Chattanooga demonstrators call for abolition of police, not reform, following Tyre Nichols killing

Staff Photo by Olivia Ross / Individuals gather on the steps leading to City Hall. The group Concerned Citizens for Justice organized The People's Rally to End Police Terrorism outside of Chattanooga's City Hall on Tuesday in response to the death of Tyre Nichols in Memphis and others. Staff Photo by Olivia Ross / Individuals gather on the steps leading to City Hall. The group Concerned Citizens for Justice organized The People's Rally to End Police Terrorism outside of Chattanooga's City Hall on Tuesday in response to the death of Tyre Nichols in Memphis and others.

By Ellen Gerst February 7, 2023 5 min read

Around 60 people demonstrated outside a Chattanooga City Council meeting Tuesday, calling for the abolition of police and prisons following the police killing of Tyre Nichols in Memphis last month.

“This heinous act of state-sanctioned violence must be viewed not in isolation, but part of a longstanding history of police violence against Black people in Memphis, across the state of Tennessee and the entire country,” the Rev. Charlotte Williams of Eastdale Village Community United Methodist Church said.

The rally was organized by the Chattanooga activist group Concerned Citizens for Justice, which formed in 1984 and revived in 2012 following the killing of Trayvon Martin in Florida.

“We believe that police and prisons do not belong in a just world,” group member Ayana Clemmons said. “We do not believe in reform. We want abolition.”