Thirty-two years after the videotape of the vicious beating of Rodney King by nightstick wielding police officers in Los Angeles, the incident involving Tyre Nichols has reignited the issue of police brutality against Black people. Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, died after Memphis police officers punched, kicked and pepper sprayed him following a traffic stop on January 7. He was unarmed and was not resisting the five African American officers he encountered. Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr, Emmitt Martin III, and Justin Smith have all been fired and charged with murder, as of last week. Three EMTs who responded to the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols were fired Monday (Jan. 30) after an internal investigation, the Memphis Fire Department said. Robert Long, JaMichael Sandridge and Lt. Michelle Whitaker were found to have violated multiple department policies and protocols in their patient response to Nichols on Jan. 7, the fire department said in a statement. Further, along with the five officers charged with the brutal beating of Nichols, Memphis Police Department (MPD) announced on Monday that Officer Preston Hemphill, who is white, had been relieved of his duties shortly after Nichols' January 7 arrest. A seventh officer has also been relieved—but that officer was not named and the role played in the incident was not specified. Peaceful protests around the country have taken place, including Hampton Roads in response to the video of Nichols’ encounter with the police. Nichols’ mother, RowVaughn Wells, told CNN on Friday before the videos were released: “I’m still trying to understand all of this and trying to wrap my head around all of this,” Wells said. “I don’t have my baby. I’ll never have my baby again.” Former Norfolk Police Chief Larry Boone, the Law Enforcement Analyst for News Channel 3, said along with those currently identified, up to 12 “officers may be terminated.”  “De-escalation was not part of the narrative” from what he saw in the video released to the public, he said. Boone said “to his credit Nichols tried to de-escalate the situation... asking them what did he do. At one point you can see fear in his face and then he takes off.” The inability of any of the officers to stop or lend assistance to Nichols was “highly unprofessional...they come off as thugs,” Boone said.   Created in 2021, some of the officers were part of the SCORPION unit— Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods. It was formed to respond to the rising property and violent crime in the city and now has been disbanded. The New York Times and other news agencies analyzed the video based on footage from police body cams and street cameras mounted on a pole where the beating took place. The video reveals the officers directed a barrage of commands at Nichols that were confusing, conflicting, sometimes simultaneous, and impossible to obey. When Nichols could not comply — and even when he managed to — the officers responded with escalating force. The Times’ analysis of the available footage fo