Nichols’ name’: React to Latest Case of Police Brutality

conversations among students, professors and members of the administration

graphic photographs of the protests that were made public.

“Without the press having documented what happened at Edmund Pettus Bridge, we might not have a Voting Rights Act,” she said.

Including Bloody Sunday, video evidence has been used in countless cases of police brutality, including the killings of King, Floyd in 2020 and now Nichols.

The widespread distribution of these violent images involving Black people can have negative mental repercussions for viewers.

Cuevas-Molina cited the “terrible psychological effects” Black people can face after seeing these videos repeatedly. She also mentioned the possible desensitization for the public after repeatedly watching these acts of violence. Despite these misgivings, she said that recorded evidence is important for enacting change.

“The truth is that mass media has been central to the advancement of civil rights,” she said.

does not prevent excessive force.

One of the first videotaped instances of police brutality was during the 1960s Civil Rights Movement on Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama. Protestors were attacked by police while they walked, unarmed, across the Edmund Pettus Bridge demanding the right to vote, something that was largely denied to the Black community at the time.

News outlets documented this attack, and the video was widely distributed.

Cuevas-Molina credited the passage of the 1964 Voting Rights Act, which happened nearly six months later, directly to the protest and, more specifically, to the ognizes the difficulty that comes with watching videos of police brutality and shared university resources at the bottom of the email, including Counseling and Psychological Services as well as Campus Ministry.

Rabbi Barat Ellman, professor of theology at Fordham Lincoln Center, and Perla noted that the video of Nichols was incredibly hard to watch and that they had to stop the recording multiple times.

Ellman noted that the videos have been important in highlighting disparities in policing across different communities, especially for individuals who do not live in overpoliced neighborhoods.

“It’s also been important from the standpoint of prosecution of policing, but there’s a lot of work to do in that direction,” she said.

Gianna McGrath, Gabelli School of Business at Lincoln Center ’25, praised the university for issuing an official statement and providing resources to students who may need support. She also mentioned how Fordham is consistent with releasing some form of correspondence during moments of political or social unrest.

“It shows that they’re aware of everything happening in the world,” she said. “Fordham is usually good about issuing statements whenever something like this happens, in terms of an attack against certain communities.”

Despite the university’s issuance of a statement, McGrath noted that she wished the school would have done more in recognizing police brutality as an act of aggression and racism and offering support specifically for students of color.

A few days later, FCLC Dean Laura Auricchio included her own reaction in her newsletter on Feb. 1.

“On this first day of Black History Month I write with mixed emotions — jubilation for triumphs, solemnity and gratitude for past and present struggles and sacrifices, and searing grief in the wake of the beating death of Tyre Nichols,” she said.

Auricchio also referenced a statement from University President Tania Tetlow, J.D., that had been posted via Twitter on Jan. 27. The president expressed her reaction to the news and the video.

“Like you, I have seen the video of the Memphis police officers charged with murdering Tyre Nichols, and like you, I am watching the protests in Memphis and elsewhere with anxious prayers — for change, for justice, for basic human dignity,” Tetlow said.

Members of the Memphis community gathered to attend Nichols’ funeral on Feb. 1. Close relatives of other victims of police brutality were also in attendance. Philonise Floyd, George Floyd’s brother; Tamika Palmer, the mother of Breonna Taylor, who was fatally shot in Louisville; and the mother of Eric Garner, who died in a choke hold on Staten Island, were among those who were present. The arraignment date for the officers charged with second-degree murder is set for Feb. 17.

Alexa Villatoro contributed additional reporting to this story.

Jeffrey Gray, senior vice president for student affairs, sent a statement to members of the university community on Jan. 27 in response to the murder of Nichols. He noted that there is a collective focus on the events unfolding in Memphis and the video documenting the beating.

“As a university, we work hard to find the answers to the world’s terrible problems and to gain the tools we need to go out and make a difference,” Gray said. He also noted that he rec-