Biden: Police departments that 'violate the public trust must be held accountable'

With the parents of Tyre Nichols sitting in the audience, President Biden discussed their son's death during his State of the Union address on Tuesday, asking lawmakers to "imagine if you lost their child at the hands of the law, imagine having to worry if your son or daughter came home from walking down the street, playing in the park, or just driving a car."

Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, died in January after he was beaten by Memphis police officers. His mother, RowVaughn Wells, and stepfather, Rodney Wells, were guests of first lady Jill Biden. After introducing them, the president said that most of the people in the chamber "have never had to have the talk, the talk that brown and Black parents have had to have with their children. We've never had to tell them if a police officer pulls you over, turn your interior lights on right away, don't reach for your license, keep your hands on the steering wheel. Imagine having to worry like that every single time your kid got in a car."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.