Tyre Nichols should still be alive right now, and he would be were it not for a gang of state-sanctioned thugs who took it upon themselves to terrorize, brutalize, and deny medical care to him to fulfill their blue bloodlust. BOSSIP has been following the story since news of his fatal beating broke in January 2023, including last week’s news that three of the officers involved in Nichols’ fatal beating were acquitted of second-degree murder and other related crimes.
According to Fox 13 Memphis, Tyre’s family and friends are not remaining silent in the face of injustice; they stood alongside hundreds of protesters recently at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis to speak out about the verdict and their unwillingness to stop fighting.
“We have gotten so much injustice from this city that it is ridiculous,” RowVaughn Wells, Nichols’ mother, said. “My son was murdered by five Memphis Police officers. He was murdered.” “Yesterday was a devastating blow to our family,” Wells said. “They didn’t see the evidence,” Wells said. “What they saw was a Black man running from the police.”
In addition to seeking justice in criminal court, the family has also filed a $550 million lawsuit against Memphis that could bankrupt the city if they were to win the case.
While the family will continue to work the system for reparations, some of the more mercurial members of the community have taken a more spirited approach to seeking some semblance of fairness. According to WREG News, wanted posters emblazoned with the incendiary phrase “dead or unalive” have been seen plastered on light poles around the Cooper Young neighborhood of Memphis.
Ms. Wells also spoke to the crowd about her stance on the posters’ messages.
“I don’t condone those posters. I don’t condone the posting of those posters, but I do understand, [there] is a deep hurt and agony and pain for people in this city right now,” said Representative Justin J. Pearson.
The sentiments on the wanted posters are part of the larger societal conversation about vigilante justice and the debate over its morality. Just look at the reactions to Luigi Mangione and Rodney Hinton, people are frustrated and angry and are showing a willingness to use extreme means to get to an end. Anyone who has ever read a comic book or seen a Marvel movie knows that this conversation typically happens when people begin to feel that the system is broken and no one is coming to fix it. When blatant injustice lingers, becoming an avenger isn’t just for kids looking for a Halloween costume.
