This Saturday, Homeless Organizing for Power and Equality (H.O.P.E.) will host their sixth “Know Your Rights” workshop at the Memphis Center for Independent Living. A program of the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center, H.O.P.E. is made up of people that have either formally been homeless or are currently homeless.
For the past four months, members of H.O.P.E. have been working with the Shelby County Public Defenders office and other lawyers to host a series of “Know Your Rights” workshops, in part as a response to the harassment and arrests citizens have endured for filming Memphis Police officers with their phones. H.O.P.E.’s Street Watch Initiative will have complaint forms available to document instances of police harassment and abuse, and members of the initiative will walk those in attendance through the process of filing a formal complaint against an officer.
According to a press release issued by the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center, the H.O.P.E organization, The Bridge: Memphis Street Newspaper, and the Manna House have also had preliminary meetings with Colonel Russell Houston from the Memphis Police Department’s Crump Station. Those meetings have mainly focused on changing the negative relationship that exists between the homeless of Memphis and the MPD.
H.O.P.E.’s “Know Your Rights” workshop is Saturday, November 16th at the Memphis Center for Independent Living (1633 Madison Avenue) from 2:30- 4:30 p.m. For more information, call 901-300-0006.
