Impassioned calls for police reform at Tyre Nichols' funeral

Washington [US], February 2: Tyre Nichols ' family and friends remembered him with songs of faith and emotional tributes Wednesday, blending a celebration of his life with outraged calls for police reform after the brutal beating he endured at the hands of Memphis police.
Nichols' mother, RowVaughn Wells, fought back tears as she spoke lovingly of her son.
"The only thing that's keeping me going is that I truly believe that my son was sent here on assignment from God. And I guess now his assignment is done. He's gone home," she said, urging Congress to pass police reform.
The Rev. Al Sharpton and Vice President Kamala Harris both delivered impassioned speeches calling on Congress to approve the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, a broad package of police reforms that include a national registry for police officers disciplined for misconduct, a ban on no-knock warrants and other measures.
Harris said the beating of Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, by five Black police officers was a violent act that went against the stated mission of police to ensure public safety.
"It was not in the interest of keeping the public safe, because one must ask, was not it in the interest of keeping the public safe that Tyre Nichols would be with us today? Was he not also entitled to the right to be safe? So when we talk about public safety, let us understand what it means in its truest form. Tyre Nichols should have been safe," she said.
Sharpton said the officers who beat Nichols might have acted differently if there was real accountability for their actions. He also said he believes that if Nichols had been white, "you wouldn't have beat him like that."
"We understand that there are concerns about public safety. We understand that there are needs that deal with crime," Sharpton said.
"But you don't fight crime by becoming criminals yourself. You don't stand up to thugs in the street becoming thugs yourself. You don't fight gangs by becoming five armed men against an unarmed man. That ain't the police. That's punks," he said, to rousing applause from the crowd.
The Rev. J. Lawrence Turner called Nichols "a good person, a beautiful soul, a son, a father, a brother, a friend, a human being" who was gone too soon and "denied his rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, denied the dignity of his humanity."
"As we celebrate Tyre's life and comfort this family, we serve notice to this nation that the rerun of this episode that makes Black lives hashtags has been canceled and will not be renewed for another season," Turner said. "We have come and we shall overcome."
Tiffany Rachal, the mother of Jalen Randle, who was fatally shot by a Houston police officer in 2022, sang a rendition of the classic gospel standard "Total Praise" to rousing applause from the congregation and Nichols' family.
"All of the mothers all over the world need to come together, need to come together to stop all of this," Rachal said.
Friends at a memorial service last week described him as joyful and kind, quick with a smile, often silly.
"This man walked into a room, and everyone loved him," said Angelina Paxton, a friend who traveled to Memphis from California for the memorial service.
The beating of Nichols happened after police stopped him for an alleged traffic violation Jan. 7. Video released after pressure from Nichols' family shows officers holding him down and repeatedly punching him, kicking him and striking him with batons as he screamed for his mother.
Nichols' death was the latest in a string of early accounts by police about their use of force that were later shown to have minimized or omitted mention of violent encounters.
Source: Fijian Broadcasting Corporation