MEMPHIS, Tennessee (AP) — A police training expert, Don Cameron, giving testimony in favor of the defense, admitted on Saturday during the trial of three ex-Memphis police officers that the kicks and punches applied to the head of Tyre Nichols were unnecessary and excessive.
The events being judged in court involve Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, and Justin Smith, who have all pled not guilty to numerous state charges, including second-degree murder. These three men are already facing long-term prison sentences as a result of their federal prosecutions in 2022, in which they were found guilty of a number of serious charges. Mr. Cameron's role in the court proceedings is that of a lead prosecutor. His job is to make the case against the three defendants.
Before the conclusion of the defense's case on Saturday evening, Cameron and a string of other witnesses provided testimony. Most notably, the three officers who are on trial for the death of John Moreno opted not to testify in their own defense. The trial will resume on Monday, and the jury will be instructed and given the chance to hear the final arguments.
In January 2023, Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, fled from a traffic stop after being forcibly removed from his vehicle. The removal from the vehicle was not a gentle affair, as Nichols was hit with pepper spray and a Taser in the process of being taken out and brought under control. The control, however, was not mannerly or lawful, as five Black officers attempted to subdue Nichols with punches, kicks, and a police baton. Nichols, in his moment of desperation and near residential proximity, called out to his mother.
Security cameras installed at the police station captured the beating. They also captured the fact that the officers involved were not exactly taking the matter seriously. They were seen chatting and laughing while Tyre Nichols was obviously in distress. After Nichols was savagely beaten and left to nearly die, he was subjected to another indignity. At the hospital where he was fighting for his life, he was handcuffed.
The charges against the implicated officers are serious ones: second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct, and official oppression. Prosecutors allege that the officers used far too much force when trying to subdue Nichols. And the prosecutors contend that what happened after Nichols was pulled from the car amounts to a concerted assault that went on for too long and wasn't stopped by any of the officers who had a clear duty to enforce the law—especially, as they argue, the law against excessive force. And what these prosecutors say amounts to failing in that duty.
This matter also involves former officers Desmond Mills Jr. and Emmitt Martin, who are defendants. Both Mills and Martin have consented to enter guilty pleas with respect to the state charges and will not be going to trial. Additionally, both have entered guilty pleas in federal court. Sentencing for all five officers involved is still to be determined.
The defense has attempted to weaken the accusations that law enforcement used too much force during their attempts to subdue Nichols. They say he was running and not following orders to present his hands for cuffing, and that any reasonable person would have taken it as an order. And they tell us that the police used force that was reasonable given the circumstances and that it was in accordance with policy.
The defense attorney representing Officer Haley summoned Officer Cameron to testify. Officer Haley was at the traffic stop and came to the scene after Officer Martin had applied his patented "kicks and punches to the head" routine to Mr. Nichols. These "kicks and punches" were delivered while Mr. Nichols was "restrained" by Officers Smith and Bean.
Officer Cameron indicated that Mr. Nichols was not yet in handcuffs at the time and that Officer Haley's use of force, which was limited to a single kick to Mr. Nichols' arm, was appropriate in the context of getting Mr. Nichols handcuffed. Other officers were trying to get Mr. Nichols handcuffed, and according to Officer Cameron, a kick to the arm was a way of facilitating that process.
But when Prosecutor Paul Hagerman cross-examined Officer Cameron, he got an admission that that the punches and kicks delivered by Officer Martin to Mr. Nichols' head were not just unnecessary and excessive but an application of deadly force. What's more, Cameron said, any officer witnessing that kind of flagrant violation of a person's rights has an obligation to intervene and stop the assault.
Cameron, who was in charge of overseeing the other officers in the specialized unit that Nichols was a part of, was just watching because he knew he needed to take control if they started losing it again. Cameron said it had gotten pretty bad a couple of times, so they needed to be under control.
Then the further embarrassing part for the police came when the prosecutor pointed out that Cameron didn't stop the assault even though he was right there and could have stopped it.
The five officers belonged to a specialized crime suppression task force called the Scorpion Unit, which has now been dissolved. This unit's focus was primarily on stopping the flow of narcotics, illegal firearms, and violent criminals into our community, and their aggressive tactics led to a significant increase in arrests. Unfortunately, their arrest-a-day mentality sometimes resulted in abuses of power and excessive force against unarmed suspects.
The defense has claimed that the officers could not see properly because of the pepper spray. Smith's attorney, Martin Zummach, asked Officer Cameron whether it was mandatory for law enforcement personnel to intervene when they witness another officer using excessive force, even if the intervening officer did not directly see the excessive force being used.
“If they can’t see it, they can’t intervene,” Cameron said. Mills, who struck Nichols three times with a police baton, testified on Tuesday that he was sorry for not doing more to stop the assault. The beating caused by Memphis police officers led to Nichols' death three days later from blunt-force trauma (the sort of injury that a person might have after a bad car crash), as Dr. Marco Ross, the forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy, described it on Wednesday.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_use_of_deadly_force_in_the_United_States
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