MEMPHIS: About 50 protesters gather Friday night Jan. 27 in Memphis, the southern United States, demanding justice after a video released by police shows the arrest of Tyre Nichols, a young black man who died a few days after the incident.
They headed to Martyrs Park in the centre of Memphis, where they waved signs reading Justice for Tyre and End police terror.
Five police officers were charged with second-degree murder in the beating of the 29-year-old, who died in a Memphis hospital on January 10, three days after being stopped on suspicion of reckless driving.
On Friday, the few dozen protesters chanting No Justice, no peace managed to block a major road in the city, causing traffic jams.
The procession continued on to a bridge crossing the Mississippi River.
Who is the bridge? An activist with a megaphone shouted, Our bridge came the reply from the crowd.
Monica Johnson, a community organizer from Atlanta, said it was sick that all of the accused policemen were black, an anomaly among recent high-profile killings of black men, which often involve white officers.
But it doesn't surprise me, because we've seen for years and for decades that black people have done the same thing, and served the same system of white supremacy and capital, the 24 year-old said.
She said the protesters wanted accountability, conviction for all cops involved and a stop to the police making those traffic stops where they kill people. "There is no good cop," said LJ Abraham, a community organizer in Memphis.
She said they're hired to protect us and serve - they're failing across the country, and to say'murder' is the proper word to describe what happened, he was murdered.