Van Jones on Tyre Nichols Video: Cops Were Brutal, Inhumane

Friday on Anderson Cooper 360, CNN contributor Van Jones said that “a dog being beaten” would’ve gotten more help, referring to video released by the Memphis Police Department showing the police beating of Tyre Nichols, who died days afterward.

Jones said, “Brutal, inhumane, unacceptable, unjustifiable. I mean, he’s just now getting attention. A dog being beaten would have been helped by somebody at this point. Also, you know, talk about the images. The voices are so telling. Tyre’s voice, the first time you hear him, he’s calm. He’s trying to calm the police down. He’s saying, all right, all right, all right. He goes from a voice of reason and calm. They are so brutal toward him that he runs. The next time you hear him, went from calm to panicked. Ma, Ma, Ma, Ma, Ma! Screaming for his mother. He’s a hundred yards from his house, hoping that somebody can help him. And then he goes from a voice of calm to panic to agony, completely incoherent. Unable to form a word. You watch this deterioration of a human being.”

He continued, “And then the cops’ voices, profane, ‘I hope they stomp his ass,’ unbelievable level of viciousness. And the only sympathy is for themselves. Because they’re so busy pepper-spraying him, they’re pepper-spraying each other. Look at the reaction of the police to the pepper spray. They can’t stand the burning, the sensation. They need help from each other, and yet it’s continuing for someone else and no aid to someone else who got the full force of the pepper spray.”

Jones added, “So even if you didn’t see these images, just the voice of Tyre, you can tell that he was — the only calm person at the beginning. At the end, he can’t even form a word. This is disgusting, it’s despicable, it’s inhumane, it is shocking. It’s as bad as people said, but even if you can’t see it, you could hear the inhumanity here.”