Remembering Tyre Nichols and all those lost to police violence
Tyre Nichols was a 29-year-old father and son who was stopped by Memphis police on his way home on January 6, 2023. On a night when he should have come home to see his mother and 4-year-old son, he was instead beaten severely by five police officers during what was supposed to be a traffic stop. Tyre died three days later from his injuries. It is especially difficult for our community when there is news of yet another police killing. Our community is all too familiar with this particular form of violence. As survivors on the team have shared, "We are all Tyre Nichols".
We have so much admiration and gratitude for survivors and for our mothers of the movement: the ones who have gone through unimaginable pain and continue to fight every single day. We love you and we will continue to fight for and create a world where no mother will have to lose a child to state violence.
We remember and honor RonnieMan Johnson, Archie Lee Chambers, Pierre Loury, Tyre Nichols, Keenan Anderson, Manny Tortuguita Téran, Murray Hooper, and all those that we have lost to police and state violence.
On February 6, we held a healing circle for our community of survivors and system-impacted folks to collectively grieve. After a night of sharing incredibly difficult stories and holding the heavy feelings that come with grief, we closed with a prompt for collective dreaming: "Dream of a world that is free from police violence. What does it look like?"
Here are a few responses to the prompt that are now posted on the walls of our community room. They serve as reminders of the world we are working towards.
“Black people could feel safe, walk with dignity, knowing that Black humanity was not under the ever present possibility of police violence, terror and murder”
“No killing of our young Black-n-Brown kids
No broken hearted mothers”
“The world would look like a community on a journey to heal. An expression of governing by community based off a system to heal + restore.”
“A lot of people would be alive and a lot less walking wounded. We would have a world with less trauma and less terror. ”
“Peace and safety for everyone”
“The world would look/feel like a Whitney Houston song (young Whitney)”
“People (specifically black & brown ones) would have the opportunity to live their lives, to grow, change, make mistakes, & learn new ways of being without constant fear of death. There would be new forms of justice that help people to change instead of killing them or locking them away”
