hello, everybody, welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king in washington. thank you for sharing what will be a sobering and consequential news day. any moment a portrait of pain and grief in memphis. you see the scene right there. the family of tyre nichols is about to speak. they are doing so just a few hours before the world gets to see a horrific video, a police

beating of mr. nichols and the family is speaking now one day after five police officers were indicted for murdering their 29-year-old son. this morning a jaw-dropping preview of what we will see, that video and it comes direct from the memphis police chief. she warns her officers acted, quote, the same if not worse than the l.a. cops who beat rodney king a generation ago. her officers, the chief says, escalated. their aggression is just simply unexplainable. >> i was outraged. i was -- it was incomprehensible to me. it was unconscionable. i don't think i witnessed anything of that nature my entire career. >> really? >> really. >> that bad? >> it was that bad. >> what are we going to see then? >> you're going to see acts that defy humanity. you're going to see a disregard

for life. duty of care that we're all sworn to, individuals watching will feel what the family felt and if you don't then you're not a human being. >> straight to the scene in memphis. shimon prokopecz is there. shimon, you hear the chief teeing up what the world will see later today and we're just moments away from hearing from mr. nichols' family. >> reporter: yeah, and it was the first time we got to hear from the police chief. it's the first time she's done an interview. it's the first time she's taken questions and what really is 20 days ago, what occurred here, you can see the emotion and concern that she has and other political leaders and clergy leaders and other just people in this town have over what they're going to see and really people all across the country, law enforcement all across the country preparing for what is to come because it's just so

horrific. you can really feel, john, today the emotion of this story, the pain that law enforcement is feeling as a result of this and that's really what's going on here today. for the most part the streets are quiet. we're in downtown memphis. we're not seeing any uptick in police activity. some of the school events here for tonight have been canceled across the city as they prepare for this video, which is set to be released in about six hours here. so, it's going to be avenue difficult night for sure but, you know, you can really sense that people are preparing themselves for what they're about to see more from an emotional and just how difficult this is going to be than anything else and in terms of any kind of reaction here in memphis, the police are prepared and police all across the country are making preparations just in case there's any kind of reaction, john. >> just in case, shimon, stay with us.

we'll let our viewers know when the family starts to speak. we'll get you there live immediately. let's have a conversation. with me to share their insights, elliot williams and the former maryland state police commander, neil franklin. major franklin, i want to listen to more of chief davis. i know you know chief davis in memphis. one of the striking things about this tragic situation is that the family keeps applauding this police chief for her actions and words. listen here as she describes one of the painful, painful things we are going to see when this video is released later. >> tyre nichols cries for his mother. did you hear that? >> i did. i heard him call out for his mother. for his mom. i did. that's what really just pulls at your heartstrings and makes you wonder why was a sense of care

and concern for this individual just absent from this situation? >> major franklin, what are your thoughts on how this is playing out on releasing a video on friday night, some people have said maybe should you have done it earlier in the day? is there a risk in that and the chief getting out there publicly and describing the unthinkable and unspeakable in many ways and saying how embarrassed and ashamed she is this happened on her watch, her department. >> yeah, john, first regarding the time line of the release, i think the chief also spoke to this and people have been questioning this decision but you want as few people out and about as possible, schools will be closed. many of your businesses will be closed. we're coming into the weekend. there will be less traffic, less people out and about. and better conditions for safety and better conditions for the police to get a handle on things hopefully, you know, things won't go awry. we talked about being optimistic and that's where we need to begin with this. i think her actions, her swift

actions and many police chiefs don't have the ability to fire people so quickly, but her swift actions, the investigation, how quickly that took place, the prosecutor moving very quickly on placing charges has a lot to do with the potential response from the citizens. i think it was benjamin crump who said this is a blueprint for how these things should be investigated when they occur so i think chief davis has done a wonderful job thus far in light of these circumstances and just real quick, she spoke about reducing the number of higher ranks in her department so she could put more first line supervisors on the street and i think we should talk about that later, but it's very important that police departments take a look at this strategy across the board because we have these young police officers who have a lot of power at their fingertips and you need good consistent

first line supervision. they're well trained. police officers are well trained. but we have to enforce that training through first line supervision. >> it's an excellent point and you know how to reach us so make sure we continue that conversation. today is obviously about the video and about the family. >> absolutely. >> and about the prosecution but we should continue that. elliot, one of the interesting things, the police chief here, we have murky information, vague information about how this played out but what we did have on the record was that there was some reckless driving and that was the initial -- the police were pulling mr. nichols over because of reckless driving. listen to the chief. she has seen the video and she obviously has access to information that we have not made public and she says she cannot even see the probable cause for that. >> we've looked at cameras. we've looked at cameras and even if something occurred prior to this, we've been unable to substantiate that at this time. >> so you haven't found anything to substantiate the probable

cause for reckless driving. >> not at this time. >> this is within a couple hundred feet of his home. >> that's right. that's right. >> there is no justification anyway for beating, pummeling, treating like a pinata as the family says any suspect under any circumstances but if this happened even without a predicate probable cause, what does that tell you? >> there's a few things going on. there were two different charges that the officers are facing related to official misconduct. set aside the violent crime that happened here which, of course, they're charging, but, you know, the prosecutor clearly has identified that something went wrong in how the police even conducted their jobs. there's also an indication that they were, i think, using elevated -- it was highly charged when they approached the vehicle in the first place. the fourth amendment which talks about searches and seizures says for the most part when you encounter a police officer you're free to go and this whole idea of creating that custodial situation where he clearly did

not feel he was free to go all plays into the legitimacy of the stop and plays into, number one, whether they should have been there in the first place and, two, the charges against the officers themselves so there's a lot going on here. i think, again, i don't want to speak before i see the video but i think there's improper conduct from the officers even outside of overstepping the bounds physically. >> shimon, as we wait to hear from ben crump, the attorney and from mr. nichols' parents, his mother and stepfather, i want to return to the point major franklin made. i want you to listen to ben crump. we'll see what he says at this event but mr. crump, we have seen horrific episodes of police violence against black americans. listen where he describes the blueprint point that major franklin said here is a department, yes, there's pain, yes, there's incredible anger but this one is different. listen. >> this is now the blueprint for america when you see officers committing crimes on video, then

you can't tell us that you got to go six month, you got to go a year, the tamir rice, the michael browns, ahmad -- all these cases took so long, philando castile, in memphis we have the blueprint that it can be done swiftly and efficiently. >> at these moments, you hear the litany of names everybody should ratemember, you have covered many if not most of those and been to uvalde and been through this. how does that make it different that the police department here, again, the family and everybody around this is mad, they are angry, they have pain but seem to have a somewhat different perspective because of how it's been handled? >> yeah, they definitely do seem to have that different perspective. one of the key things i think that the police and the authorities here have done so well is bringing the families into this very early on.

keeping them informed. telling them the d.a. yesterday saying, i spoke to the family about the charges that we were considering including them in that process showing them the video, telling them everything that was going on and not just anyone at the police department, you're talking the chief, the mayor, you're talking the district attorney, that is a very important thing to do any time you have families who are suffering like this who need information, keeping them informed and keeping them in the loop on what they were thinking and what they knew, i think, is one of the big differences in this and making them part of the decision and making them feel like they're part of every decision that the d.a. was doing, that the police were doing, they told the families we are going to be releasing this video, but we just need some time and what that does is then you can have the families come

out and talk and the attorney like ben crump come out and talk to the community and say, hey, this is what we are being told by the police. this is what we are being told by the authorities and we believe them and so you should believe them and so let this play out and let's keep the peace and we will get to a point where you will see this video and i think another important point in all of this, john, is because a lot of people are talking about this is should we see the video? should the video be out there because it's so horrific? the family is asking for this video to be out there. they feel it's important because it's about accountability. it's about making sure people realize that what happened here should never happen and should never happen again and in some cases the only way perhaps is to see the violence of this, that perhaps if people see this violence perhaps if people see what happened here maybe in some way it could prevent it because we've seen time and time again

where video was not released and it's problematic when it's not and i think even though we've had to wait 20 days ultimately i think the family, that's what's really so important here, john, the family. what are the family's desires and what are the family's wishes and i think the d.a. and the police have been doing that very well in meeting that. >> major frank lynn, help on that point and as you do, i want to listen to more from the chief and reinforce you know this, chief and have been in conversations with her and organizations you've been involved with talking about police reform after the litany of names and heard from ben crump. she's the chief of the memphis police department and her point is that here you have an example where, you know, the conduct in this case a handful of her police officers, she's hoping but she understands it might in the short term stain the vast majority of good cops out there, listen. >> we have all talked about police legitimacy, you know, and police reform and i think it's

really important that in instances like this when they are serious, when they are -- that they do arise to that level where person's constitutional rights have been violated. their civil rights have been violated that we act and we act swiftly. >> this is another episode in a conversation the country has been having for a couple of years. help me with your sense of the context. >> yeah, so acting and acting swiftly, so what we've seen is that acting at the managerial level, at the executive office level in what she has done in terminating these five police officers but how do we do that and push it down through the department and want other police officers to hear this, that we have to also act swiftly among the ranks in expelling those police officers who we know are problematic. the ones that we know use

excessive force. the ones that we know are corrupt. we need to do and show the public that we can do a better job, a much better job at policing ourselves, that's the way you gain trust from the community. that's the way you restore trust with these young people across the country. we have to do a better job at the lower ranks and not just expelling those but also the duty to intervene. after george floyd and seeing what happened there how can any police officer not intervene today when we have such an incident? i'm perplexed at that. >> from the descriptions of this video by those who have seen it we will be asking that question quite a bit with a lot of pain and graphic evidence to that question and want everybody to stand by. we're waiting to hear from tyre nichols' family, his mother and stepfather as well as their attorneys. we'll bring that to you live as soon as that happens but we'll step away for a quick break. (kathryn) now, after this year's event,

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breaking news we're waiting, moments away, we are told from a press conference in memphis, tennessee. the family of tyre nichols, his mother and his stepfather as well as their attorney benjamin crump. you see this happening right now. >> the grace and strength for them. >> let's just take you there live. >> be with attorney crump and his team as they labor for justice, be with the city as we deal with all of the news and deal with all that we have to deal with in days to come. god, we ask your blessings as we share today, we pray in jesus' name, amen. it is my delight to bring on again today attorney crump who is america's black attorney

general, a fighter for justice, a fighter for peace and we ask him to come at this time. give him a hand as he comes. [ applause ] >> thank you so much, pastor thomas, again, for allowing us to be in your cathedral. i'm attorney ben crump and along with attorney tony romanucci, attorney ernestine and attorney van turner who is also the president of the memphis chapter of the naacp, we are proud to represent the family of tyre nichols, also present with us, of course, is bishop williamson

who has been a steady faith leader for us in this ordeal as well as kareem ali who is a memphis nave tiff who is my investigator but also is a person in the community who even before the video came out, the community activists were saying that something isn't right about this so i want to thank all those community activists and all those who stood up for justice even before the cameras showed up. i think they deserve a big round of applause. we have the nclc president here as well. and obviously we have the people most affected by this tragedy who are showing such grace under

these tragic circumstances, that is the stepfather of tyre nichols, mr. rodney wells and the mother of tyre nichols, miss rowvaughn wells. [ applause ] we can never applaud you enough for your grace and dignity throughout this, so what are we here for today? at this hour, we're here to give our reaction to the charges that were announced by district attorney mulroy yesterday and to give remarks in anticipation of the last documentation of tyre

nichols alive on this earth so we begin with our reactions to the charges and we applaud the district attorney for bringing charges against the five officers for second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression. very important charges against these five officers. as pastor thomas refers, sometimes i'm referred to as black america's attorney general. [ applause ] and we stand on the principle of

equal justice, so let me be exceedingly clear on this point. when we look at how these five black officers who were caught on camera committing a crime and when we look at how fast the police chief and the police department terminated them and we look at how swiftly the district attorney brought charges against them in less than 20 days, then we want to proclaim that this is the blueprint going forward for any time any officers, whether they be black or white will be held accountable. no longer can you tell us we got

to wait six months to a year even though we got a video with evidence of the excessive force. no more can you tell us that anymore because with these five black officers, you all moved it swiftly and as the chief said, it was important for the community that they took swift action and that justice moves swiftly against these five officers who happen to be african american, well, when it's white officers, we think it's also important to the community that there is swift action. and that we move swiftly to justice. i mean, let's be honest, let's think about it. this is not the first time that we saw police officers

committing crime and engaging in excessive, brutal force against black people in america who are unarmed. but yet we have never seen swift justice like this, think about laquan mcdonald in chicago, illinois, when was that? over a year. >> 14 months. >> even though they had that video on day one, think about the video of eric garner in staten island, new york. how long it took. think about all these cases, on video in baton rouge. think go pamela turner, houston, texas, killed on video. took a year for them to bring charges in her case even though they had the video day one. think about ronald green in

louisiana. i mean, had that video from day one, took over a year to bring charges against him. i mean, so many -- my god. think about 14-year-old tamir rice on video and why justice didn't move swiftly for any of these black people when they were killed by white police officers so we have to make the point exceedingly clear, we now have the blueprint, america, and we won't accept less going forward in the future. we won't have black officers treated differently than white officers. we want equal justice under the law. tyre deserved it. tamir rice deserved it. ronald green deserved. alton sterling, pamela turner, eric garner deserved it.

i mean, being killed for riding a bicycle while being black in las vegas and yet the investigation is still going on over a year so we have a precedent that has been set here in memphis and we intend to hold this blueprint for all america from this day forward. [ applause ] now, also and you're going to hear from her, what grace and dignity for rowvaughn, tyre's mother. she said previously that she feels god used her son as an

assignment and bishop williamson, even though it's very, very painful and god knows it's tragic but she believes god used her son as an assignment. >> amen. >> and her and mr. wells said this assignment is for reform, reform that we can try to prevent some of these hashtags of black and brown people being unjustly killed by police. that we can create a tyre law >> that's right. >> here in tennessee. >> come on. that's it. >> that will be -- that will emphasize the importance of police officers, president turner, to have a duty to

intervene when they see crimes being committed even if those crimes are being committed by their fellow officers. >> that's it. >> that will be the appropriate legacy that we give tyre nichols if we really think we want justice for justice, it's not justice for one family. it's justice for all of us. that's what rowvaughn is praying for. she wants reform. we want this duty to intervene to become tyre's law, just like they have laws in the state of new york and for those who don't know that sister, we talked this morning, carrie ann was a black police officer. she witnessed one of her fellow officers brutalizing a black

citizen and she intervened and stopped them and got assaulted herself when she tried to stop him but because she intervened, she was retaliated against? and she was terminated and had to fight almost a decade long battle to get justice because they had no duty to intervene for police officers before her courageous act and the issue is, we have to make it official, we have to make it documented. we got to put it on the books, we have to have notice that police officers, you have a duty to intervene when you see a crime being committed. you expect the people to say something, well, why don't you show us how to do it? you go first when you see a

crime being committed and then people in our community will feel a lot more safe when they go intervene and say, we saw a crime. you want us to tell what we saw. well, you tell what you saw too. amen. >> amen. >> and so this is what miss rowvaughn and rodney and jamal and kiwayna and michael, his siblings, that's what they want. they want reform with these charges. now, before i bring attorney tony romanucci up to give some remark, before we bring the family, we want to underscore just two more points. number one, the fact that this unit had engaged in this type of

brutality before. it had used excessive force before. and we plan to make sure that is pointed out in a civil case. on behalf of tyre nichols. because as citizens have reached out to us and the family about this happened to them. there's a brother who said four or five days before this happened to tyre, that same scorpion unit confronted him. while he was in his car getting pizza and used profanity against him. they threw him on the ground talking about where the drugs and where the weapons and he

was -- they put a gun to his head. he said he called to the police department twice to internal affairs, twice and they never responded to him. if they would have responded to him, we might not be here today. we plan on making sure any citizen in memphis had to face the brutality of this scorpion organized crime unit will come forward. we had an older gentleman right, mr. reeves, 66 say he was confronted by this unit and he was brutalized and he had

pictures of his injuries and so it was foreseeable. it was foreseeable something tragic lie this would happen when you have police officers giving as attorney romanucci and our legal team discussed, not just immunity, but impunity to tramp on the constitutional rights of people who look a certain color who lived in a certain community. and so we believe that this was a pattern and practice and tyre is dead because that pattern and practice went unchecked by the people who were supposed to check that and i think we are so thankful to chief davis now, her leadership through this ordeal

should be applauded as an example for other police chiefs. and leadership. but we agree with her when she says policy means nothing if you have a culture. if that culture is rotten, you can make all the policy in the world, because the culture does not respect policy. we have to make sure that the culture not only respects the policy but the culture respects the community. and that is what we have to do if we're going to give tyre nichols the proper legacy and then finally, we think about as miss rowvaughn said they came to

her house and they told her she couldn't go to the hospital and it wasn't until 4:00 a.m. in the morning that the doctor called her. they told her that her son had been pepper sprayed and tased and that he was nearby. never told them where they were at and so we believe that we cannot allow anybody to ever cover up crimes against our loved ones in our community. it happens far too much in america and we have to have this conversation over and over and over again until it stops. we have to talk about this institutionalized police culture that has this unwritten law that you can engage in excessive use

of force against black and brown people. we have to have this conversation because this institutionized police culture that suggests you can do this to people in certain communities who look a certain way cannot be tolerated. it doesn't matter if the officers are black officers, a hispanic officer or a white officer, it is the culture that allows them to think they can do this to tyre, that they can do this to keenan anderson in los angeles, california. that they can do it to byron williams in las vegas. i mean, to come and attack a black man just for riding on a bicycle. it is the culture and we have to call out this culture every time we get a chance. we're going to call it out? >> yes.

>> call out the culture. >> call out the culture. >> call out the culture. >> all: call out the culture. >> call out the culture. >> all: call out the culture. >> we have to call out the culture and that has to be the conversation or those hashtags will continue to pile up quicker than we can keep up and the only way -- this is just the first steps to getting justice for tyre nichols. the only way we get full justice for tyre nichols is the institutionized police culture that is on trial today. and the only way we get justice for tyre nichols is if we call out this institutionalized police culture so we can get full justice for tyre nichols,

justice for tyre nichols. justice for tyre nichols. justice for tyre nichols. justice for tyre nichols. justice for tyre nichols. justice for tyre nichols. justice for tyre nichols. thank you all. >> thank you. >> now you're going to hear from a great lawyer who fights for civil rights all across america who i'm so proud to fight with yet again on the front line, my brother attorney tony romanucci will greet you and then we will continue on with the press conference. >> thank you, ladies and gentlemen. i do have a few points to cover today. we were here a few days ago. i have to lead from the top and

talk about these criminal charges. the gravity of the criminal charges and what it means not only to these officers to this city, state and our country. remember, this supposedly emanated from a traffic stop which turned deadly. and we talked about what we saw in the video when we were here before you, monday, that these were unmarked squad cars, not all officers in uniform. you can call this the scorpion unit if that's what you want to call it but what these really are because i do happen to have subject matter expertise on these cases, these are suppression units. these are saturation units and what they really turn out to be are oppression units. and what they do is they wind up oppressing the people that we care about the most, our children, our young sons and daughters who are black and

brown because they are the most vulnerable. make no mistake, tyre nichols at all times was an innocent victim on that night. he did nothing wrong. he was caught up in a sting. this scorpion unit was designed to saturate under the guise of crime fighting and what it wound up doing instead was creating a continual pattern and practice of bad behavior. as ben told you, there are others who are out there who had similar experiences and i will dare say that when we get all the records that we need that we will see a significant delta, a disparity between the use of force of the scorpion unit and that of the regular memphis police department and statistically on average across the country. and that is because the saturation units are given

whispered impunity, ben said it, not immunity, but whispered impunity in order to carry out their design. they can't collect guns, they can't find stolen cars unless they unwittingly trap innocent people in this web. therefore, we are asking chief davis to disband this scorpion unit effective immediately. immediately. [ applause ] the intent of the scorpion unit has now been corrupted. it cannot be brought back to center with any sense of morality and dignity and most importantly trust in this community. how will the community ever, ever trust a scorpion unit and

that's what we are asking for. the intent was good. the end result was a failure and we must recognize that and do something about it. and i call on all chiefs in this country to review their saturation units, to review their special squad units and disband them because they can easily become corrupted when they are told they are whispered in their ear, act with impunity. now, one of the charges is kidnapping. we're going to talk about the second-degree murder but think about the weight of a kidnapping charge being brought against officers who are wearing a badge, a shield carrying weapons on their duty belt, acting under the color of law.

when has that happened in this country, and part of the definition of kidnapping in the tennessee statute is that it's something that i'm going to give another analogy to. when you think of 9/11, what's the word that comes to mind? terrorism. when you think of other heinous acts that have happened in churches across this country, any act of terrorism, what does that instill in you? that, ladies and gentlemen, is the definition that we are dealing with here on this kidnapping charge. it is terrorism. it was designed to terrorize the victim. this young man by definition of the law in this state was terrorized. not by one, not by two but by five officers who we now know that the charges brought actually state that they acted

in concert with each other. they acted together as that pack of wolves to inflict harm, terrorism, oppression of liberty, oppression of constitutional rights which led to murder. i just talked about all the charges in nearly one sentence. that's how this case will be defined. this was an intentional act once those officers were there. they knew their actions would cause death and indeed it did. sadly it did. we will take questions at the end of this. but i do want to pick up on one thing that ben has said and if i may add, this is the spokesperson for civil rights this this country.

[ applause ] we want to know where are the unions? where does the fraternal order of police stand on this? we have not heard from you. we want to hear from you. we want to hear you say that what happened to tyre, what happened to this family should never ever happen again, that you condemn the brutality, the s savagery, terrorism, heinousness, the vulgarity of these actions and we should all stand for that. you don't have to be a police union. we all have to just have a soul and a heart. thank you. >> amen. [ applause ] >> thank you so much, attorney romanucci.

you know, one of the things that must be stated about the kidnapping charge, sara, when you all see this video, you're going to see tyre nichols calling out for his mom. he calls out three times for his mother. his last words on this earth is, mom, mom, mom. i mean, he's screaming for her and when you think about that kidnapping charge, he said i just want to go home. i mean, it's a traffic stop, for god's sake. a traffic stop. a simple traffic stop.

he's kidnapped for a simple traffic stop? >> think about that. supply -- i mean, this is such an important case. such an important case. and i continue to think about people like terrance crutchen, people who for simple things, having car trouble and they end up dead when they encounter the police. corey jones having car trouble and black people have simple encounters with police they end up dead. we don't hear about these things with our white brothers and sisters. we don't see the videos of the police doing the most with white citizens when they're routine simple matters.

and that's why we got to continue to speak to this police culture in america. it does get emotional because i know what you all are about to see, america, and as much as those five officers killed tyre nichols, it was the police culture in america that killed tyre nichols. >> that's right. >> so you're going to hear from our civil rights leader here in memphis. he's standing with many other great civil rights leaders, nclc and i know national urban league is also a great presence here in memphis, but we want to introduce to you one of our co-counsels who is a great civil rights leader here, our naacp president for the memphis chapter, attorney van turner. [ applause ]

>> justice for tyre. >> justice for tyre. >> justice for tyre. >> justice for tyre. >> justice for tyre. >> justice for tyre. >> my name is van turner. and i'm here for justice for tyre. i could really go take my seat after that. it's really that simple. there's not up else to say. we know the video will be horrific. we know that this happened at ral ralston reins. it was an area that i represented and we put cameras in that community to combat crime. little did we know we would be combating this type of criminal behavior as well. isn't that something? we put sky cop cameras up to

assist the police in fighting crime in our community and yet they come to commit the very same crimes that we're trying to fight against. but flglory be to god a camera s there to capture what happened. i'm here with my cohort, vicky, executive director. we fight together on -- for the cause of the naacp. know that president derrick johnson has sent his regards. he has sent his soldiers down from the national office of the naacp to stand next to this family. know that the naacp, national organization is standing with this family. we will fight to the end. we will fight with attorney ben crump. we will fight with this family. we will fight with push and we will fight with all those who are seeking justice for tyre. we want to thank pastor turner for opening up this church up again. thank pastor thomas. give him a hand. [ applause ] >> thank you. >> we want to thank all of these

here fighting for justice for tyre. i was at the candlelight vigil last night and it was such a beautiful look. all of memphis came together. folks you wouldn't think could come together came together in support of this family. and that's what we're going to do. we're going to stand united and peacefully protest but we're going to protest. we're going to make sure that policy is put forth and implemented correctly and we're going to make sure that tyre nichols did not die in vain. >> amen. >> we want to make sure he did not die in vain. we'll keep fighting for him and keep fighting for this family. y'all pray for this family. y'all pray for our city. tonight will be one of the toughest nights that we've ever experienced in this city but we will get through it. >> amen. >> we will get through it. >> amen. >> let's stick together. let's fight together. justice for tyre. >> justice for tyre. >> justice for tyre. >> justice for tyre. >> justice for tyre. >> justice for tyre.

>> thank you very much. >> thank you. >> miss vicky terry, the executive director of the naacp wants to say a brief word. >> good morning. i want miss wells to know she is not alone as a mother. i am a mother and i stand here with you, miss wells, proclaiming there will be a tyre nichols law in memphis, tennessee. if there is anything that i -- i am saying this today, we will fight together. we will support miss wells and the tyre nichols family. i was listening to her this morning and my heart was breaking right along with yours, miss wells, i was in tears all

morning because of what is going on in this city, because of what happened to tyre nichols, miss wells, i want to say, thank you for birthing tyre because he is the individual that is going to turn this city around. [ applause ] and ask -- as attorney crump said memphis is the blueprint for what is going to happen across the country. thank you so much, miss wells, we are here for you. as a mother, i am here and i promise to do what i said that i'm going to do and that is to make tyre nichols a law in this city. thank you. >> thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you so much, madam executive director.

they wanted first-degree murder. they were not bashful about that and when you see the video tonight you will understand that if this was your child, you would want first-degree murder too. but they are respectful and accepting of those charges that the district attorney brought and they will thank them in their own way. now you will hear from tyre's dad, his stepfather but as his mom and his brothers and sisters saying, that's his daddy. let's give a big round of applause for the man standing strong for his family, mr. rodney wells. [ applause ] >> thank you, everybody, for showing up. i just wanted to say that as mr. crump just stated, i did push for murder one from the

beginning. that was my main goal. but as the charges were told to us and they explained to us what the difference between murder one and murder two was, we're very satisfied with the charges. more importantly, we want peace. we do not want any type of uproar. we do not want any type of disturbance, we want peaceful protests, that's what the family wants. that's what the community wants. there are all kind of -- i got a text today from one of my supervisors, about an alert telling her don't be in crowds tonight. we shouldn't have that. we need to do this peacefully. [ applause ]

>> the family is very satisfied with the process, with the police chief, the d.a. they acted very, very quickly in this case. we are very, very pleased with that. >> yes. >> other cases drag on but this is a special case. we had a special son. >> that's right. >> that prompted the quickness of this results. so as of the tyre nichols family, please, please protest but protest safely. thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you so much, mr. rodney wells, and now we're going to hear from miss rowvaughn wells who just, you talking about dignity and grace personified.

said my son is an assignment from god. let that sink in. your son being sacrificed, his life so that we can have a greater chance at justice for all. >> that's right. >> miss rowvaughn wells will now address you. give her a big round of applause. [ applause ] >> hello. thank you all for coming and showing support for my family and my son. i really appreciate everything everyone is doing. my son is looking down smiling because, you know, it's funny, he always said he was going to be famous one day. i didn't know this is how he was going -- this is what he meant

but if -- ? take your time. take your time. >> i really don't know what else to say right now. i've said so many things in the last few days and really i want to say i've never seen the video. but what i've heard is very horrific. very horrific. and any of you who have children, please don't let them see it. >> ask for prayer and that'll be good. >> i just want to ask for prayer for my family, for this whole community and i want to say to the five police officers that murdered