‘Do we need to see white people also get beat?’: asks Whoopi Goldberg after Tyre Nichols’ death

The View host Whoopi Goldberg has weighed into the row surrounding Tyre Nichols’ death, asking if we ‘need to see white people get beat’ before changes are made to policing. 

Goldberg insisted she was not inciting violence with her point – after the 29-year-old black man was beaten to death by cops – but did call for meaningful police reform. 

Nichols’ death sparked outrage across the world after graphic bodycam footage showed him being fatally beaten by five police officers in Memphis while repeatedly crying out for his mother earlier this month.

His parents also appeared on The View on Monday to pay tribute to their son who touched everybody he knew ‘in a positive way.’

The father and keen skateboarder had been pulled over for suspected ‘reckless driving’ on Jan 7. He died in hospital three days after his attack.

Activists have drawn comparisons between his death and those of George Floyd and Elijah McClain – both black men also killed at the hands of American cops.

Speaking on The View on Monday morning, Goldberg questioned whether seeing white people being beaten by officers would move the debate forward. 

‘I’m not suggesting that. So don’t write us and tell me what a racist I am,’ she added.

‘I’m just asking is that what people have to see in order to wake up and realize this affects us all?’

The 67-year-old presenter called for police reform ‘from the ground up’.

She added:  ‘Clearly it doesn’t matter if it’s a white policeman or black policeman. It is a problem in the policing itself. 

‘It seems things don’t seem to make sense to people unless it’s somebody they can feel or they can recognize.’

Five officers have been charged with second-degree murder of Nichols, who died in hospital three days after the attack, and fired from the force.

Horrific bodycam footage showed the FedEx worker being beaten for three minutes while officers screamed profanities at him.

Nichols calls out for his mother before his limp body is propped against a squad car while the officers exchange fist-bumps.

After the first officer roughly pulls Nichols out of a car, Nichols can be heard saying, ‘I didn’t do anything,’ as a group of officers begins to wrestle him to the ground.

One officer is heard yelling, ‘Tase him! Tase him!’

Nichols calmly says, ‘OK, I’m on the ground.’

‘You guys are really doing a lot right now,’ Nichols says. ‘I’m just trying to go home.’

Memphis police chief Cerelyn ‘CJ’ Davis said she had never witnessed anything so devastating in her career. 

Meanwhile Benjamin Crump, the attorney representing the Nichols family, said the victim was treated like a ‘human piñata’.

The officers involved belonged to the force’s Scorpion unit which was created to combat soaring crime but has come under fire for its aggressive tactics.

On Saturday Davis confirmed the unit was being permanently disbanded. 

But Goldberg’s co-host Sunny Hostin said more needed to be done and police reform should be treated as much as of a priority as spiraling gas prices and inflation. 

‘I think, you know, to get real police reform — which would include personal liabilities for police officers,’ she said.  

‘Because we got a lot of energy about gas prices, and debt and inflation. 

‘I would like to see that same energy directed towards police reform because we are also paying for police brutality out of our tax dollars.’

Nichols’ parents also appeared on the show, with his mother RowVaughn Wells describing her son as a ‘beautiful soul’.

‘He loved his son. He loved his family. He loved his mother,’ she said.   

‘Everyone that he came across, he touched in a positive way. He was just a beautiful person.’

It comes after friends of Tyre Nichols have released a moving video of him skateboarding as they urged the public to remember him as ‘living his best life.’

The two-minute clip, which shows Nichols performing skateboarding tricks on a bright and sunny day, has gone viral on social media as users paid tribute to the ‘beautiful’ boy.

A GoFundMe set up by his mother has also surpassed $1 million.