« Tyre Nichols = Rodney King, Part 2, » concluded Nichols family attorney Ben Crump.
The release of video footage capturing the fatal police beating of Tyre Nichols in Tennessee has sparked comparisons to decades-old footage of Rodney King being brutally beaten by police in California.
Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, died after being severely beaten by five officers following a traffic stop in Memphis on January 7. The officers were all fired from the Memphis Police Department and on Thursday were charged with multiple felonies, including second-degree murder and aggravated kidnapping.
The death of Nichols was met with outrage, with many characterizing it as the latest in a seemingly unending series of incidents involving police brutality directed at young Black men. The disgust reached new levels after police released pole and body-cam footage of the incident on Friday night.
Comparisons were quickly made between the Nichols footage and a bystander’s recording of the 1991 beating of King, which inspired widespread outrage after being aired on television at the time and indirectly led to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots.
« The camera shot from the light pole looks eerily reminiscent of the Rodney King video, » journalist Jay Scott Smith tweeted. « The multiple kicks, the nightstick, the knee to the back, holding him up and punching him. Then dragging him to the car and just leaving him.
