NEW YORK — Mayor Eric Adams encouraged New Yorkers to protest peacefully Friday once the video of five Memphis police officers savagely beating a Black man to death is made public.
“I think the Memphis police chief responded swiftly, and I believe New Yorkers have the right to peacefully voice their concern if the video is what we anticipate it will be,” said Adams, an ex-NYPD officer. “... This police department is the best at responding to any forms of protests.”
A Friday night gathering — billed as “Justice for Tyre Nichols” — was already scheduled for 7 p.m. in Times Square. Adams said he was briefed earlier Friday by NYPD Commissioner Kechant Sewell, with another sitdown slated.
“The police commissioner has been sitting down with the team and putting the proper strategies in place to make sure that people can peacefully voice their concerns,” the mayor added. “They are fully prepared to allow New Yorkers to peacefully voice their concern based on the outcome.”
The officers, all of them Black, were arrested for murder and other charges in the deadly attack on Nichols, 29, an assault compared by family attorneys to the caught-on-video beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police in 1991.
“The New York State police are prepared to respond to any incidences,” said Gov. Kathy Hochul. “But again, I will ask everyone to heed the words of Tyre Nichols’ mother, on behalf of her family and his 4-year-old child — if you’re going to protest, please do so peacefully in her son’s memory.”
The officers were charged Thursday for the deadly assault during a Jan 7. traffic stop, with Memphis Police Director Cerelyn Davis describing the fatal beating as “heinous, reckless and inhumane.” She added the department was unable to substantiate the allegation that the victim was pulled over for reckless driving.
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