Protests erupt across US as video shows ‘heinous’ deadly police beating

Protests broke out across the country late Friday after the release of police bodycam footage showing the “unconscionable” deadly beating of Tyre Nichols by Memphis cops.

Crowds flocked to the streets in major cities over the explosive video, which Memphis’ police commissioner warned had showed “acts that defy humanity.”

In Memphis, about 300 protesters charged the Memphis and Arkansas Bridge shortly after the police department released the graphic footage Friday night and shut down all four lanes of the roadway.

The group had started the takeover on the Blues Highway, where they briefly congregated to chant Nichols’ name as they stopped to chant, “Our streets,” a move that forces a semi-truck to brake just a few feet from the protestors, Town Hall reported. 

The protesters then climbed the sloped grass to the upper level of Interstate 55, where they caused a major backup of hundreds of vehicles on the major thoroughfare.

The protesters stood in front of the cars and semi-trucks with their arms raised in a surrender signal as an irritated driver honks, video shows.

The driver of a semi-truck, the first stopped by the group, told the Daily Caller he empathized with the movement, but had a hard day of work and just wanted to pass.”

Holding up traffic don’t do nothing,” he told a protester. “Then what do we do, bro?” the protester responded.

But another truck driver, off-duty and Memphis-based, was in the streets with the protesters.

“I have to be here for Tyre,” Marcus Randolph, 48, told The Post.

“The beating of a helpless man. He was in handcuffs. You see the handcuffs? He was in handcuffs the whole time. They kicked him in these handcuffs and he was on the ground with two other officers on top of him.”

Kim Jackson, a 53-year-old mother of three, said she was at home when she saw the video and was inspired to join the demonstration.

“I was thinking I gotta stand today or it will be my children or grandchildren laying on the ground dying tomorrow if it doesn’t change,” she said, holding a sign that read, “Nothing new. This is what the boys in blue do.”

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Though the Memphis demonstration were largely peaceful — in accordance with the wishes of Nichols’ grieving mother — some protesters questioned why the family didn’t want more anarchy.

“I don’t agree with the family. They call for peaceful protests…but when do we start fighting? When do we take action?” Danny Gatewood, 47, said.

“I pray for the family. But I believe if that happened to my son I wouldn’t be calling for peace,” the local business owner and father of two added.

“The scripture calls for an eye for an eye.”

Police advised all drivers to avoid the area, adding that “police activity is present.”

The city’s schools, the city power company’s community offices and the University of Memphis had closed early Friday in preparation for the protests, with many Saturday events in the city also scrapped.

Other protests were organized in New York City, as well as Sacramento, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Philadelphia and Seattle, with police at the ready for potential violence.

The White House said it held a joint emergency call Friday with the mayors of at least 16 cities before the sickening video’s release “to brief them on federal preparations in support of state and local leaders.

“Participating mayors shared their perspectives on how important it is to recognize the pain felt by communities across this country, be prepared in advance with a game plan to provide adequate community support, and to reinforce the importance of peace and calm during these difficult moments,” the Biden administration said in a statement about the call, which included cities from New York to Atlanta, Washington, DC, Seattle and Portland.

As people started gathering in New York City on Friday, Mayor Eric Adams warned, “If you need to express your anger and outrage, do so peacefully.

“The message to the NYPD has been and will continue to be to exercise restraint,” the former cop added, referring to complaints that officers have inflamed previous protests involving such issues as police brutality.

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In Portland — where rioters torched buildings in almost endless anarchy throughout 2020 — ANTIFA members were planning for a ‘VERY long weekend,” according to messages shared by author Andy Ngo.

The city’s violent protesters have helped lead the country’s radical “Defund the Police” movement, which includes those calling for whole cop departments to be dismantled.

‘EVERY SINGLE MURDER caused by police should ignite within us a rage that is unstoppable,” said one message about Nichols’ death.

“The cops should fear us. We have been too quiet. Too peaceful. Too passive.

Read more of The Post’s coverage of Tyre Nichols’ beating death

“The fires need to burn.”

Another person predicted that “if the video is as bad as they make it seem, this will ignite a whole new uprising. And it should.”

California Highway Patrol officers were put on alert in The Golden State, and Sacramento’s local chapter of the NAACP organized a gathering to watch the video release together. The California city is where Nichols lived for years before his family moved to Tennessee.

Protesters gathered to watch the video together outside the California State Capitol building before launching into “No Justice, No Peace” callback chants.

One of the leading protesters was Stevante Clark, a social justice leader who has been active since his brother was killed by police in 2018, Sacramento Bee reported.

A similar gathering took place in San Francisco. 

There was a heavy police presence surrounding Philadelphia’s City Hall Friday as protesters marched down the streets that the force had blocked off in preparation, according to KYW.

The outrage came as Atlanta was already under a state of emergency after the Jan. 18 killing by authorities of an environmental activist said to have shot a state trooper. Protesters previously set a police cruiser on fire and thrown rocks and lit fireworks in front of a skyscraper that houses the Atlanta Police Foundation. 

Protests in the city were mostly peaceful following the disturbing video’s release.

Roughly 40 people with posters of Nichols’ name — and some of Breonna Taylor — gathered on a city corner to call for justice, Atlanta News First said. 

“And if we don’t get it?” a chant leader asked.

“Shut it down!” responders said.

Officials signaled for days that the Nichols video would likely spark an uprising of anger of the kind not seen since after the 2020 murder of George Floyd under the knee of a cowardly Minneapolis cop. Unlike in that case, the five Memphis cops charged with murdering Nichols are all black, as he was.

Memphis’ top cop, Cerelyn Davis, on Friday compared her officers’ “heinous” actions to the notorious beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles cops in 1991, which sparked some of the worst riots the country has ever seen.

On Wednesday — two days before the release of the shocking video of Nichols’ police-brutality death — Davis said she expected people “to exercise their First Amendment right to protest, to demand action and results” after seeing the “heinous” footage.

“But we need to ensure our community is safe in this process. None of this is a calling card for inciting violence or destruction on our community or our citizens,” she said.

In Memphis schools, the city power company’s community offices and the University of Memphis were among the groups to close early on Friday, with many Saturday events in the city also scrapped.

Nichols’ mom has also begged people to “protest peacefully.

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“It’s going to be horrific, but I want each and every one of you to protest in peace,” RowVaughn Wells said at a vigil for her son Thursday, referring to the video.

“I don’t want us burning up our cities, tearing up the streets, because that’s not what my son stood for,” she pleaded.

President Biden also has personally tried to get ahead of the expected anger with a call for peace.

“Outrage is understandable, but violence is never acceptable,” the commander-in-chief said earlier in the week. “Violence is destructive and against the law. It has no place in peaceful protests seeking justice.”

In New York, several demonstrators erupted across Manhattan. The protests appeared peaceful, but Black Lives Matter leader, Hawk Newsome, warned that violence isn’t off the table.

NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell had told The Post that her officers were at the ready, with unplanned time off scrapped through the weekend

 “The NYPD is capable of making sure that people are free to exercise their constitutional rights. But we will not tolerate vandalism or criminality or disorder. We just won’t,” Sewell said.

“We cannot have them engage in disorder. We just can’t,” she stressed.

Similar plans were being made in DC, where the Metropolitan Police Department warned it “will not tolerate any unlawful behavior during First Amendment demonstrations.”