The police chief of Memphis announced yesterday that their “Scorpion Unit” will be dissolved after the footage of Tyre Nichols’ death was released on Friday.
Police Director “CJ” Davis said that her choice to disband the unit, titled as the acronym Scorpion for Street Crimes Operations to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods, came from listening to the community and Nichols’ relatives.
According to Davis, the officers that are part of the unit complied and were “unreservedly” in agreement. The new announcement comes a day after she earlier said that she would keep the unit composed of three teams of 30 officers.
“The whole idea that the Scorpion unit is a bad unit, I just have a problem with that,” Davis said in an interview with The Associated Press.
The attorneys representing the Nichols Family, lawyers Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, commended Davis’ decision to disband Scorpion but urged that there’s still much to be done to get justice for the murder of Tyre Nichols and other victims of police brutality.
“We must keep in mind that this is just the next step on this journey for justice and accountability, as clearly this misconduct is not restricted to these specialty units,” Crump and Romanucci said in a statement. “It extends so much further.”
Davis’ decision comes a day after video footage of Nichols being beaten by five officers while he called out for his mother was released. Peaceful demonstrations around the country began in major cities like New York and Washington in response. According to AP News, protestors in Memphis cheered upon her announcement to get rid of Scorpion.
In a span of six days, from Jan. 20 to Jan. 26, the five officers involved in Nichols’ murder have been fired, arrested and charged with counts of murder, aggravated assault, official misconduct, official oppression and aggravated kidnapping.
With the speed at which the officers were charged, Crump, who previously represented George Floyd’s family, said that justice can no longer be delayed for victims of police brutality like it has in the past. He noted that this is the first time that action has been taken this quickly despite previous cases also having video evidence.
“When we look at these five Black officers caught on camera committing a crime, and we look at how fast the police chief and the police department terminated the officers, and we look at how swiftly the district attorney brought charges against them in less than 20 days, then we want to proclaim that this is the blueprint going forward,” said Crump per a press conference.
“No longer can you tell us we gotta wait six months to a year even though we got a video with evidence of the excessive force and the crime. No more can you tell us that anymore, because with these five Black officers, you all moved swiftly,” he added.
