Author: Micaela Watts

Major violent crimes in Memphis and Shelby County are down for the second month in a row, according to the latest numbers released by the Memphis Shelby County Crime Commission (MSCCC). 

Compared to January and February of 2016, major violent crimes —  which include rape, murder, robberies, and aggravated assault — have decreased by 2.8 percent in Memphis proper, and 2.9 percent for all of Shelby County. 

Though major violent crimes in the city and county are decreasing, the overall crime rate for Memphis is up by 7.6 percent compared to January 1 through February 28 of 2016. Shelby County’s overall crime has also increased by 5.2 percent.  Memphis Shelby County Crime Commission

Source: Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI). The 2017 TBI figures are preliminary.

According to the MSCCC, much of the rise in the area’s overall crime rate can be attributed to an increase in major property crimes, particularly motor vehicle thefts. Memphis’ property crime rate is up from 2016 by 14.6 percent, Shelby County by 12.7 percent. Major property crimes also include burglaries and other theft offenses.

Memphis Police Department Director Michael Rallings has urged Memphians to prevent motor theft with one suggestion; try not to leave your vehicle running when you are not occupying it.

“We must do our due diligence when securing our vehicles,” the police director said. “Leaving vehicles running while unattended has contributed to a rise in auto thefts. It is not only illegal by city ordinance, but also leaves you vulnerable to being a crime victim.”

The increase in property crimes is a departure from the overall trend of the last ten years in Memphis and Shelby County. Collectively, there has been a 30 percent drop city and countywide in the last decade.

The same goes for the overall crime rate for Memphis and Shelby County. Collectively, the area’s crime rate has decreased by 20.2 percent since 2006.

Bill Gibbons, president of the MSCCC has called the drop in violent crimes, “encouraging”, adding that “this is an area where we can all agree that progress is essential.”

Gibbons has also noted that at this point, it’s too early to guess at any specific cause for the drop in violent crimes, but notes that he does know that, “local law enforcement is approaching violent crime with a renewed focus on using available resources in a productive, data-driven way.”


“While encouraged by the decline in violent crime so far this year compared to last year, I can’t say at this point it’s a trend,” said Gibbons, who added, “We’ll have to wait and see.”

Department of Justice

An update from the Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) has announced they will continue with their review process of the Memphis Police Department’s community policing and use of deadly force policies after stating earlier today that they would be dissolving the partnership.

According to the COPS office, the previous announcement occurred because the office had not received a signed memorandum of agreement (MOA) from Mayor Jim Strickland, a critical requirement of the reform process.

“The COPS Office looks forward to a productive engagement and commends Memphis Police Director Michael Rallings for his commitment to community policing, organizational transformation, and improved police-community trust,” said COPS press secretary Mary Bradenberger.

The City of Memphis’ chief communications officer, Ursula Madden, said that their chief legal officer, Bruce McMullen, confirmed MPD’s participation of the COPS assessment earlier this week with the acting U.S. Attorney for West Tennessee, Larry Laurenzi. It was agreed that Mayor Jim Strickland would sign the MOA on Friday, March 3.

Madden said that they were “shocked” at the DOJ’s press release on Friday morning, and that the mayor had indeed signed a MOA as promised.

“We have been in constant contact with the DOJ and members of the COPS Office since October, and have worked on good faith on this collaborative process,” said Madden.

Madden contributed the DOJ’s announcement to a miscommunication, and said the City of Memphis was ready to move forward with the COPS Office review process.

Department of Justice

The Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) has announced they will no longer have a collaborative reform partnership with the Memphis Police Department to review their community policing and use of deadly force policies.

Press secretary for the COPS office, Mary Bradenberger, said that the office has made technical assistance and training resources available for MPD’s use moving forward.

“The COPS office appreciates the leadership of MPD and the City of Memphis for requesting assistance from the Department of Justice and supports their efforts as they continue to move forward and advance community policing and strengthen relationships in their community,” said Bradneberger.

The COPS office announced their partnership with MPD less than six months ago, in late October 2016. The review process was expected to take up two years and would have produced a lengthy report of findings and suggestions for enhancing community policing within the MPD.

Following public criticism of the recently released City Hall escort list, The Memphis Flyer reached out to the COPS office for comment regarding the controversy, but the office declined to respond.

Micaela Watts

Paul Garner, a local organizer that made the city hall watchlist, speaks at a rally for Darrius Stewart in front of the justice complex at 201 Poplar in late 2015.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee is joining a class action lawsuit against the City of Memphis over the creation of a list of citizens who require a police escort into City Hall. The list includes ex-City Hall employees as well as local political activists — including Mary Stewart, the mother of Darrius Stewart who was killed by Memphis Police in 2015.

The lawsuit, Blanchard v. City of Memphis, was filed by Bruce Kramer of Apperson Crump, PLC and alleges that the creation of the “blacklist” violates a 1978 consent decree forbidding the city to use local intelligence to continuously spy on individuals who were exercising their protected first amendment rights.

The decree was established in the wake of an 1976 lawsuit, Kendrick v Chandler, in which the ACLU-TN sued the City of Memphis on behalf of citizens and organizations that wished to exercise free speech without the risk of government surveillance.

ACLU-Tn’s legal director, Thomas H. Castelli, said that many people on the list have no criminal record, but have merely participated in protected free political speech, and this implies that the city is once again engaging in “political intelligence actions” against its residents.

“If any surveillance was conducted for the purpose of gathering political intelligence, it would flout the consent decree that has been in place for nearly forty years,” said Castelli.

Memphis Police Department Director Michael Rallings had the names of all political protestors removed from the list on March 1, but ACLU-TN maintains that “their original presence on the list still indicates potential violations of the decades-old decree.”

So far, the MPD has declined to make public any criteria that would offer an explanation why those without a criminal history and without any known incidents at City Hall would be listed as requiring a police escort.

Mayor Jim Strickland has said that he did not know about the full City Hall list, but his name appears at the top of it as part of a original authorization of agency- a decree he signed that was meant to keep some protestors off of his private property after they staged a “die-in” on Strickland’s lawn last year and allegedly peeked in his windows.

Micaela Watts

Attorneys Michael Ryan Working and Andre Wharton of the Wharton Law Firm say that a second motion for diversion will be filed on behalf of former Shelby County Commissioner Henri Brooks.

Former Shelby County Commissioner Henri Brooks won an appeal yesterday from the Tennessee Criminal Court of Appeals for falsifying an election document that misstated her home address.

In 2014, Brooks was popped by county officials for living outside of her district. After this controversy, Brooks left her post on the Shelby County Commission and, then, lost a bid for Juvenile Court Clerk. She pleaded guilty to the charge in 2015.

Attorneys working for Brooks announced Tuesday that she had won an appeal that reversed her original sentencing in the matter, two years probation and 80 hours of community service.

André Wharton, one of Brooks’ attorney, said that, if anything, the reversal is a sign of a healthy criminal justice system in the state of Tennessee, since the appeals court was able to conclude that matters irrelevant to the case ultimately, and wrongfully influenced the court’s decision.

“What this shows,” said Wharton, “is that we still have a system that works. It worked in this instance. And I would encourage everybody not to give up on our justice system. Challenge it, but do so in a respectful fashion.”

Central to the appeal was Brooks’ claim that two events — remarks made to a Hispanic man concerning diversity in contracts at a commission meeting and a dismissed assault charge stemming from Brooks allegedly throwing water on a woman — actually had no bearing on the crime. However, those events became a focal point during her original sentencing hearing.

Brooks, who entered an Alford plea of guilty to a felony charge of making a false entry on an election document was not present Tuesday as her lawyers discussed the the implications of the court’s reversal of the decision to deny Brooks diversion.

For now, Brooks’ sentencing has been set aside until her lawyers can submit a second request for the diversion of Brooks’ sentence. If diversion is granted, Brooks original sentence would be thrown out. The Alford plea would still stand. If Brook’s is granted diversion, then her lawyers will move to have her conviction expunged.

“In yesterday’s opinion, the court essentially ruled that some outside factors from Commissioner Brooks’ years of public service in the community came into the court and clouded the trial court’s judgement,” said Michael Ryan Working, one of Brooks’ attorneys, who added that if diversion is granted, the former commissioner would have a chance to have her record expunged.

“The next step will be to determine whether or not the special prosecutor decides to agree on diversion, or whether we will have a new sentencing hearing,” said Working.

Provided by the Memphis and Shelby County Airport Authority

If you’ve ever had the urge to start drinking while waiting for your flight at the Memphis International Airport, then you’re in luck.

Starting March 1, the airport’s new beer and liquor license will allow travelers to purchase alcoholic beverages from bars and restaurants within the airport and take them to-go for consumption in the concourse. The beverages will be poured into cups from the bar or restaurant of purchase that will identify what drink it is and where it was purchased.

You still cannot walk through security with your own booze, but you can load up at the gate before the flight home to be with your family during the holidays. Whether or not you are allowed to carry your adult beverage on the plane is individual to each airline policy.

The Memphis and Shelby County Airport Authority president and CEO, Scott Brockman, said the agency is “pleased to be able to offer our customers this added convenience while they wait for their flight”.

Over 4 million passed through MEM last year, the first year numbers have passed the 4 million mark since 2013, the last year the airport served as a hub for Delta.

Micaela Watts

Brandon Taylor steps on a provided scale to be weighed-in, a gesture meant to poke fun at MPD’s gathered intel for those listed as requiring poilce escort when entering City Hall.

“A” is for activist.

At least, that was one of the ideas tossed around among a crowd of 60 people gathered outside of Memphis’ city hall. 

The crowd was there to collectively voice their dissent against the recently released list of more than 80 names deemed worthy of a taxpayer-funded police escort when on the City Hall premises.

Those gathered in front of City Hall let their discontent be known through pinning scarlet letters to shirts, a direct literary mockery of being branded as dangerous enough to require police escort in a municipal building.

Adding to the arsenal of creative clap backs, a scale jokingly referred to as the “scale of justice” was set out for voluntary weigh-ins, an additional poignant hat-tip towards the intel gathered by the Memphis Police Department and added to names appeaing on the list, along with a lister’s height and race.

Most of those who gathered outside of City Hall were not actually on the MPD’s watchlist, but showed up in support on those that were, particularly those that have been publicly known for their involvement in past political protests.

“What are they watching?”, asked Shiloh Good, “Are they combing our Facebook posts? Following us home from protests? What?”

Good was not on the list, but like many attending Good was there to show support and solidarity with those listed.

The day’s action is the latest in a series of responses to the list, which was compiled by MPD, signed off on by Memphis mayor Jim Strickland, and released following an open records request by The Commercial Appeal.

In the time since it was made public, Strickland has claimed that many of the names on his list were compiled for an authorization of agency — a protective order that Strickland filed following a staged “die-in” on his front lawn in which protestors were reportedly peeking in through the windows of Strickland’s private home.

Strickland ascertains that he signed off on many of the names appearing on the list under the notion that it was part of the AOA order, and that MPD is ultimately responsible for its creation.

MPD director Michael Rallings has declined, as since has since the list’s release, to explain any criteria that would warrant an individual’s name being added.