Written statement, presented by the ADH at the Fifty-second session of the HRC-Agenda Item 9
ADH strongly condemns police violence against African American Tire Nichols
The victim, Tire Nichols was only 29 years old. And like a number of African Americans already, Tire Nichols died following a brutal arrest by police on January 7. According to relatives and their lawyers, the police beat him beyond recognition. The police’s own investigation concluded that the five officers involved had used excessive force. A drama that once again revives fears of racial tensions in the United States.
Mr President, on January 7, the police wanted to arrest Tire Nichols for a traffic violation. But indeed what happened was only a criminal act and absolutely appalling.
Mr President, US authorities are trying to calm the situation an announcing that the five police officers have been charged and jailed for murder following the death of Tire Nichols; however, since this was not just a professional error, but a lack of humanity, the possibility of such tragedies happening again cannot be denied. Racism and ethnic discrimination in the United States has been a major phenomenon since colonial times and the days of slavery; and even today we find that deadly police interventions have affected black people more.
It is unfortunate that since the death of George Floyd and after the death of yet another black person victim of police violence, the US Congress is still unable to pass police reform in the United States. a police reform bill, passed in the House of Representatives in 2021, stalled in the Senate.
The Human Rights Agency (ADH) strongly condemns the regular violence of American police against black people. We also call on the United Nations to take more serious action on behalf of victims of all kinds of racism in the United States.
