Tyre Nichols funeral: ‘Nothing more insulting’ than five black cops beating 29-year-old to death

Mourners entered the Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church in Memphis lead by a procession of African drummers, who performed before a large choir sang a hymn of praise.

The funeral for Tyre Nichols began on Wednesday morning, twelve days after he died from injuries sustained from a violent arrest and beating from five Memphis police officers.

Mourners entered the Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church in Memphis lead by a procession of African drummers, who performed before a large choir singing the hymn ‘Strength Like No Other.’

‘On this day, February 1, the first day of Black History Month, we have come,’ Reverend J Lawrence Turner said. ‘We have come with heavy hearts that can only be healed by the grace of god, fully transparency, accountability, and full legislative reform’

Reverend Turner called Nichols ‘a good person. a beautiful soul, a son, a father, a brother, a friend, a human being. Gone to soon, denied his rights to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’

After several eulogies, a slideshow of some of Nichols’ own photographs was played. The presentation also showed a quote from the slain 29-year-old, speaking about his own photography: ‘my vision is to bring my viewers deep into what I am seeing through my eye and out through my lens.’

Reverend Turner then introduced Reverend Al Sharpton to deliver the eulogy.

Sharpton acknowledged some of the guests, including the families of George Floyd, Eric Garner, and Breonna Taylor. ‘They know what it is to sit at a funeral like this,’ Sharpton said. ‘They’ve come to be with you from all over the country.’

Sharpton introduced President Joe Biden’s delegation, which included former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Bottoms and former New Orleans Mitch Landreau, Houston Congresswoman Sheila Lee Jackson, and Tennessee Congressman Steve Cohen.

Finally, he introduced Vice President Kamala Harris, who embraced RowVaughn Wells before speaking before the crowd.

‘We are here to celebrate the life of Tyre Nichols,’ Harris said. Addressing Nichols’ family directly, she said ‘you have been extraordinary in terms of your strength, your courage, and your grace. And we mourn with you.’

She continued: ‘mothers around the world, when there babies are born, pray to God that that body and that life will be safe for the rest of his life. Yet we have a mother and a father who mourn the life of a young man who should be here today. They have a grandson who now does not have a father. His brothers and sister will lose the love of growing old with their baby brother.’

‘This is a family that lost their son and their brother through an act of violence, at the hands and the feet of people who had been charged with keeping them safe.’

‘It demands that we speak truth. This violent act was not in pursuit of public safety. It was not in the interest in keeping the public safe,’ Harris said. ‘Was he not also entitled to the right to be safe?’

Finally, Harris called for congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which was written in the aftermath of his death in 2020.

In his eulogy, Reverend Sharpton invoked the legacy of Dr Martin Luther King Jr, who was killed on a balcony at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.

‘Not far away from that balcony – you beat a brother to death,’ he said. ‘Five black men who wouldn’t have had a job in the police department, who would not ever have been thought to be in an elite squadron.’

‘There is nothing more insulting,’ Sharpton exclaimed. ‘You didn’t get on the police department by yourself. The police chief didn’t get there by herself. People had to march. and go to jail to open the doors for you. And how dare you act like that sacrifice was for nothing.’

‘In the city that they slayed the dreamer, what has happened to the dream?’

He continued: ‘Let me be clear – we understand that there are concerns about public safety. We understand that there’s need to deal with crime. But you don’t fight crime by becoming criminals yourself.’

‘You don’t stand up to thugs in the street by becoming thugs yourself. You don’t fight gangs by becoming 5 armed men against an unarmed man. That ain’t the police, that’s punks.’

Sharpton echoed Harris’ call to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which would among other measures restrict police officers’ qualified immunity.

‘Then you have to think twice before you beat Tyre Nichols. You think twice before you chokehold Eric Garner. You think twice before you put your knee on George Floyd’s neck,’ he said. ‘I believe if that man had been white, you wouldn’t have beat him like that.’

Sharpton then introduced civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who he called ‘the attorney general of Black America.’

Crump issued a call to action, where asked for justice for ‘Tyre Nichols, the human.’

‘We don’t see the Memphis police department extend one ounce of humanity during that seven minute video,’ Crump said. ‘As your neighbor, why couldn’t they see the humanity in Tyre?’

He continued: ‘we have the god given right to say I am a human being and I deserve justice. And not justice, equal justice.’

Reverend Sharpton then took the stage again to introduce Nichols’ family.

‘Tyre was my baby brother, him and I are 11 years apart,’ his sister Keyana Dixon said.

Dixon said she would often have to babysit her younger siblings, but Tyre was always the easiest to take care of. ‘He never wanted anything but to watch cartoons and eat a big bowl of cereal.’

‘I see the world fighting for his justice, but all I want is my baby brother back,’ she said. ‘Even in his demise, he was still polite. He asked them to “please stop.”‘

‘It’s very hard for my wife, this is her baby son,’ Nichols’ stepfather Rodney Wells said. ‘There’s nothing like your baby boy. When we got the news, it was very very difficult. It was surrounded by lies, deceit, trying to cover it up. But as they say, what’s done in the dark will always come to the light.’

‘And the light of the day is justice for Tyre. Justice for all the families that lost loved ones through brutality by police, or anybody.’

‘I want to thank each and every one of you for coming out to pay tribute to my son,’ RowVaughn Wells said while fighting back tears. ‘Tyre was a beautiful person, and for this to happen to him has been unimaginable.’

She also thanked Memphis Chief of Police Cerelyn Davis for her swift action, as well as Ben Crump and the other attorneys and activists who helped out the family. She also called for the passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing act.

‘We need to get that bill passed, because if we don’t – the next child that dies, that blood is going to be on their hands.’

Reverend Sharpton also spoke to crowds outside the Mason Temple Church of God in Christ on Tuesday night. He was joined by Nichols’ mother, RowVaughn Wells, and stepfather, Rodney Wells.

‘We are here to establish and proclaim that we are going to continue to fight this fight around police brutality and killing until we get federal laws changed,’ Sharpton said at the site where Martin Luther King Jr gave his last speech before his assassination.

‘What happened with Tyre is a disgrace to this country. There is no other way to describe what has happened in this situation,’ Sharpton said.

Protesters behind the reverend carried signs showing Nichols’ dying at a hospital emblazoned with the phrase ‘I am a man,’ alluding to the final speech King gave in support of striking sanitation workers in Memphis.

This is a breaking story, check back for updates.