Whoopi Goldberg Expresses Outrage While Discussing Tyre Nichols Footage

"The View" host Whoopi Goldberg expressed her anger and asked for police reform while discussing video footage of Tyre Nichols getting beaten up by five black police officers.

29-year-old Nichols was beaten up by five Black police officers on Jan. 7 following a traffic stop near his home. The bodycam footage showed that the officers were repeatedly kicking and punching Nichols, who died in the hospital three days later.

The 67-year-old host, who discussed the footage during Monday's episode with other panelists, raised the question, "When will the brutality finally lead to some police reform from the ground up? Clearly, it doesn't matter if it's a white policeman or black policeman."

She continued, "It is the problem with the policing itself. Seems things don't make sense to people unless it's somebody they can feel or they can recognize. Do we need to see white people also get beaten before anybody will do anything?"

Goldberg clarified that she is not suggesting that white people should also get beaten up, so people should not write her after the show and tell her that she is "racist."

"I'm just asking, is that what people have to see in order to wake up and realize this affects us all?" she explained.

The footage was released last week and the five officers involved — Tadarrius Bean, 24, Demetrius Haley, 30, Emmitt Martin III, 30, Desmond Mills Jr., 32, and Justin Smith, 28 — have been charged with second-degree murder following the death.

Co-host Sonny Hostin said she did not watch the video because she was afraid it will become her "worst nightmare."

Hostin further noted that as citizens we have enough energy to speak about gas prices, debt and inflation but now, she would like to see the "same energy directed towards police reform because we are also paying for police brutality out of our tax dollars."

Another panelist, Ana Navarro said that good and bad cops can be of any gender, color and class. "These cops were part of the SCORPION Unit. It could not have been more aptly named because they were filled with poison and hatred and the desire to kill," she added.

The SCORPION team was established in 2021 to focus on high-crime areas of the southern city. The Memphis Police Department said in a statement it was "in the best interest of all to permanently deactivate the SCORPION Unit."