A Tennessee jury just handed down a verdict that’s sure to rile up the woke crowd: not guilty for three former Memphis cops in the Tyre Nichols case.
Breitbart reported that in a decision that cuts through the noise of activist outrage, Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, and Justin Smith were acquitted of charges like second-degree murder and aggravated assault after Nichols’ death in January 2023.
The story starts on January 7, 2023, when Memphis police pulled over 29-year-old Tyre Nichols for reckless driving around 8:30 p.m. Actions have consequences, and Nichols’ choice to resist sparked a confrontation.
Body camera footage shows officers shouting at Nichols to exit his car, peppering their commands with expletives. “I didn’t do anything,” Nichols protested, but resistance only escalated the chaos.
Nichols refused to lie on the ground, prompting one officer to deploy pepper spray. The spray hit another cop, who stepped back, fuming. The scene was a mess, not a scripted woke narrative.
A second altercation erupted at another intersection, where officers punched Nichols repeatedly. “Give us your hands,” one yelled, but Nichols’ defiance kept the situation spiraling.
Memphis officials released four videos—three from body cams, one from a street pole camera—showing the raw intensity of the stop. The footage doesn’t lie, but it doesn’t fit the tidy storylines of progressive crusaders either.
In the second clash, an officer, recovering from pepper spray, threatened to “baton the f*** out” of Nichols. While this was used as evidence of wrongdoing, it was far short of proving intent to murder Nichols.
Nichols was hospitalized after the incident and died three days later on January 10, 2023. The left screamed “systemic racism,” but the jury saw a more complex reality.
Five officers—Bean, Haley, Smith, Emmitt Martin III, and Desmond Mills Jr.—faced charges ranging from second-degree murder to official misconduct. Martin and Mills took plea deals, testifying in a 2024 federal trial, but the jury wasn’t buying the prosecution’s case against the other three.
After nine hours of deliberation, the jury acquitted Bean, Haley, and Smith. Nine hours isn’t a rush to judgment; it’s a rejection of emotional blackmail disguised as justice.
The charges included aggravated kidnapping and official oppression, but the jury found the evidence lacking. Maybe they saw what the mob refused to: policing is tough, and not every tragedy is a conspiracy.
The obvious overcharging by zealous prosecutors was another contributing factor in the jury throwing charges out. While manslaughter or negligent homicide may have resulted in a conviction, the prosecution attempted to create murder charges where none existed.
Martin and Mills, the two who pleaded guilty, fed the narrative by testifying against their former colleagues. Their deals scream pragmatism, not truth, yet the woke crowd laps it up.
“Stop,” Nichols said calmly at one point, but his later resistance fueled the fire. The left ignores this, cherry-picking quotes to paint a saintly victim and demonic cops.
This verdict isn’t a free pass for bad policing, but it’s a reality check for those who think every officer is a villain. Faith in facts over feelings won out, and that’s a win for traditional American justice.