Rodney King’s lawyer on Tyre Nichols: Racist policing has plagued the US for decades

Exclusive: “The violence impacted on African Americans speaks of a culture of impunity, and oppressive use of force,” lawyer Milton Grimes tells Nadine White

Tyre Nichols and Rodney King (AP)

US police officers’ deadly use of force against Black people is pervasive and lessons have not been learned over the decades, the lawyer for Rodney King has warned.

The comments come in the wake of the death of Tyre Nichols, 29, who was savagely beaten by five Black Memphis Police officers on January 7. He died three days later in hospital.

On Friday, authorities released four different pieces of video showing the father-of-one being punched, kicked in the head, struck with a baton and pepper-sprayed, after a traffic stop.

The footage has been compared to the beating given to Rodney King in 1991, which was also captured on video; though Mr Nichols did not survive as Mr King did.

Milton Grimes, who was the attorney for the late Rodney King, said: “The beating of Rodney King should have been a wake-up call to address the military style, racist police culture of violence in the US, but sadly nothing has changed.

“The US is not a war zone but the violence impacted on African Americans speaks of a culture of impunity, and oppressive use of force.

“The aggressive nature of policing in the US is a national disgrace falling well below international standards.”

A Memphis Police Chief said the video showing officers beating Mr Nichols is “perhaps worse” than the notorious footage showing Mr King’s attack.

Mr King was beaten by a group of Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers in 1991 in an attack that was captured by a bystander on video. He was aged 26 years old at the time.

The four officers were later cleared by a predominantly white jury which sparked the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

Mr King survived the beating and later became an advocate for peace, famously saying during the riots “can we all get along”. He died in 2012 aged 47.

Beating of Rodney King (left) and Tyre Nichols (right) separated by more than 30 years (Memphis Police Department)

Members of the United Nations-backed International Commission of Inquiry on the Systemic Racist Police Violence Against People of African Descent in the United States, have condemned “unlawful violence on Black people” who are “often treated as second class citizens”.

The group, comprised of members and groups across the world, has further called on US president Joe Biden to create an Independent National Federal Law Enforcement Oversight Commission, with the power to monitor and regulate the performance of all US police departments, implementing a zero-tolerance policy for instances of police brutality.

Nichols’ parents – RowVaughn Wells and Rodney Wells – have accepted an invitation from the Congressional Black Caucus to attend Mr Biden’s State of the Union address next week.

Commission members include Judge Peter Herbert (UK), Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP (UK), Former London mayoral advisor Lee Jasper (UK), Operation Black Vote, Society of Black Lawyers, the Pan African Lawyers Union, Sir Hilary Beckles (Barbados), Reverend Al Sharpton (US), Bert Samuels MP (Jamaica) and more.

“It is an absolute disgrace that the lives of African Americans continue to be taken by unlawful and malicious police violence,” judge Herbert told The Independent:

“The tragedy is no less serious because the perpetrators were also African American officers. The systematic use of force by law enforcement officers undermines the rule of law and democracy in the US.”

This comes as Memphis Police Department has been accused of “shielding” the one white officer involved in the brutal incident: Preston Hemphill.

Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, lawyers defending Mr Nichols’ family, denounced the police for allegedly giving the officer special treatment by placing him on leave despite his involvement.