MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Hundreds of people protesting Tyre Nichols' death were vindicated on Saturday as the Memphis Police Department issued a statement disbanding the SCORPION — Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods — unit.
The protests were organized as a response to Friday's release of a police video which showed Nichols' ultimately fatal beating at the hands of police.
As the crowds made their way through Downtown Memphis under cold and gloomy skies, the news of SCORPION's disbanding was enough to warm some of the protest's participants.
"That sounds like a win to me," said one protester. "That sounds like a win to me. Now let's keep it going."
Still, some said disbanding SCORPION isn't enough.
"We want the whole OCU abolished," one man said. "Everything up under the umbrella of the OCU, or organized crime unit, hey, we want it abolished. SCORPION Unit — that's cool. That's a start. They're letting us know we're doing something right. We gotta abolish the whole process — from the top to the bottom, and it's just that simple."
He encouraged those who showed up Saturday to also make their feelings known at the city's upcoming council meeting.
"This ain't gonna be a repeat of 2020 and all them other years that we been out in these streets just makin' noise and no results come," said another protest organizer. "We are going to keep moving and pressuring and applying pressure until everything that we ask for — everything that this family asks for — is given. We ain't gonna stop."
Marching for Tyre
One protest, which began at 17 N. Main St., was organized by DeCarcerate Memphis. Another by the Memphis chapter of Black Lives Matter. Both featured people from all walks of life as they emotionally demanded answers and change.
Some even joined the protest after seeing it make its way through the streets.
Tekeria Blue and her family were seeing Shen Yun at the Cannon Center for the Performing Arts when they noticed the march during a break.
"They had paused [the march] for a minute," her mother said. "We saw this goin' on and we was like 'Let's leave, y'all, and go protest. Let's go protest.' So, to be a part of this and for them to experience it."
Despite being dressed for a more formal event, the 10-year-old joined the march.
"I came out here to protest for Tyre Nichols because it was very wrong what them cops had did and it was unacceptable," she said. "And we just came down here — Downtown Memphis — to protest for his justice."
As protesters made their way through the streets, they took a moment to stop at the corner of N. Second Street and Adams Avenue, near the Fire Museum of Memphis, and call for Memphis Fire Department Chief Gina Sweat to answer for her department's possible role in Nichols' death.
Memphis FD under fire
Two firefighters were relieved of duty Friday as the department looks into how or whether its officers played a role in the case, but for one protest organizer, the day she'd protest the fire department was a day she never saw coming.
"I wanna tell you how I feel about the fire department," she said into the loudspeaker. "I love them. I lost everything. Never in a million years would I think of protesting the fire department. The police and the fire department showed up, and I told them to tell the police to get the [expletive] back."
She told the crowd the fire department helped her when her house burned in 2020, and that this case has left her lost to the extent that she didn't even have a protest chant ready for the fire department. Still, that wouldn't stop her from demanding justice from them as well.
"We are gonna hold the fire department responsible, too," she said. "No one is exempt."
As the crowd made its way down N. Main Street, it was clearly moved as it chanted Nichols' name and declared Memphis' streets "Our Streets."
"I'm from Memphis and I care about this city," said another protest participant whose voice wavered as she spoke. "And I care about the people here. Something like this should never happen to anybody."