SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Local leaders are reacting to the graphic video of former Sacramentan Tyre Nichols being beaten by five Memphis officers.
Both former Sacramento Police Department Chief Daniel Hahn and community advocate Berry Accius are expecting strong reactions from the Sacramento community and that his death will be an instrument of change.
“There's a lot of people right now, just here in Sacramento, that haven't got any bit of comfort or resolve in their issues,” said Accius.
The Nichols family is calling for peace, but Hahn says he is expecting protests which were seen at the capitol, Friday.
“People are angry. And at the root of that is trust in law enforcement and other governmental entities,” said Hahn. “Protests have changed this country in more ways than one throughout history.”
Accius believes the horrific nature of this incident is the main driver of why the department was so quick to action, but race cannot be overlooked.
“Yeah, [these officers are] expendable. They have now truly realized that they don't bleed blue, they are black,” said Accius.
Hahn echoes this sentiment, saying “race is a big issue in this country,” and an act like this “brings up all sorts of emotions.”
In a press conference Friday morning, Attorney Ben Crump says the swift response and action against the officers should be the new “blueprint” for how incidents are handled.
We asked how realistic seeing a change in Sacramento could be.
“But in any of these incidents, none of them are the same. So to say you're going to do the exact same thing on each incident is not realistic,” said Hahn.
“The same energy and the swiftness of action to fire, and also relieve them of their duties without pay, we want to see that with other officers that are white when this thing happens," said Accius.
While Hahn acknowledged the dangerous nature of a job in law enforcement, he says this was not one of those situations.
“This doesn't sound like it was a split second decision where I have to decide whether that person is trying to kill me or not with a gun,” said Hahn. “This is a situation where people physically fought with somebody to the point that they died.”
“You said, ‘I want to work as a law enforcement officer.’ I never said I wanted to be Black, I just came Black,” said Accius.
