FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 27, 2023
CONTACTS:
Joshua Stickney, Ella Baker Center
joshua@ellabakercenter.org, 405-315-4151
Ashley Chambers, Ella Baker Center
ashley@ellabakercenter.org, 510-285-8227
Ella Baker Center Responds to the Brutal Murder of Tyre Nichols; Calls for Community Care, Not Cops.
OAKLAND — In response to the release of a video showing the brutal beating of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year old who died from his injuries, by five officers in the Memphis Police Department, the Ella Baker Center released the following statement from Executive Director Marlene Sanchez:
“We send love and solidarity to the family of Tyre Nichols and the community in Memphis, Tennessee who are living through an unbearable moment of grief and tragedy. Let’s be clear: the police murdered Tyre Nichols. Along with our movement partners across the country, we denounce the very foundations on which America’s policing system was built — to surveil, harm, and take Black lives. We don’t need a video to know that the police have no regard for our humanity.
“The trauma and systemic harm that Black and Brown communities face every day continues to be a costly burden. Tyre Nichols is a son, brother, nephew, father and a friend whose life mattered. The countless lives that have been lost by state-sanctioned violence matter.
“We know that cops and policing have never kept us safe. True safety has always been found in community care, not in police patrolling our streets. We call for our leaders to divest from police and the systems that harm our communities, and invest in what heals us. Safety is found in solutions like living-wage jobs, affordable healthcare and housing, funding for education and youth programs, in healing practices.
“This is a moment for us to come together in community to create spaces for love, grief, healing, action, and true safety.
“Many in the Ella Baker Center community will join the Anti Police-Terror Project and folks from across the Bay Area on Sunday at Oscar Grant Plaza to collectively mourn and take action in pursuit of justice for Tyre Nichols. We urge those who are able to show up, know their rights, and demand justice.”
More information on Sunday’s rally can be found HERE.
###