This 50-person unit’s goal is to lower crime rates in specific neighborhoods.
However, it has now been abolished when Mr. Nichols, 29, was seen being beaten by its officers in footage from 7 January.
The unit should be permanently deactivated, according to a statement from the department.
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The statement went on to say that “although the horrible acts of a few throw a veil of dishonor on the title Scorpion, it is vital that we, the Memphis Police Department, take proactive steps in the healing process for all impacted.”
Tyre Nichols died tragically, therefore the judgment was “both reasonable and proportionate to the tragic death of Tyre Nichols, and also a decent and just decision for all people of Memphis,” according to a statement from Mr. Nichols’ family’s attorneys.
With an emphasis on high-impact crimes such as car thefts and gang-related offenses, the unit was established in October 2021.
The five cops, Justin Smith, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr., Tadarrius Bean, and Emmitt Martin III, were discharged last week.
Each is accused of second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct, and official oppression. They were both arrested on Thursday.
According to jail records, four of the five secured bonds and were freed from custody by Friday morning.
Martin and Mills’ attorneys have declared that their clients will enter a not-guilty plea.
In Memphis, a demonstrator shouted through a megaphone, “The unit that killed Tyre has been permanently disbanded,” and the audience cheered.
Less than 100 protesters had assembled in the square in front of the Memphis Police headquarters despite the rain to call for change to a policing system that they claimed routinely brutalizes black people in Memphis and around the nation.
One of the protest’s organizers, Casio Montez, said, “Memphis is taking a stance.” “This proves we’re on the right track,”
Mr. Montez said that unless “the community’s demands are satisfied,” including restructuring the department’s organized crime unit, he and other community organizers would keep up pressure on Memphis Police Chief CJ Davis and municipal authorities.
Chief Davis stated that the Scorpion team was established to be “more responsive” and “more proactive” to gun violence in the city in an interview with BBC News on Friday. She did, however, admit that the officers responsible for Tyre Nichols’ violent beating “decided to go off the rails.”
She explained, “We are evaluating each unit separately. “This is a necessary action. We want to be very open and honest with the neighborhood.
However, for some, the issue of police brutality is deeper entrenched than any change can resolve.
Allie Watkins, a Memphis local, carried a sign that read, “All cops uphold white supremacy,” at the march on Saturday.
She said that the sign is historically accurate because slave patrols were used at the beginning of American policing history.
The system has been set up to discriminate against black bodies, she continued, not that there is corruption in the United States. She continued by saying that if the system is flawed, the only solution is to start over.
Police initially said Mr. Nichols had been pulled over based on a reckless driving suspect, but this claim has now been refuted. Three days later, on January 10, he died in the hospital.
Both Mr. Nichols and the five cops accused in the case are black.
The Memphis Police Department released four violent recordings, totaling more than an hour of the film, showing the traffic stop and its violent aftermath on Friday.
Following the broadcast of the video, peaceful protests occurred in Memphis on Friday night, with some protesters blocking one of the city’s main thoroughfares. Smaller-scale protests also took place in other parts of the nation.
Numerous demonstrators carried signs calling for Mr. Nichols’ justice and an end to “police terror.”
Attorneys for Mr. Nichols’ family compared the assault to the beating by Los Angeles police in 1991 of motorist Rodney King.
