- Chelsea Bailey & George Wright
- BBC News – Washington
The Memphis Police Department has disbanded the so-called “Scorpio” special unit, whose officers are accused of killing Tyre Nichols.
The word “scorpion” in this context is an acronym in English for “Operation Street Crime to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods.”
The unit consists of 50 people and its mission is to reduce crime levels in certain areas.
But now it has been canceled following its officers were seen beating Nichols, 29, in videos dated January 7.
“It is in everyone’s interest to permanently deactivate the unit,” the Memphis Police Department said in a statement.
“While the heinous acts of a few hang a cloud of shame over the Scorpio moniker, it is imperative that we, the Memphis Police Department, take proactive steps in the healing process for all those affected,” she added.
The Nichols family welcomed the decision in a statement from their attorneys, describing it as “appropriate and commensurate with the tragic death of Tyre Nichols, and an appropriate and fair decision for all citizens of Memphis.”
Protest organizer Cassio Montez, in blue, leads a rally in Memphis
The unit was launched in October 2021 with a focus on high-impact crimes such as car theft and gang-related crime.
Last week, the five officers – Tadarius Bain, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr., Emmett Martin III and Justin Smith – were fired.
They were taken into custody Thursday, each facing charges of second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression.
Four of the five were released on bail by Friday morning, according to prison records.
Attorneys for Martin and Mills said their clients would plead not guilty.
“The unit that killed Tyre has been permanently disbanded,” a protester shouted into a megaphone in Memphis before the crowd erupted in cheers.
Despite the rain, the group of fewer than 100 protesters gathered in the square in front of Memphis Police Headquarters to demand a change to the police system that they say makes it normal for black people to be brutalized in Memphis and across the country.
“Memphis is taking a stand,” said Cassio Montez, one of the protest organizers. “It means we are doing something right,” he added.
Montez vowed that he and other community organizers would continue to pressure Memphis Police Chief CJ Davis and city officials until “community demands are met,” including reform of the department’s organized crime unit.
image copyright Archyde.com
Nichols died three days following a confrontation with police
In an interview with BBC News on Friday, Davis said the Scorpion unit had been set up to be “more responsive” and “more proactive” to armed violence in the city. But she admitted that the officers who brutally beat Tyre Nichols “decided to derail.”
“We do an individual assessment of all units. This is a necessary step. We want to be completely transparent to the community,” she said.
But for some, the problem of police violence is more rooted than any reform can address.
At Saturday’s rally, Ally Watkins of Memphis carried a banner that read, “All Cops Support White Supremacy.”
She said the sign is historically accurate, because the history of policing in the United States began with slave patrols.
She added, “This is not an issue of corruption in the United States, it is an issue of the fact that the system was built once morest black bodies.” She added that if the system was broken, the only way to fix it was to start over.
Police initially said Nichols had been arrested on suspicion of reckless driving, which has not been proven. He died in hospital three days later, on January 10.
Nichols is black, as are all five officers charged in the case.
The Memphis Police Department released 4 video clips of his arrest and subsequent violence on Friday. The total duration of the clips exceeded an hour.
Peaceful protests broke out in Memphis on Friday night following the videos were released, with some demonstrators blocking a major highway in the city, while smaller demonstrations took place elsewhere in the country.
Many demonstrators held banners calling for justice for Nichols and an end to “police terror”.
Attorneys for the Nichols family likened the assault to the police beating of motorist Rodney King in Los Angeles in 1991.
image copyright MPD
From left: Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr., Emmett Martin III, Justin Smith, and Tadarios Bean
Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland praised the Scorpion program in a speech a year ago. He said the city used crime data to “determine where the unit will conduct law enforcement activities in the city.”
He said that from October 2021 to January 2022, the unit arrested 566 people. They also confiscated more than $100,000 in cash, 270 vehicles, and 253 weapons.
In the followingmath of Nichols’ death, a local resident, Cornell McKinney, told a Memphis-area television network that he had a confrontation with the unit on January 3, just days before the incident involving Nichols.
McKinney alleges that the officers – who were in unmarked cars – threatened to “blow his head off”, pointed a gun at his head and accused him of drug possession.
He complained to the Memphis Police Department following the incident, but says he has not heard anything from them.
One of Nichols’ arresting officers had been sued by a man who accused him of beating him while he was incarcerated 8 years ago.
