Protestors gather Sunday to honor Memphis man who died after brutal beating by police

Sara Karnes, Springfield News-Leader
·4 min read
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Freezing rain slicked the sidewalks as roughly 20 people gathered in Park Central Square on Sunday evening in honor of a Black man from Memphis who died following an incident with law enforcement officers.

The Springfield branch of Party for Socialism and Liberation organized the protest following recently released video footage that showed the brutal beating by Memphis, Tenn., police officers of Tyre Nichols. The 29-year-old, a Black FedEx worker and father of a four-year-old son, died three days later from his injuries in a hospital where he had been in critical condition since the beating.

More:Video shows Memphis police violently beating Tyre Nichols in the traffic stop that led to his death

Five of the officers — all of whom are also Black — were charged Thursday with second-degree murder and other crimes in what civil rights attorney Ben Crump called a "blueprint going forward" for holding police responsible for misconduct due to the speed of the action by prosecutors and the police chief.

Protests followed this past weekend across the country, including Springfield, after the video footage was released.

'To be coming together ― yet again ― there's a certain degree of tragedy,' says protestor

Springfield has hosted several protests in the past few years following the death of George Floyd, a Black man murdered Memorial Day 2020 by a Minneapolis police officer who pressed a knee into Floyd's neck as he cried out that he could not breathe.

"To be coming together ― yet again ― there's a certain degree of tragedy," said Seth Goodwin, a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation. "We've had such a mass outcry in the U.S. against police brutality, against police violence, against the systemic inequality that is produced in part of this nation, of this system and its foundations."

Seth Goodwin, a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, speaks during a protest Sunday evening in Park Central Square.
Seth Goodwin, a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, speaks during a protest Sunday evening in Park Central Square.

Along with the "undeniable tragedy" of Nichols' death, Goodwin echoed President Joe Biden's statement that "things have not fundamentally changed" within law enforcement nationwide.

"We aren't guaranteed convictions unless we demand those in the streets," Goodwin told the News-Leader before the protest commenced. "We're not guaranteed any degree of equity or justice if we don't stand in defense of ourselves, in defense of our Black neighbors (and) in defense of the working class at large against police brutality."

Leadership of Springfield's chapter of the NAACP were not present at the Sunday protest, but released a statement calling on protesters to be peaceful.

"The release of the video showing the modern-day lynching of Tyre Nichols is a gruesome reminder of the scourge of police violence that continues to plague our nation," said the statement, signed by chapter President Kai Sutton and 1st Vice President Kyler Sherman.

"The state-sanctioned violence so often used against Black and Brown bodies is one of the most pressing racial justice issues of our time. The Springfield chapter of the NAACP echoes the statement of NAACP President Derrick Johnson which calls for the U.S. Congress to pass much needed police reform legislation."

Protest participants decry "oppressive system"

Other speakers Sunday evening echoed what have been common themes in past protest by the group.

Tonya Claireborne speaks during a protest Sunday evening at Park Central Square.
Tonya Claireborne speaks during a protest Sunday evening at Park Central Square.

Tonya Claireborne, another speaker and member of the party, shared that many groups are marginalized by the powerful elite, but Black people disproportionately so. Also, she said it doesn't matter that the police officers fired and charged in Nichols' death are Black themselves because "they are part of an oppressive system."

"Killer cops should be locked up in prison, not only as a matter of justice for Tyre Nichols or the hundreds of other people that have been killed by the weapons of the state, but also to end the culture of impunity that emboldens police officers to carry out terrible abuses on a routine basis," Claireborne said. (The Washington Post has tracked more than 8,000 fatal police shootings across the United States since 2015 and found that 1,110 people have been shot and killed by police in the past 12 months.)

Autumn Reynolds speaks during a protest Sunday at Park Central Square.
Autumn Reynolds speaks during a protest Sunday at Park Central Square.

Party member Autumn Reynolds was one of the last speakers before the protest dispersed.

"Only by rallying together and building a sustainable resistance to these actions can we bring about a better society," Reynolds said. "The police are not your friends. The police exist for one purpose and one purpose only: To uphold our capitalist system."

Both President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris urged Congress to take swift action by passing the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. The policing reform bill aims to bolster police accountability and would end police practices that have been under scrutiny after the deaths of Black Americans.

USA Today contributed to this report.

Sara Karnes is an Outdoors Reporter with the Springfield News-Leader. Follow along with her adventures on Twitter and Instagram @Sara_Karnes. Got a story to tell? Email her at skarnes@springfi.gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Springfield protest held after Memphis beating death of Tyre Nichols