On Wednesday (February 1), Rev. Al Sharpton addressed Tyre Nichols' funeral and addressed the cops who killed him.
According to Yahoo! News, the 68-year-old civil rights activist conducted a eulogy during the service and took the opportunity to condemn the five officers who murdered Nichols.
Sharpton drew on the decades-long struggle for Black civil rights and the shortcomings of law enforcement.
"What happened to Tyre is so personal to me, Mr. and Mrs. Wells," the reverend said. "Is that five Black men who wouldn't have had a job in the police department would never be considered to be in an elite squad in the city that Dr. King lost his life?"
"There's nothing more insulting and offensive to those of us who fight to open doors than walking through those doors and acting like the people we had to fight for to get you through those doors," Sharpton said. "People had to march and go to jail, and some lost their lives to open the doors for you," she added.
As Sharpton went on, he began to refer to Nichol's death at the hands of five Black men as a problem related to America's systemic problems.
"The tape speaks for itself. Never asked for his license. Never requested his license. Snatched him out of the car and began beating him. Nobody mentioned anything about his girlfriend. Nobody mentioned anything about — they began beating an unarmed man.
What has happened to the dream in the city where the dreamer lay down and shed his blood? You have the unmitigated courage to beat your brother, chase him down and beat him some more, call for backup and they take 20 minutes, and you watch him and you have no empathy or concern, according to the Brownsville, New York native.
The Baptist minister began to draw his attention to the congregation and assure them that the persons responsible for the murder were not "the police." He concluded that handling crime by "becoming a criminal" is not how policing should be handled and should be changed.
"We recognize that public safety is concerned. We recognize that we must deal with crime, but you don't stand up to thugs in the street [by] becoming thugs yourself." "You don't fight gangs by becoming five armed men against an unarmed man."
Tyre Nichols was brutally murdered on January 10, 2023, according to a powerful eulogy.
Nichols was questioned for an alleged traffic violation and "suffered extensive bleeding caused by a severe beating" by the cops.
The five Black officers accused in the deaths of Emmitt Martin III, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr, Tadarrius Bean, and Justin Smith were detained after they were caught on video sabotaging a young man's life.
