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Skateboard legend Tony Hawk to help build a skate park in Tyre Nichols’ name [1]
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Date: 2023-02-07
“My proceeds from these will go to the Tyre Nichols Memorial Fund, which includes plans to build a public skatepark in his honor; as our worlds continue to grieve his loss,” tweeted Hawk. “He was a talented skater, among other admirable traits. Let’s keep his legacy alive.”
x My proceeds from these will go to the Tyre Nichols Memorial Fund, which includes plans to build a public skatepark in his honor; as our worlds continue to grieve his loss. He was a talented skater among other admirable traits. Let's keep his legacy alive:
https://t.co/wHTZfLzqq7 — Tony Hawk (@tonyhawk) February 3, 2023
Nichols died on Jan. 10, three days after five Memphis police officers pulled him over for an alleged traffic violation and beat him.
All five of the officers were arrested and charged with second-degree murder. And a sixth officer was placed on administrative leave in connection with Nichols’ death.
Videos of Nichols being beaten by police were released on Jan. 27. The 29-year-old was repeatedly shocked, pepper-sprayed, punched, and kicked by police. Nichols’ beating took place just 19 miles from the Lorraine Hotel, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, Black America Web reports.
Nichols was an avid skateboarder, worked for FedEx, and was the father of a 4-year-old son. The New York Times reports that he loved to take photos of sunsets, and he had his mother’s name, RowVaughn Wells, tattooed on his arm.
“That made me proud,” she said. “Most kids don’t put their mom’s name. My son was a beautiful soul.”
Ben Crump, a civil rights attorney representing the Nichols family, says it’s time for Congress to act.
“Shame on us if we don’t use his tragic death to finally get the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act passed,” Crump said on CNN’s State of the Union last month.
The legislation—named after George Floyd, a Black man who died in 2020 after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for nine-and-a-half minutes, choking Floyd to death—was sponsored by Democrats such as Sen. Cory Booker and Rep. Karen Bass. It passed twice in the House, but failed in the Senate.
The bill would address a slew of policing issues. “It increases accountability for law enforcement misconduct, restricts the use of certain policing practices, enhances transparency and data collection, and establishes best practices and training requirements,” the bill reads in part.
Crump says he hopes that Nichols’ death will be the final straw in significant changes in American policing.
Citing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Crump said, “I can’t stop a man from hating me, but the law can stop a man from killing a man.”
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