president continued.
Harris called on Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act — Democratic-led legislation spurred from George Floyd’s death in 2020 after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck. The legislation focuses on limiting qualified-immunity policies that protect officers accused of misconduct. It also bans choke holds and limits no-knock warrants.
Prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump also spoke at the funeral. He thanked Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), who told the family of Tyre Nichols that she will reintroduce the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act with a “Tyre Nichols Duty to Intervene” component after President Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address on Feb. 7.
“We should not delay and we will not be denied — it is non-negotiable,” Harris said.
Rev. Al Sharpton gave the eulogy at Nichols’s funeral. He spoke on the “white” and “black” sides of Memphis, saying officers should act the same way toward black people.
“How do you have the same department and keep crime down on one side of town without beating folks to death? But you can’t do it on the other side of town unless you feel like you can get away with it there,” Sharpton said.
“If [Tyre Nichols] had been white, you wouldn’t have beaten him like that on that night,” Sharpton added.
Sharpton spoke about growing up during the Civil Rights Movement under Martin Luther King, Jr. He said the officers, five black men, would not have had a job in the police department if it were not for King.
“In the city that Dr. King lost his life, not far away from that balcony, you beat a brother to death,” Sharpton said.
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“There is nothing more insulting and offensive to those of us that fight to open doors, that you walked through those doors and act like the folks we had to fight for to get you through them doors.”
“People had to march and go to jail, and some lost their lives to open the doors for you, and how dare you act like that sacrifice was for nothing,” Sharpton added.