Family of Tyre Nichols: Congress has ‘blood’ on its hands for holding up police reform

The family of Tyre Nichols said Congress is responsible for Black Americans who have died at the hands of police following inaction on police reform. 

In an emotional address to the press on Friday, RowVaughn Wells, Nichols’s mother, joined civil rights attorney Ben Crump, Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.) and other families who lost loved ones to police violence to demand why police reform has stalled. 

“Back in 2020 when George Floyd was killed in front of everyone’s eyes, in front of the world, we thought that because the world saw this that our babies would not die from police brutality again,” Wells said. “But three years later, my son Tyre Nichols was murdered by five Memphis police officers. He was beaten to death.”

“I want to say to Congress: All these kids and all our kids that are being murdered — their blood is on your hands.”

Three of the five former police officers involved in Nichols’s death are currently on trial in Memphis. 

Since the 2020 murder of Floyd, Democrats in the House have tried to pass sweeping police reform. The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act — which would make it easier for the federal government to successfully prosecute police misconduct cases, eliminate qualified immunity for law enforcement and ban the use of chokeholds and no-knock warrants — was amended to include the Tyre Nichols Duty to Intervene Act. 

But legislation has stalled repeatedly in Congress. 

“We haven’t had systematic police reform in the United States of America since Lyndon Baines Johnson’s Great Society legislation in the 1960s,” Crump said. 

Since at least the 1980s, and the beating of Rodney King, brutalized Black Americans have hoped for systematic police reform, he added. Instead, others including Floyd, Nichols and Michael Brown have since been killed. 

“I can only fathom, had we got that reform, how many families up here like Sonya Massey’s and others would have been spared their loved one becoming another hashtag?” Crump said. “How many more exhibits, America, do we have to give you before we have some reform on these officers?”

The Georgia Floyd Justice in Policing Act was reintroduced most recently this year by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), who died in July. 

Though it’s been unclear who will take up the mantle after Jackson Lee, Vice President Harris has vowed to sign the legislation if she wins in November. Horsford, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said that the caucus would come together to ensure the bill passes. 

“As chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, our message to the families is that we want all of you to know that we are still fighting, that we are still working and we will not stop fighting for you or the loss of your loved ones until the legislation is passed,” Horsford said.