IABA STATEMENT REGARDING THE TRAGIC DEATH OF TYRE NICHOLS
The Iranian American Bar Association (“IABA”) mourns the tragic loss of Tyre Nichols, who was beaten to death by members of the Memphis Police Department on January 07, 2023.
It is with great sadness that we write these words, yet again. This senseless death continues a pattern of systematic violence at the hands of the police. The officers who murdered Tyre Nichols were members of a highly trained street crime unit who subdued him using “non-lethal” techniques. At least five of the officers who murdered Tyre Nichols were black men and they appear to have been wearing body cameras to record their interactions with the public. The IABA notes these facts because the officers who murdered Tyre Nichols embodied the kinds of reforms that have been implemented in police departments around the country, ostensibly to protect members of the public from ongoing, systematic violence at the hands of the police.
There can be no justice for Tyre Nichols, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Walter Scott, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, Stephon Clark, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Daunte Wright, or any of the other untold number of people whose names we do not know, who have had their humanity stripped of them by the police, while policing in America remains fundamentally unchanged and unchallenged.
As Iranian Americans, and as lawyers, we remain committed to fighting injustice and advocating for equal rights and treatment Baraye all minority communities. We continue to stand in solidarity with the Black community and will support all efforts to bring accountability to those involved in Tyre Nichols’s senseless and heartbreaking death.