Tyre Nichols, a young Black man full of beauty and humanity, was on his way home from work on January 7, 2023, when he was beaten to death by five Memphis police after a minor traffic stop. When the videos came out, people all over the country were outraged—and the pain deepened when they learned about who this young man was. 

What the Federal Trial Revealed

Three of these killer cops were just tried and acquitted in federal court of the most serious charges they faced. The videos depicted these killers' barbarity in detail. After being stopped, Tyre was immediately dragged out of his car with a gun pointed at him. They beat and pepper-sprayed Tyre and struck him with a stun gun. Fearing for his life, Tyre managed to get free and began running for his mom's house, just a block away. But the pigs were able to catch him, and then proceeded with their merciless beatdown that led to his death.¹ Testifying in their defense, “use-of-force experts” said these pigs were following department policies and national policing standards. 

The videos show them punching, kicking, and stomping Tyre, handcufffed and slumped on the ground. One cop who pleaded guilty testified he punched a “helpless” Tyre Nichols at least five times while two others held his arms and said “hit him.” He kicked Tyre, while one of those on trial beat Tyre with a baton. He threw his bodycam on the ground and then lied to his supervisor about their use of force. The pigs could be seen standing around after they had pummeled Tyre, chatting instead of giving urgently needed medical care as he lay close to death. Tyre died in the hospital three days later from blunt force trauma to his head. 

So Who Murdered Tyre Nichols?

Yet the verdict in the trial, announced Wednesday, October 2, was that the three cops are not guilty of causing Tyre's death! They were only convicted of witness tampering. One was convicted of violating Tyre's civil rights by causing bodily injury. So these pigs are guilty of trying to cover up the crime—but not for the actual horrific crime?! 

The videos show Tyre was punched and kicked in the head repeatedly, even though he never resisted. And the coroner determined Tyre died because his head was smashed in. If these pigs are not guilty of “causing Tyre's death”—then who the fuck is? Telling us the murder of Tyre was a matter of policy is an admission of guilt by this whole damn system. 

The sentencing is scheduled for next January. While the maximum sentence for witness tampering is 20 years, the major charge they were acquitted of could have led to life in prison. All five still face state charges that include second degree murder. No trial date is set. 

Who Was This Young Man Whose Life Was Stolen?

Tyre, 29 years old, worked at FedEx and was a skateboarder and father. Family, friends, and colleagues have described Tyre as a joyful, creative, and spiritual young man. 

Tyre was an aspiring photographer and in his last year began posting his photos on social media. His photography website starts with an invitation: “Welcome to the world through my eyes.” Here you can find his pictures: black and white photos of bridges and railroad tracks; pink flowers and fields of grass; the neon lights of Memphis's Beale Street at night; the sunsets over the Mississippi River, and more.

Tyre wrote on his website: “Photography helps me look at the world in a more creative way. It expresses me in ways I cannot write down for people. My vision is to bring my viewers deep into what I am seeing through my eye and out through my lens.” In his memory, billboards near Palm Springs, CA, displayed many of Tyre's photographs in May 2023. They were done by the artistic director of Desert X, a biennial art exhibition.

This is just a glimpse of the human being who was Tyre Nichols.

How Many More?

In the spring of 2020, millions of people rose up in righteous protests against police brutality and murder in cities and towns across the country, and around the world. It really shook things—and showed the potential for revolution. But as powerful and important as it was, by itself, millions taking to the streets cannot lead to fundamental change in the system—that can only happen if that system is actually brought down. 

Politicians from Biden on down scrambled to come up with schemes they promised would stop the intolerable police terror and murder. In Memphis there were all kinds of police reforms. A Black woman is the chief of police. The five pigs who killed Tyre Nichols are Black, as is about 58 percent of the police department. Memphis police wear bodycams, are taught “de-escalation strategies,” are told to “intervene” if they see their fellow cops using “excessive force.” 

Yet none of this did a fucking thing to save Tyre's life, and the same goes for so many others. The police in this country have killed more and more people, especially people of color—with at least 1,247 lives stolen by police across the U.S. in 2023. Murder, brutality, repression, imprisonment, injustice against Black and other oppressed people at every turn—this has been going on for centuries! It is a cornerstone of this system of capitalism-imperialism. The “job” of the police is to serve and protect that system. That's why whoever puts on that uniform, anywhere in this country, is required to be brutal, savage, murdering enforcers who will violently maintain this white supremacist system so long as it exists. 

How many Tyre Nichols have been stolen from their families—and from humanity—by this racist capitalist-imperialist system, which has centuries of white supremacy built into its foundation? How long will this go on? How long will we—will YOU—put up with anything less than an actual revolution, which is the only way murder and terror by police, and other horrors and crimes of this system, can be brought to an end? 

This is America. This is the system of capitalism-imperialism. That's why we have to make revolution to get rid of it and put a radically new, much better system in its place.

In his recently released social media dispatch @BobAvakianOfficial, REVOLUTION #91, “A Profound  Fight For The Soul Of Black People: A Defeated People—Or A Revolutionary People?” Bob Avakian says:

A number of years ago, I made this statement:

There is the potential for something of unprecedented beauty to arise out of unspeakable ugliness: Black people playing a crucial role in putting an end, at long last, to this system which has, for so long, not just exploited but dehumanized, terrorized and tormented them in a thousand ways—putting an end to this in the only way it can be done—by fighting to emancipate humanity, to put an end to the long night in which human society has been divided into masters and slaves, and the masses of humanity have been lashed, beaten, raped, slaughtered, shackled and shrouded in ignorance and misery.

This continues to be true—to express a very big and very important truth. 

On the basis of the whole history, and the overall development, of this country—from the beginning and down to today—there is tremendous importance to the role of Black people; and there is the potential for Black people to play a crucial role in putting an end, at long last, to this system which has not only brutalized and terrorized them for centuries but also continues to cruelly exploit and murderously oppress masses of people, of different races and nationalities, in this country and throughout the world.