There have been protests from Memphis to Newark, with disgust and outrage at video of a police beating so severe many have chosen not to even watch. On Friday, police body camera footage was released that captured the violent and fatal beating by five Memphis police officers of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols. On Monday, a sixth police officer was relieved of duty in connection with the death of Nichols but hasn’t been charged as the investigation continues.

“It was this generation’s Rodney King video, if you will,” said Jason Williams, Associate Professor in Justice Studies at Montclair State University. “Going all the way back to George Floyd and Michael Brown and even some of the other cases that have come along the way, we often refer to community policing as the fix, or changes in training and so forth. And even though that may have happened in certain instances, you know, where training has gotten better and they’ve tightened some of the procedural issues and what not, we still continue to see case after case of police malpractice, brutality and even murder,” Williams said. “The institution is inherently anti-Black, and the institution inherently trains and encourages this type of behavior.”

Gov. Phil Murphy Monday added his voice to the outrage. “All Americans deserve to be treated fairly and with dignity by law enforcement, particularly Black Americans, who for far too long have received disparate treatment by our criminal justice system,” he said.