Tyrone and Melissa Randall (Photos: Michael Donahue)
The Memphis Flyer’s Bacon & Bourbon event should be renamed “Bacon, Bourbon, & the Sunset” when it’s held at the FedEx Event Center at Shelby Farms Park.
“With the sunset over Hyde Lake,” says event producer Molly Willmott, “you do anything there at that time of day and the sun is like part of your event.”
Lee SmithWilliam Walsh and Tom FjordBrent Baggett and Annie Fogelman
The event, which was held September 20th at the FedEx Event Center, drew around 700 people. “We had 10 of Memphis’ best restaurants and caterers showcasing their great tastes. Then we had bourbon and whiskey partners sampling bourbon and whiskeys.”
Some people line danced, but most people appeared to line stand as they waited for their samples.
Alex GuerreroTrenika Matthews and Camille FultonLaura Pate and David Freeman
The fare might be bacon slices, as in the case of Buster’s Butcher, or it might include pork bellies, which was used in the Tekila Mexican Cuisine offering. But all the food “has to have some kind of pork element,” says Willmott.
If you missed Bacon & Bourbon or if you just can’t wait until another Memphis Flyer blowout, mark your calendars for the Flyer’s annual Memphis Tequila Fest, to be held October 25th at The Kent.
Dysfunction abounds in
The Franchise. (Photo: Courtesy HBO)
The big news in film this week is the dramatic box office underperformance of Joker: Folie à Deux. Todd Phillips’ sequel to his 2019 mega-hit “only” made $40 million over its first three days of release in North America. But since this courtroom drama musical cost about $200 million to make, that’s a problem.
Maybe it’s time to ask why anyone would think it’s worth paying $200 million for a courtroom drama musical starring one of our greatest living actors, Joaquin Phoenix, as an evil clown, and Lady Gaga, an innovative pop star, as the evil clown’s psychiatrist/girlfriend/also evil clown. Surely these extraordinary talents could be put to better use, not to mention the thousands of other artists and craftspeople whose hard work went into making yet another picture based on Batman. But that’s exactly why this misfire was green-lit by Warner Brothers, when so many better, cheaper ideas are left to rot in the field: because it’s based on a superhero comic book.
For most of this century, comic adaptations have been popular with mass audiences. Some of the films have been good. Most of them have not. Several of them are among the worst movies ever made. But they all cost a fortune to produce. The mainline studios have put all of their eggs in one basket because, as the old Hollywood saying goes, lots of people have gotten fired for saying yes to a new idea, but no one ever got fired for saying no. The studios’ extreme risk aversion has resulted in an avalanche of same-y products aimed at a deeply jaded audience.
Ironically, the new HBO Max series The Franchise was also green-lit because it’s about superheroes. But The Franchise comes not to praise flying men in tights, but to bury them. This is not the first time someone has trained a satirical lens on the superhero plague; The Boys has been going strong for four seasons over at Amazon. But Veep creator Jon Brown’s series is the first deep dive into the deeply dysfunctional environment at the studios where the product is extruded.
The Franchise’s first episode, “Scene 31 A: Tecto Meets Eye,” is the tightest comedy pilot I’ve seen in recent memory. There are some heavy hitters involved, like Sam Mendes, director of two James Bond films. Like his stunning 1917, Mendes leads off with a series of sweeping long takes. We follow Dag (Lolly Adefope) as she arrives for her first day on the set of Tecto, the latest big budget studio picture starring Adam (Billy Magnussen) as “The Earthquake Guy.” She reports to Daniel (Himesh Patel), the first assistant director. Putting an AD at the center of the story is a good move. Like the Army is run by sergeants, film sets are run by the ADs — even though no one involved would ever admit it. Daniel says his job is to “… keep the actors from killing each other, or themselves, and everything else.”
This means Daniel knows where all the bodies are buried. “You could run a children’s hospital on all the waste,” he muses. That’s why, when the studio head Pat “The Toy Man” Shannon (Darren Goldstein) pays an unexpected set visit, he corners Daniel in the bathroom to give him the skinny on how director Eric (Daniel Brühl) is doing. “I want to crack open your head and feed on the juice,” says Pat.
Eric is a familiar figure to anyone who reads Variety. His debut film The Unlikening is a low-budget masterpiece which won the Golden Leopard at Locarno. This is his opportunity to break into the world of eight-figure paydays. But to The Toy Man, Eric is a semi-disposable rage sink who is mostly there to be blamed in case of a $40 million opening weekend. With 83 days to go in the shoot, Eric is beginning to understand how screwed he is. Everyone around him is either a sycophant, like Steph (Jessica Hynes) the script supervisor, or a social climber like Anita (Aya Cash), the new producer Pat’s putting in charge of the flailing production.
The cast is already purring like a well-oiled machine, with Richard E. Grant a highlight as the aging Shakespearian actor whose transphobic jokes make him a ticking PR time bomb. The writing is sharp, with a keen eye toward the interpersonal power dynamics and an ear for sneaky one-liners, like when Eric tells Adam to walk “like a panther on its way to a job interview.” Sure, The Franchise is inside baseball, but it’s also a lot of fun.
New episodes of The Franchise stream Sundays on HBO Max.
Emilio Gallegos and Juliana Gallegos (Photos: Michael Donahue)
Jacob Baldwin Barrett participated for the third time in the Pink Palace Crafts Fair, which was held September 28th and 29th at Audubon Park.
He included 16 of his photographs. “It’s wildlife photography and I frame all of my own work with reclaimed or salvaged wood,” says Barrett, 29. “And I include a climate awareness message within each piece and an information plaque as well.”
Jacob Baldwin BarrettErika and Rain CreekmoreBob and Patty Towery
Asked what sets the event apart from other fairs, Barrett says, “I love it because it’s been a part of Memphis for so long. I remember going to it as a kid. So that’s fun.”
Halie Bonds and Brian ShreveBrittany and Sidney Smith
And there are people participating who he remembers being at the fair when he was little. “It’s a really good show.”
Twenty craftspeople participated in this year’s event, which celebrated its 52nd year, says Pink Palace Crafts Fair chair Pam Dickey.
Chris Deming and Sarah BestBeau and Henry Grosvenor
Crafts included broom making, glass blowing, wood turning, knitting, weaving, basket making, rug hooking, soap making, and metalworking.
Events for kids, including a petting zoo, art tent, face painting, and a climbing wall, were also featured.
I’m walking my dogs on a morning that’s fresh from October’s PR department: bright and clear, cool and crisp. The green lawns are spangled with dew, the trees beginning to drop hints of autumn: fleshy ginkgo fruits, walnuts, hickory nuts, and ruby red hackberries scattered on the sidewalks and quiet side streets of Midtown. Watch your step. The leaves won’t be far behind.
Early celebrants have already set out their Halloween displays: Styrofoam headstones, plastic skeletons, pumpkins and gourds on the steps, cornstalks on the door, ghostly cobwebs on the shrubs. The annual happy dance of harvest and death, which has always seemed weird to me. But hey, I like the candy. In the spirit of the season, I bought a big bag of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups at Walgreens a couple days ago, none of which will ever see the bottom of a trick-or-treat sack. Suck it, kids.
My dogs don’t care much about pumpkins and faux skeletal remains, but they are on the lookout for the occasional gray squirrel that dares skirt our passage. They like to act fierce, like the tipsy bar fighter saying, “Let me at ’em!” as his friends hold him back. I will never let my dogs at ’em and they know it. And they don’t even drink. Idiots.
A car pulls to a halt next to us on Linden and the driver lowers her window. “I really like your columns!” she says.
“Well, hey, thanks!” I say, feeling mildly celebrity-ish and wishing I’d brushed my hair.
As she pulls away, I regret that I’d not asked her name. It’s a small town, I think. I probably know her. Oh, well. The encounter reminds me that I haven’t come up with a column idea for the next issue of the Flyer.
We are less than 30 days away from a presidential election that seems weighted with more importance than any in my lifetime, but the thought of writing another column with the lying orange narcissist’s name in it repels me like picking up dog poop. It’s got to be done, I know, but I don’t have to like it. And there’s nothing worse than when one of my girls drops one at the beginning of our walk, so I have to carry a bag of warm doggy doo for 30 minutes. (Unless I go down that one alley behind the big houses, where all those trash bins are. Shhh.)
Come to think of it, carrying a bag of warm poop around is a pretty decent metaphor for what the former president has done to our heads. He’s gross and there’s no handy trash bin where we can put him. He’s everywhere, lying about hurricane rescue efforts and putting lives in danger, slandering immigrants and putting lives in danger, inflating the crime rate, trashing a healthy economy, disparaging the intelligence of his opponents, pimping for war, doubling down on his lies about the 2020 election. Argh.
And he’s been treated so unfairly, like no president in history, that he can tell you. Everything is rigged against him. Please. He is the most whiny-ass grown man I’ve ever had the misfortune to be exposed to. He has no conscience, no shame, no remorse. His lies are the most easily disprovable fabrications ever uttered by an American politician, but it doesn’t matter and he knows it. And that’s what I can’t get my head around.
If I work at it, I can understand the former guy as the latest in the historical parade of megalomaniacs and fanatics who finagled their way into power in one country or another. Now it’s the United States’ turn. It’s terrible and terrifying but here we are. What I cannot understand is how there are so many Americans who can listen to his never-ending torrent of hate-filled batshit, and say, “Yep, I’m down with that guy. He speaks for me.” It’s depressing.
After seeing clips of the fervid GOP rally at Butler, Pennsylvania, last weekend, I’m beginning to think we’re looking at a possible nightmare scenario either way this election goes. Obviously, I prefer one of those scenarios over the other, but there are literally millions of angry and easily manipulated people out there, people who can be convinced that Democrats control the weather, people who aren’t going away. Where’s that alley when you need it?
State Democrats called for statewide transportation reforms Tuesday to address Tennessee’s ”growing traffic crisis,” and the state’s “crumbling transportation infrastructure,” laying blame at the feet of the Republican supermajority.
In a Nashville news conference, lawmakers launched the “Rocky Top, Not Rocky Roads” campaign, highlighting road conditions and traffic congestion. They pointed to an annual state infrastructure audit that said the state now faces a $34 billion backlog in transportation projects.
Billboards carrying the “Rocky Top, Not Rocky Roads” message will be placed in areas of the state where Democrats said commuters feel frustrated — Rutherford (Murfreesboro), Davidson (Nashville), and Montgomery County (Clarksville).
”Potholes and congestions aren’t just inconvenience, they’re symbols of neglect plaguing our state’s infrastructure under Republican control,” said Rep. Ronnie Glynn (D-Clarksville). “I want to co-sponsor this transportation legislation because instead of relying on the pie-in-the-sky [ideas], like toll lanes, we need intelligent, sustainable solutions.”
Last year, the Republican-controlled House and Senate passed Republican Governor Bill Lee’s Transportation Modernization Act. Central to the new law are “choice lanes.” These will be lanes added to existing interstates (like I-40 and I-24) by private companies. Drivers can only use the lanes if they pay extra.
Rep. John Ray Clemmons (D-Nashville) mocked the idea as “the only solution that the Republican supermajority and Governor Bill Lee could come up with.” Meanwhile, he said, congested drives cost urban commuters $989 per year and rural drivers $670. The issue, for Clemmons, was one of rising costs for working Tennessee families.
“Since Republicans took over in 2011, they have doubled our state budget,” Clemmons said. “Have your roads gotten any better? No. Have you seen less traffic on interstates? Have you seen safer bridges and less potholes? No. So, where’s the money going?”
Here, Clemmons criticized the GOP’s $1.6 billion tax refund to what he called a “secret list of corporations, 53 percent of which were out-of-state corporations.”
”Without leadership and courage, we’re not going to be able to lower the cost of living that directly impacts every family that we represent,” Clemmons said. “Again, the question working Tennesseans should be asking themselves is, ‘Where’s all my money?’”
Tennessee roads are dangerous. The state ranked 9th for the highest rate of traffic deaths last year, according to data from the National Highway Safety Administration. Traffic deaths rose almost 9 percent in the state from 2022-2023, from 607 deaths to 661.
Substantively, Rep. Aftyn Behn (D-Nashville) announced intentions Tuesday to file legislation in next year’s session of the Tennessee General Assembly to reform the state’s financing process for road projects. She and other Democrats called Tennessee’s current financing method for big transit projects — such as road construction — “outdated.”
“One such way to fix our roads is to end the pay-as-you-go funding mechanism,” she said. “It will allow us — once we end it — to leverage our AAA bond rating and take out debt in order to lock in the cost, which means more bang for our buck.”
For clarity, Aftyn was asked why the debt method is better than the current, GOP, pay-as-you-go method.
“… because you are paying the most amount of money for the least amount of product,” she said. “You are locking in inflationary percentages every time you buy product and you take out money. Whereas, if we take out debt, we lock in that amount and we’re able to pay it off over time, we will pay less in the long run.”
Issuing debt rather than relying on in-hand revenues increases the state’s ability to invest in large-scale infrastructure programs, the lawmakers say.
Students at LeMoyne-Owen College will have the opportunity to increase dialogue in Memphis regarding HIV prevention and care, and to also contribute to the nationwide fight for equity and wellness.
The Black AIDS Institute (BAI) has partnered with the school for the launch of its Black HIV Epidemic (BHIVE) program. LeMoyne-Owen was chosen along with Jarvis Christian University, Voorhees University, and Johnson C. Smith University for the Historically Black College and University (HBCU)-centered consortium.
BHIVE is funded by the Health Resources and Service Administration (HRSA). Officials said the goal helps in their mission to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic by engaging with students at these universities through education and internship programs.
Grazell Howard, board chair at BAI said they have the challenge and the opportunity to “revolutionize how we prevent and care for persons living with HIV.” She noted that these people are “thriving and living,” but that they also face the same morbidities that Black people do.
“We can no longer just talk about HIV,” Howard said. “ We have to speak about HIV and Black wellness in ways that our entire Black community can hear them.”
Shelby County has historically had one of the highest new infection rates for HIV in the nation. The Shelby County Health Department posted a notice on its website in May saying it had noted an “alarming increase in newly diagnosed cases of HIV in our community. Officials said the highest increase affected people aged 14 to 45, and was not “spread evenly throughout the county.”
According to AIDSVu , Black people accounted for 84.1 percent of new diagnoses in Shelby County in 2021, while accounting for 49.8 percent of the population.
The Black community is sometimes thought of as “diseased-burdened,” said, Howard. The prevalence of such problems as infant mortality and maternal child health is not because Black people “are so sick,” she said, but rather because these communities have been historically and systemically neglected in diagnoses, treatment, and care.
The HIV virus affects those in minority populations more than others, but advocates and community leaders say that the “problem has never been strictly medical.” In 2023, James E.K. Hildreth, president of Meharry Medical College, said a broader approach is required, specifically honing in on community leaders and organizations and the role they play in ending the virus.
“To truly end the epidemic, we need community solutions that work in the context of those communities,” Hildreth said. “We also need to have communities work hand in hand — scientific community and healthcare providers.”
Howard said that being unapologetically Black and practicing activism every day has always been at the center of the work, but now they are adding revolutionizing treatment, prevention, and intergenerational care to their mission and message.
“We must be multi-generational in the message, and we must be true to ourselves,” Howard said. “We have to sterilize stigma within the race. What do I mean by that? We cannot have homophobia, transphobia, and xenophobia.”
Howard said BAI is “radically partnering” and that this is where engaging students at colleges like LeMoyne-Owen proves to be both important and intentional, because HBCUs have long been bases of the Black community. The partnership allows them to bring communication and curriculum that can engage the Black community culturally.
“Historically Black colleges are hubs and nuclei in Black communities, whether you’re a college degree person or not,” Hildreth said. “Long before you and I were born, people would come to that campus, because that’s where the Black brilliant minds were. That’s where we could go to speak and think and create.”
BHIVE offers an approach that Howard said is “unapologetically Black.” The curriculum seeks to dismantle stigma in the race with a six-module course with components to be completed online and with practicum and internship opportunities available in the community.
“The community is friends to a campus and campus is friends to a community,” Howard said. “That will be this kind of symbiotic relationship which can go beyond HIV. If we do well in HIV, we’re going straight to wellness. If we can tackle HIV in our community and bend the tide of the virus, we can bend the tide for everything else. If we have a lot of pastors and university presidents — as they have at the schools I have named — we will be better off, because those leaders are courageous enough to know an HBCU campus is the hub for everything that impacts a community.”
Last weekend, thousands flocked to the Radians Amphitheater at Memphis Botanic Garden for Mempho Fest. The Memphis Flyer‘s own Michael Donahue was on hand to take party pictures for his We Saw You column. I tagged along with a video camera to record the legendary newsman in action. But don’t take my word for it — watch him get swarmed by fans and charm the masses with his easygoing style.
We’ll soon be opening up nominations for the 2025 edition of the Memphis Flyer’s 20<30. Every year we honor the best and brightest young people Memphis has to offer, thanks to our readers and staff nominations. We’ve had some exceptional honorees in the past, and are looking forward to a new crop of Memphis talent. (GloRilla, call us!)
One of our alumna from 2011 has made a name for herself. When I revisited some of our past winners for Memphis Magazine in 2019, I caught up with Audra Barr Watt, who already had successful career as a health care executive and was the mother of two young boys, Nolan and Isaac. Nowadays, Audra’s career has taken her to the Nashville area, where she’s pursuing her musical ambitions. She just released her first music video.
“The chance to capture the bittersweet journey of watching my sons grow up in ‘Bullet Trains’ was incredible,” she says. ‘In just four minues, this video takes me from the anxious excited of pregnacy through the chaos of toddler years, school days, and into a glimpse of their future as they move out on their own.”
Directed by William Gawley. the video has already accumulated more than 23,000 views on YouTube. “I’m grateful to those who encouraged me to share it with the world, and I’m humbled by how many people have connected with it, especially during this time of year, when kids are going back to school.”
If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.
Jody Stephens sings from the heart, stepping out front during Tuesday's concert. (Photo: Alex Greene)
When Jody Stephens and Chris Stamey put together a new version of Big Star two years ago, the quintet was a new group. And yet the band, which also includes Pat Sansone (Wilco), Jon Auer (Posies), and Mike Mills (R.E.M.), was hardly a bunch of rookies. Indeed, they all were unapologetic fans of that ’70s band that never quite made it, even as it lived on in their hearts and creative minds. And so, when they played WYXR’s Raised By Sound Festival in 2022, it was a revelation and a delight, but no great surprise that they pulled off the tribute to the band’s debut album, #1 Record, with aplomb.
And yet, being a “new” band, they had some rough patches at the time. Mills, battling a cold, was just shy of bringing his A game. The group as a whole still had to work out some details, as evidenced by their grinding to a halt during the bridge of “O My Soul,” only to begin the song again with brilliant results.
Now, two years later, it’s the 50th anniversary of Big Star’s second album, Radio City, and the same quintet is back in the saddle this fall for a series of 10 select dates in the U.S. and Europe. The kickoff show for the tour was at Crosstown Theater this Tuesday, and in the two years since this more stripped-down group formed (compared to the more sprawling bands assembled for the Big Star’s Third concerts a decade ago), they have become even more of a living, breathing unit. While the 2022 show was excellent, Tuesday’s show was jaw-dropping.
It isn’t that the group has grown more precise; rather, they’ve now internalized the material to such a degree that they can loosen up with it. And that is entirely appropriate, given the nature of the album they’re saluting in this round of shows. When it was recorded, Radio City marked the reconfiguration of the band as a trio led by Alex Chilton. Chris Bell, who founded the group, had left in frustration to pursue a solo career. And the album, while intricately crafted and performed, thus reflected Chilton’s greater embrace of the raucous, the chaotic, and the wild. It was nothing like the shambolic masterpieces he would later create as a solo artist, but a bit unhinged nonetheless, and therein lies its charm.
There were still plenty of echoes of Bell’s sensibility in Tuesday’s concert. Indeed, the group kicked off the show with “Feel” and several other chestnuts from #1 Record, the album’s cover projected behind them. A few songs in, the background changed to Radio City, and Stamey quipped, “Something is trying to tell us to move on to the next album.”
And move they did, as they brought some of Big Star’s rowdiest material to life. “That’s just fun to play!” quipped Sansone after they’d ripped through “O My Soul,” this time with no confusion, full steam ahead. After an especially stomping version of “She’s a Mover,” where Stamey seemed to capture a bit of Chilton’s old cutting delivery as he sang, “She name was Marcia, Marcia the name, she look like a dove, now,” the singer exclaimed to the audience, “Can it get any better than that?”
Stamey lit up even more before they launched into “When My Baby’s Beside Me.” As he explained, “This was the first Big Star song I ever heard, and I had to pull my car to the side of the road to hear it. In the Winston-Salem area back then, we thought these songs were hits! They were playing on local radio!” Indeed, each player’s inner fan boy seemed to emerge before our eyes as they conjured up the sounds that had first captivated them as teens.
Pat Sansone, Jon Auer, Mike Mills, Jody Stephens, and Chris Stamey as the Big Star Quintet (Photo: Alex Greene)
The players’ enthusiasm for the material was contagious. And yet it wasn’t all raucous abandon. Several quieter numbers stole the show, including “Way Out West,” “India Song,” and “Thirteen,” where Stephens stepped out from behind the drums to sing. And, from the tender to the tumultuous, the voices of all five players created vocal harmonies of a richness and beauty rarely heard these days.
Not to be outdone, Sansone shone in a solo rendition of “I’m in Love with a Girl” that was so heartfelt, you might have thought he wrote it himself. Auer, too, sang with moving, vulnerable soul on the quiet sections of “Daisy Glaze.” Never did the lyrics “nullify my life” seem so desolate.
Mills, for his part, also shone, especially on a crisp, propulsive “September Gurls.” Before singing it, he thanked Jody for letting him take on the vocal duties, promising him that “the check is in the mail.”
Mills also sang as the band closed their encore with what Mills said was “a rare moment of earnestness from Alex,” the lovingly ambivalent “Thank You Friends.” The group, who made many comments about their admiration for each other, and the joy of working together, may have been singing it to the audience who shared their love for the city’s best loved “unsuccessful” group — or they may have been singing it to one another, now a tight-knit ensemble of El Goodos hell-bent on keeping their favorite music alive.
State leaders, advocates, and community groups have voiced their sentiments and reactions as a jury reached a verdict in the Tyre Nichols trial, finding three officers guilty of witness tampering.
Demetrius Haley, Justin Smith, and Tadarrius Bean, all former Memphis Police Department officers, were convicted on federal felony charges.
The jurors deliberated for six hours on Thursday in the federal trial regarding federal civil rights violations during the January 7, 2023, traffic stop that resulted in Nichols’ death.
According to Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, attorneys for the Nichols family, “Haley was acquitted of violating Nichols’ civil rights causing death.” Both Smith and Bean were also acquitted of civil rights charges.
“The jury also convicted Haley and former MPD officers Tadarrius Bean and Justin Smith for their effort to cover up excessive force against Nichols by omitting material information and providing misleading and false statements to their MPD supervising lieutenant and an MPD detective who was tasked with writing the report documenting this incident,” the United States Department of Justice said in a statement.
Sentencing is scheduled for January 2025.
In a statement released by both attorneys following the verdict, Crump and Romanucci said justice has prevailed for Tyre Nichols and his family.
“The guilty verdicts reached today send a powerful message that law enforcement officers who commit crimes will be held accountable under the law. Tyre’s family is relieved that all three officers were found guilty and taken into custody for their loved one’s death. Tyre should be alive today, and while nothing can bring him back, today’s guilty verdicts bring a measure of accountability for his senseless and tragic death,” the statement said.
Here are more reactions from both national and local leaders following the verdict.
Sen. London Lamar (D-Memphis)
“Today’s verdict brings a measure of justice for Tyre Nichols’ family, who have endured unimaginable pain since his tragic and senseless death. While no verdict can bring Tyre back, the conviction of these officers is a critical step in holding those responsible accountable. This verdict allows Tyre’s family to begin to heal and look to the future, knowing that justice was served. We must continue working to ensure that no family in Memphis — or anywhere else — ever has to endure such heartache again. I remain committed to fighting for reforms that will protect our communities and prevent these tragedies from happening in the future.”
Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy
“We commend the diligent work of the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The public deserves to know that those who enforce the law are not above the law: If they use excessive force they’ll be held accountable. While the verdict may not be everything hoped for, we’re fully prepared to move forward with the State’s case. We will await sentencing in federal court, consult with U.S. Attorney’s Office counsel, and take appropriate steps in state court.”
Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9)
“I am pleased that the jury found the officers guilty but was surprised that they weren’t found guilty of the charges that resulted in Tyre Nichols’ death.”
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division
“All three former Memphis Police Department officers were convicted of federal felonies for their role in Tyre Nichols’ death. They join two additional former officers who had already pled guilty. With these convictions, all five of the former officers involved in the death of Mr. Nichols have been convicted of federal felonies. Tyre Nichols should be alive today. We extend our condolences to the family and loved ones of Mr. Nichols. We hope this prosecution provides some measure of comfort as the law enforcement officers tied to his death have been held accountable. We thank the trial team for their extraordinary dedication to prosecuting this case, and we thank the jury for their service. We will never rest in our ongoing efforts to ensure that law enforcement officers are held accountable for violating people’s civil and constitutional rights.”
Acting U.S. Attorney Reagan Fondren for the Western District of Tennessee “A basic principle for our system of justice is that there is — and there only can be — one rule of law. Law enforcement officers must be held to the same rules as the citizens they’re sworn to protect. More than a year ago, this office made a commitment to following the truth where it led in this case. Thanks to our trial team who worked tirelessly over the past 21 months to ensure that this case was properly investigated and tried and to the men and women in the jury for their service. The defendants have been found guilty of serious federal felonies and face significant penalties for those actions.”
