ATLANTA — Reaction has taken off nationally and locally to the video of the traffic stop, pursuit and police beating of Tyre Nichols on Jan. 7 in Memphis. Nichols died from his injuries three days after the incident.
11Alive reached out to retired Fulton County Sheriff's Office Lieutenant Charles Rambo, President of the Georgia NAACP Gerald Griggs and Attorney Eric Fredrickson who specializes in police excessive force to get their reaction after each one watched the video released Friday night.
"I cannot believe that this would be happening, especially after the lessons of the past few years," explained attorney Eric Fredrickson who's with Harman Law Firm
Fredrickson said as an attorney who has watched thousands of hours of body camera video, he was still caught off-guard while watching the video of Nichols' arrest.
"I have to tell you, I'm also shocked," Fredrickson said.
A sentiment was shared by Gerald Griggs -- who is also an attorney. Griggs described the beating as "really brutal."
Both attorneys believe this isn't a one time thing within the Memphis Police Department.
"This seemed to me from the onset like this was regular course of conduct," Griggs explained. "I would not be surprised if this was not the first time that this has happened, because for you to be that comfortable with that level of aggression, that level of language, that level of force with a body camera rolling."
"There's no way that five officers could allow this to kind of stand by and participate in this kind of conduct if it's not a widespread cultural problem," Frederickson added.
Charles Rambo is a retired Lieutenant with the Fulton County Sheriff's Office and agrees with the attorneys.
"So for officers to continue to act above and beyond and you know that you're being recorded, you would have to go back and look at the culture," Rambo explained. "It comes back to, you know, the culture behaviors that are banned in principle but tolerated in practice."