GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Feb. 1, 2023, 29-year-old Tyre Nichols was laid to rest.
Nichols died after a beating at the hands of five Memphis police officers.
Body camera footage and surveillance video capturing the incident were highly anticipated and demanded by members of the public. It's more than 30 minutes of graphic video.
Now, activists in Grand Rapids say this is an all-too-familiar feeling. Less than one year ago, members of the Grand Rapids community demanded the video be released of the shooting death of Patrick Lyoya at the hands of former Grand Rapids Police Officer Christopher Schurr.
Pew Research coined the term "Linked Fate" to describe the sentiment, a specific type of trauma that uniquely affects Black Americans. It comes from witnessing members of your own ethnic group continually witness hardships.
“I’m so tired of it being normalized, like, 'Oh yeah, did you see the Tyre Nichols video?' Like it’s a music video. It’s never going to be normal. It’s never going to be normal,” local activist Aly said.
Psychologist with Corewell Health Adelle Cadieux says coping with repeated collective trauma is tough on an entire community.
She adds it's okay not to watch the video depicting Nichols's death.
“Not only are we talking about the tragedy but now we have the graphic details, those visuals that come up into our memory. That can be very hard to process and cope with,” she says.
“This is a horrible tragedy that none of us wants to cope with. But unfortunately, as a society, we need to do something. We need to address them,” Cadieux said.
Cadieux says being involved in conversations around creating change can help create a sense of power when many feel powerless to stop the depictions of Nichols's death circulating online. Dr. Cadieux says the trauma is compounded, as these types of incidents are happening more frequently in recent years.
“An entire community feels that energy. It’s not a good feeling to know that someone you could have passed by any day of your life is no longer here. No longer here because of law enforcement, law enforcement that is supposed to protect and serve us,” Aly said.
