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A Look into 2025

Sataporn | Adobe Stock

So, like, apparently, 2025 is around the corner. Around the corner of what? From what? That’s just semantics. And at the Flyer, we’re basically already in 2025. That’s just how our deadlines are — always working a week ahead, or maybe two days ahead. Because of that, we can see into the future. Not really, but here are some of our predictions/expectations/hopes for the new year in Memphis. 

In the Headlines

Police Reforms

It’s easy to predict that reforms for the Memphis Police Department (MPD) will dominate headlines at least in the early part of 2025. 

The U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) blistering review of the agency said police here used excessive force (which included tons of Tasers and pepper spray), discriminated against Black residents, and used harsh tactics against children. The review came after the beating death of Tyre Nichols at the hands of MPD officers in 2023. 

The DOJ wants to enter into a consent decree with the city. This would install federal monitors to watch and make sure reforms are moving ahead. But, so far, local leaders, including Memphis Mayor Paul Young, have said they don’t want the monitors for various reasons, including the fact that consent decrees cost too much money.

Young has promised to reform MPD in-house. Criminal justice reform advocates say they want the DOJ oversight because the police should not police themselves.     

The need for reform comes, too, as the city prepares to pay what could be a $500-million verdict in the civil suit to the family of Nichols’ for his death.  

Photo: Frank Gaertner | Dreamstime.com

Cannabis Fight

Cannabis will certainly be in Tennessee news in 2025. 

Rules that would ban smokeable products containing THCA were issued from the Tennessee Department of Agriculture (TDA) in January 2024. Industry leaders fought the rules all last year. A lawsuit on the matter was pending as of press time.

TDA says THCA goes over the legal THC limit when it’s burned or smoked. This gets consumers high, which is why a lot of conservatives don’t want “intoxicating” cannabis products. Their ability to get consumers high is why the industry says these products — allowed by laws passed by the legislature — are so popular and are a major portion of their business. 

Those industry leaders complained that bureaucrats, not elected officials, made the new rules. So expect legislation from the Tennessee General Assembly when they reconvene in January 2025. 

Pissed About Reappraisals 

Also, expect your property taxes to go up — maybe way up. 

January will bring a new property tax appraisal in Shelby County. And Shelby County Property Assessor Melvin Burgess began warning locals about this in 2024, maybe to try to get folks used to the idea. 

In an August news release, Burgess said data showed property values increasing. That will likely mean a “significant increase in tax assessments” for homeowners. And that means higher taxes. 

Add higher assessments to the Memphis City Council’s new 49-cent property tax rate hike approved in 2024, and it could mean outrage when those tax bills hit mailboxes. 

Photo: Ford Co.

BlueOval City

More concern and hand-wringing is likely on deck for Ford’s BlueOval City project next year. 

Expectations were high when Ford unveiled the project in 2021. The $5.6 billion manufacturing facility in Tennessee was the largest investment in the state’s history. Since then crews have been hard at work raising the massive plant on six square miles of West Tennessee about an hour from Memphis. 

However, global electric vehicle (EV) demand softened. While the automaker planned to begin production of its all-electric Ford Lightning truck here next year, it pushed production back to 2027. In that time, the company awaits lower-cost battery technology and a higher demand for EVs in general. In that time, too, worries will persist about the future of Ford in West Tennessee. Still, the company did pull Santa behind a Lightning in the recent Brownsville Christmas parade. — Toby Sells

MATA

2024 will be remembered as the year in which conversation regarding transit consistently found its way to the forefront. And Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) has faced a tumultuous year — from the revelation of the $60 million deficit that the agency had been operating under, to the route and staff cuts, to the entire board’s dismissal.  

The new board decided to pause proposed changes until February 2025. While this temporarily stalled one problem, questions over MATA’s future and leadership prevail.

On Tuesday, December 17th, the MATA board voted to continue negotiating a contract that could lead to temporary leadership changes. If approved, TransPro employees would take over as interim CEO, CFO, and COO for eight months. The proposal prompted several questions from board members, but they voted to form a committee to gain more clarity.

Looking ahead, the board will need to address the February 2025 changes which could lead to service cuts and layoffs. The agency will also need to identify more funding sources, while potentially welcoming a new team of leadership. — Kailynn Johnson

Political Forecast

The coming year happens to be the one year out of every four-year cycle in which there are no major elections scheduled in Memphis/Shelby County. But that is not to suggest that there will not be intense political activity. In fact, potential candidates for the county, state, and federal offices in the elections of 2026 will be working feverishly during the year to organize and declare their campaigns. At stake will be contests for Shelby County mayor, to succeed the term-limited Mayor Lee Harris, and for the 13 members of the county commission, as well as races for governor, the state legislature, Congress, and the U.S. Senate seat now held by incumbent Republican Bill Hagerty. 

Announcements of candidacies for these offices should be forthcoming early in 2025. 

There will be one more major attempt by Governor Bill Lee and his allies in the Republican legislative supermajority to pass comprehensive school voucher legislation when the Tennessee General Assembly reconvenes in January. Preliminary estimates are that this time the measure to extend taxpayer-funded private school stipends statewide has good chances for passage. Also to be expected are further efforts by GOP members to impose stricter controls (or more severe usurpations) on the law enforcement infrastructure of Shelby County. It remains to be seen if GOP state Senator Brent Taylor gains any traction in his effort to seek legislative removal of Shelby County DA Steve Mulroy.

Both major political parties in Shelby County will be selecting new chairs, the Republicans in January, the Democrats in April. State GOP chair Scott Golden of Jackson was reelected in December, but Democrats will be choosing a new leader in January to succeed Hendrell Remus. One of the major candidates is state Representative Gloria Johnson of Knoxville, who ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in November. 

The Shelby County Commission will face the new year not only with some last-minute updates in its funding priorities, but with a stepped-up formula for establishing a budget and meting out allocations. In an effort to adhere to previous commitments to build two new schools for Memphis-Shelby County Schools, Mayor Harris and the commission will be seeking means to compensate for lower than anticipated revenue aid from the state government. 

Both local governments may come in for support and new modes for inter-governmental cooperation through the aegis of a newly formed and privately endowed ad hoc organization called More for Memphis. But the mechanics and prospects for such an arrangement remain obscure, for the moment. — Jackson Baker

Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant (12) dunks the ball. (Photo: Wes Hale)

On the Roster

One year without playoff basketball for our Memphis Grizzlies is quite enough, thank you. A trio of healthy star guards (Ja Morant, Desmond Bane, Marcus Smart) and the addition of a towering rookie center (Zach Edey) have the Grizzlies near the top of the NBA’s Western Conference standings. Better yet, the Grizz are among the top scoring teams in the Association, averaging more than 120 points per game. Where might this take a franchise that’s reached the conference finals only once in three decades? Go back to that word: healthy.

Morant only played in nine games a season ago (he served a lengthy suspension before his shoulder injury). Smart only played in 20. Bane barely played half the season (42 games). The end result was a 27-55 campaign. Morant is an All-NBA talent, Smart a former Defensive Player of the Year, and Bane an All-Star-to-be. If they stay on the floor through April, Memphis could well reverse that 2023-24 record and earn a top-four seed for the postseason. Can the West be won? Five different teams have gone to the Finals out of the Western Conference the last five seasons. There’s no current behemoth that would be considered unbeatable in May. The NBA Finals at FedExForum? Let’s believe.

At the college level, coach Penny Hardaway’s Memphis Tigers captured attention in November with an upset of Connecticut — the two-time defending national champions — at the Maui Invitational, bringing enough attention to climb into the Top 25 (16th) before an upset at home to Arkansas State. Is this another fall tease like the 2023-24 season, the Tigers setting up an immense fan base for a middling conference schedule? The answer is in the hands of two more star guards: transfers PJ Haggerty and Tyrese Hunter. A pair of glass-cleaning rim protectors — Dain Dainja and Moussa Cissé — give Memphis something it didn’t have a year ago, suggesting a repeat of the winter blues may be unlikely. A December upset of Clemson on the road and a less-than-intimidating American Athletic Conference are positive signs for a return to the NCAA tournament.

There will be life after basketball season for Memphis sports. Baseball America’s Minor League Pitcher of the Year, Quinn Mathews, will likely start the 2025 season with the Memphis Redbirds. Another pair of rising stars — pitcher Tink Hence and infielder JJ Wetherholt — have AutoZone Park in their sights. The Redbirds hope to end a postseason drought that dates back to 2018. The club will open the season with an exhibition against the parent St. Louis Cardinals on March 24th.

On the gridiron, the Memphis Tigers will enter their 2025 season on a pair of impressive streaks. The program has reached bowl eligibility 11 consecutive seasons and has scored at least 20 points in 40 consecutive games, tops in the country. Antwann Hill, the highest-ranked quarterback ever signed by Memphis, will don blue and gray for the first time and hope to replicate the success enjoyed by the departed record-setting Seth Henigan. One nugget Hill could grab that Henigan didn’t: a conference championship. — Frank Murtaugh

Mickey 17

Coming Soon

It’s not so much that 2025 is getting off to a slow start as 2024 finished strong. Christmas week brought a torrent of new releases beyond the usual awards season crush. So you can spend your first week of dry January catching up with titles like Disney’s Mufasa: The Lion King, directed by Moonlight’s Barry Jenkins; the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, starring Timothée Chalamet and directed by Walk The Line’s James Mangold; and Babygirl, an erotic thriller starring Nicole Kidman. I will never understand the decision to release Robert Egger’s vampire creepfest Nosferatu on Christmas instead of two weeks before Halloween, but you should probably see it if you’re into that kind of thing.

It’s not until January 10th that we get our first new releases of the new year, and that’s Den of Thieves 2: Pantera starring Gerard Butler and O’Shea Jackson Jr. The next week things start to pick up again with Wolf Man, a Blumhouse horror reboot of the lupine Universal monster. One of Them Days is a buddy comedy with Keke Palmer and SZA, which sounds promising. The month closes out with comedy: You’re Cordially Invited starring Will Ferrell, Reese Witherspoon, and an alligator. 

In February, somebody learned the lesson about seasonal programming and scheduled Love Hurts for the week before Valentine’s Day. It’s an action comedy starring Ke Huy Quan and Ariana DeBose. On the holiday proper, we’ve got Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy and Captain America: Brave New World, a combo which is sure to provoke many lovers’ quarrels over Valentine date night viewing. Then there’s The Monkey from Osgood Perkins, so that’ll be weird/scary. The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie is a sci-fi Bugs Bunny feature aimed directly at me. Paul W. S. Anderson adapts George R.R. Martin’s In the Lost Lands. 

March comes in with Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan’s dip into horror, Sinners, and the Zambian black comedy On Becoming a Guinea Fowl. March 14th is a showdown between Steven Soderbergh’s techno thriller Black Bag and Avengers maestros Russo brothers’ The Electric State. Disney’s live action Snow White boasts a screenplay by Greta Gerwig and stars Rachel Zegler as the drowsy protagonist. 

In April, many of you will be dragged to A Minecraft Movie. I am eagerly awaiting Bong Joon-ho’s Mickey 17, starring Robert Pattinson as a disposable space hero. Blockbuster season starts in May with Marvel’s first swing of the year, Thunderbolts. The ever-creative Michel Gondry’s first musical, Golden, bows on May 9th, and the millennials’ favorite ambient horror franchise Final Destination: Bloodlines follows on the 16th. The 23rd looks to be a showdown between Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning and Disney’s Lilo & Stitch reboot. June’s looking stacked with a John Wick spin-off Ballerina, Pixar’s Elio, the How to Train Your Dragon reboot, and the long awaited zombie capper 28 Years Later. July’s got James Gunn’s Superman, a new Jurassic World film for some reason, and The Smurfs Movie. August closes out the summer with Freakier Friday and the Paul Thomas Anderson crimer One Battle After Another, starring Leonardo DiCaprio. 

October brings Tron: Ares, but besides The Black Phone 2, looks pretty slim on horror. In November, we come back after the intermission with Wicked: For Good, and Edgar Wright’s adaptation of Stephen King’s The Running Man. December will be dominated by Avatar: Fire and Ash. Never bet against James Cameron. — Chris McCoy

Yo-Yo Ma (Photo: Courtesy MSO)

Live Music, Ho!

A multitude of ways to ring in the new with live bands await you on New Year’s Eve. Growlers will host Blacklist Union, Line So Thin, and Josey Scott, erstwhile lead singer for Saliva who won acclaim as a solo artist with “Hero” from the Tobey Maguire-led Spider-Man. For something completely different, crooner Gary Johns will serenade Beauty Shop patrons that night, while Bar DKDC sports another incredible singer, Jesse James Davis, from big beats to ballads, not to mention the dance-inducing bounce of Bodywerk. For some Beale bounce and soul, aside from the street party, Eric Gales tops the Rum Boogie bill and the B.B. King All Stars shine at their namesake club. Or tribute bands can bring yesteryear alive, with Louder Than Bombs’ Smiths sounds at B-Side, or Play Some Skynyrd and Aquanet at Lafayette’s Music Room. Prefer freshly spun wax? That’s it’s own kind of live. Try DJ Funktual at Eight & Sand.

Once January is underway, our musical arts institutions resume their 2024-25 seasons. The Iris Collective will present the New York-based Overlook Quartet in The Green Room at Crosstown Arts on January 16th, showcasing music’s healing powers through meditative practice. On the edgier tip, Iris’ March 8th concert at Germantown United Methodist Church, with guest violinist Elena Urioste spotlights works by Max Richter, Astor Piazzolla, and Dmitri Shostakovich. Meanwhile, Germantown Performing Arts Center will present the groovier side of innovation with bassist-composer Meshell Ndegeocello’s show, No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin, on January 11th. And Opera Memphis brings Carmen in late January.

The Memphis Symphony Orchestra comes out swinging with its tribute to the “American Maestro,” Leonard Bernstein, on January 18th and 19th, in a program culminating with his Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. Another maestro will be celebrated a month later, when the MSO welcomes guest soloist Yo-Yo Ma February 25th at the Cannon Center of Performing Arts. 

On the more rocking side of things, early January marks the 90th anniversary of the birth of Elvis Presley, and Graceland Live will honor it in style with shows spanning January 8th to 10th. Yet the venue has lately embraced some distinctly non-Presley-esque music as well, like the February 6th appearance by 21st-century rockers Theory of a Deadman (an Elvis reference?), experimenting with an unplugged approach to their heavy sound. The unplugged aesthetic will also be celebrated at the Halloran Centre’s Memphis Songwriters Series, with Mark Edgar Stuart welcoming Hannah Blaylock, Rice Drewry, and Raneem Imam on January 6th. Soon after, Sweet Honey in the Rock will bring the raw power of the human voice to the Halloran on January 24th. And speaking of powerful voices, Mary J. Blige will appear “For My Fans” — like some of us who saw her in 1995— at the FedExForum on February 2nd.

But what’s a mere human voice compared to The Man-Machine? Many are laser-focused on Kraftwerk taking over the Overton Park Shell on March 25th. For the Wo-Man-Machine, see the twin-goddess cyber-hybrid multimedia of Marcella Simien and Talibah Safiya at Crosstown Theater January 25th. For everything in between, scan our weekly After Dark listings to see the artists making it happen in our thriving smaller clubs every day. — Alex Greene  

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Criminal Justice Advocates: “We Need DOJ Involvement” On MPD Reform

Photo Credit: Memphis Police Department

Community organizations are urging Memphis Mayor Paul Young to enter a consent decree with the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) in the aftermath of the agency’s findings on the Memphis Police Department (MPD).

The Black Clergy Collaborative of Memphis, Memphis Interfaith Coalition For Action and Hope (MICAH), and Just City released a letter urging Young to sign the agreement. They said the DOJ’s findings found MPD to have consistent practices of discrimination and civil rights violations – many of which citizens had advocated against for years.

In hopes of remedying these issues, the organizations said the city should include the DOJ in its next steps with an “independent monitor.” They also noted Young’s concern for the financial risks a consent decree would impose, which is why he said the city will not enter an agreement.

“[Mayor Young]  thinks the city and MPD can correct these abuses without DOJ involvement,” the letter said. “We can think of no instance when a just society allowed the abuser of others to determine how they would fix their behavior. Just societies always intervene and prescribe what the abuser must do, monitors the abuser, and decides when the correction has occurred, which is precisely what a consent decree would aim to do.”

The letter said while they support the mayor, they don’t believe he would be able to supervise officers and conduct and review incident videos while carrying out his mayoral responsibilities. 

“We have no trust or confidence in leaving corrections to the people involved in the unlawful conduct, the persons who failed to supervise them, or those who stood by and said nothing while the unlawful conduct occurred. We need DOJ involvement,” the letter said.

Young reported that several cities, such as Chicago and New Orleans, have consent decrees that have cost them millions of dollars with crime rates still on the rise. Organizers said these references imply “ a connection without data or proof.”

While the letter said they don’t know how decrees are calculated or other factors contributing to these numbers, they cannot “use these numbers to compare or estimate the cost of a consent decree in Memphis.”

Organizers said under a consent decree the city must pay a monitor and their team to track their compliance with the DOJ’s plan and recommendations while also providing regular updates based on “agreed-upon metrics.” Memphis will also be required to cover any fines and fees imposed by the federal court if the MPD repeatedly fails to adhere to the consent decree.

“Memphis can limit the financial cost of the decree simply by complying with its requirements,” officials said. “Regardless of the cost, we know that protecting the lives of Memphians, especially persons with disabilities and children is priceless, too valuable not to sign the decree.”

They also referenced citizens who voiced their concern for MPD as they said they work hard with a “short staff” and they are “underpaid, outgunned on the streets, and continue to be beaten down (low morale)” as criminals are emboldened in their practice. 

Organizers said there may be validity in these statements, but that doesn’t mean MPD’s behavior described in the report is justified.

“It is possible and necessary to address abusive conduct and establish lawful and effective public safety practices while acknowledging the challenging nature of the work and respecting officers who perform the job well,” they said.

In addition to urging the mayor to sign the agreement, the letter also recommends developing a peacekeeping force to aid in police reform.

“Our confidence in affecting positive, lasting, tailored change is grounded in the DOJ’s authority to secure the reforms of unconstitutional patterns and practices identified within MPD,” the letter said.

Organizers are currently asking citizens to sign a petition to urge Young to enter a decree which can be found here.

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Analysis: MPD Consent Decree May Not Matter in Trump’s Next Term

Credit: Donald J. Trump via X

Next steps after the federal government’s report on excessive force within the Memphis Police Department (MPD) are not known, of course. But at least one big sign points to “not much,” as far as the next White House occupant is concerned. 

President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign ran on “law and order” as a central theme. His campaign said ”there is no higher priority than quickly restoring law and order and public safety in America.” He even just tweeted those words in all capital letters four years ago: 

However, the American Civil Liberties Group (ACLU) has said that “law and order” in a second Trump administration is a “shorthand message promising repression of the Black community.”

Trump Promises to Militarize Police, Reincarcerate Thousands, and Expand Death Penalty

”Specifically, Trump’s law enforcement policies call for further protections for abusive police, including condoning the use of force against protesters, which he once described as a ’beautiful thing to watch’,” reads an ACLU analysis of Trump policies in July. “This rhetoric risks encouraging state actors to take a similarly brutal approach.”

If the ACLU is correct on the premise, this means Trump’s “brutal approach” to law enforcement could, maybe, trickle down to state and local leaders, emboldened by the President to allow tough justice to be doled out across the country without major repercussions to law enforcement officials — i.e. police officers.

To get there, Trump promised to ”strengthen qualified immunity and other protections for police officers.” Qualified immunity allows government actors (i.e. cops) to perform their jobs without the risk of civil liability. This means, basically, that if a cop breaks some laws while they are making an arrest, they can’t be sued for it in court. So, Trump would give cops extra protection against the citizens they serve even if they hurt those citizens during the course of their work. 

Germane to the DOJ’s report on the MPD, Trump promised on his campaign site to: 

1. Sign a record investment in hiring, retention, and training for police officers. The bill will increase vital liability protections for America’s law enforcement officers.

2. President Trump will require local law enforcement agencies receiving DOJ grants to return to proven policing measures such as stop-and-frisk, strictly enforcing existing gun laws, cracking down on the open use of illegal drugs, and cooperating with ICE to arrest and deport criminal aliens.

”…to qualify for this new funding and all other Justice Department grants, I will insist that local jurisdictions return to proven common sense policing measures, such as stop and frisk — very simple — you stop them and you frisk them….,” Trump said in a campaign video. 

City leaders and President Joe Biden’s DOJ are now tussling on whether or not the two will approve a consent decree for MPD. An agreement like this would bring in federal monitors to watch over the police department on a day-to-day basis to ensure it adhered to new policies for improvement. The city’s attorney has said the city will not approve a consent decree. 

First, the city argued, the investigation didn’t take long enough. These can last up to three years. The DOJ wrapped up the MPD review in 17 months. Memphis officials said, also, they need a legal avenue to question the DOJ’s investigation methods. 

Leaders here, though, won’t likely have to worry with threats of a lawsuit to enact the consent decree. Only one such decree was enacted in Trump’s first term. So far, 17 have been issued under Biden. Trump also cancelled a consent decree enacted during Barrack Obama’s Adminstration against the city of Baltimore.   

City leaders also argued that such a consent decree would cost too much. Memphis taxpayers would be on the hook to pay for all the federal monitors and programs to adhere to the agreement. Leaders said this could cost millions of dollars. 

That cost would come, too, as city taxpayers face paying out a $550 million civil penalty to the family of Tyre Nichols. The beating death of Nichols at the hands of MPD officers drew the eye of the DOJ investigation in the first place.      

As of Thursday afternoon, Trump did not make any statement about the DOJ on his Truth Social platform.

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“Excessive Force:” Leaders React to DOJ Findings on Memphis Police Department

Credit: City of Memphis

Reactions are pouring in after a blistering report from the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) Wednesday detailed the agency’s findings from an investigation into the Memphis Police Department. This probe was launched in the aftermath of Tyre Nichol’s death following his deadly beating after a traffic stop.

“Based on this investigation, we found that the police in Memphis use excessive force; that they stop, search, and arrest people unlawfully; that their policies have a discriminatory effect on Black people; and that they discriminate against people with behavioral health disabilities,” the DOJ said in a statement. “Furthermore, we are concerned that Memphis police officers unnecessarily escalate encounters with some of the most vulnerable members of the community — its children.”

The DOJ found that the agency used excessive force, discriminatory practices against Black people, and imposed harsh and “aggressive” tactics on children.” The agency found these to consistent practices where they “violat[ed] people’s rights.”

Career attorneys and staff from the Civil Rights Division, the United States Attorney’s Office, and “more than a dozen experts who specialize in police department management, use of force, statistics and other areas,” were consulted in what the Justice Department called  a “comprehensive and exhaustive” investigation. They also interviewed police officer, city employees, community members and more.

“We received hundreds of incidents, watched hundreds of body-worn camera videos, read thousands of documents, and conducted statistical analyses of the department’s data regarding officer activities and enforcement,” the statement said.

U.S. Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said MPD’s practices do not make Memphis safer and urged the city to intervene in terms of police reform and consent decrees. They said they are also committed to working with the city to remedy these patterns.

“Achieving meaningful constitutional policing reform costs time and resources,” Clarke said. “ But not implementing systemic reforms also imposes enormous costs — cost in terms of citizens’ rights that are trampled, personal, and financial costs in injuries and deaths due to excessive, unnecessary use of force, costs in diminished public safety, and millions of dollars in legal judgments against the city due to constitutional violations.”

During a press conference Mayor Paul Young said for those who had not read the report that it would be “difficult to read” and that some types of incidents are “not acceptable.”

“Policing in Memphis must always be ever-evolving, constantly improving, and I’m confident that our team is ready to further the work of creating ongoing change,” Young said. “We believe that adjustments we’ve already begun making must continue and that they must expand.”

In a letter addressed to Justice Department officials, Tannera Gibson, city of Memphis attorney and Chief Legal Officer, said the city will not willfully enter a consent decree based on the report. She said a legal process is required for them to question how they evaluated information, witnesses, and facts used to reach their conclusions.

“Until the city has had the opportunity to review, analyze, and challenge the specific allegations that support your forthcoming findings report, the city cannot — and will not — agree to work toward or enter into a consent decree that will likely be in place for years to come and will cost the residents of Memphis hundreds of millions of dollars,” Gibson said in a statement. “From what we understand, consent decrees remain in place for an average of more than ten years, with absolutely no controls to ensure timely completion or consideration for the financial impact to the affected community. Such a proposal is not the right solution for Memphis.”

Upon sharing these findings, the Official Black Lives Matter Memphis Chapter said the following:

“Confirms what activists and organizers have been saying about the police department for years.” 

Cardell Orrin, executive director of Stand for Children – Tennessee, echoed these sentiments saying this is what they’ve “heard many times and has been debated, disputed, and diminished.”

“Thanks to the investigators from DOJ for validating the experiences of people in Memphis when the people’s representatives have not been willing to acknowledge and do something about it,” Orrin said in a post. “You can go back to the many CLERB (Civilian Law Enforcement Review Board) recommendations that never got addressed by MPD leadership or the city.”

This story will be continually updated as more reactions come in.

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An Illustrated Look Inside the Courtroom During the Tyre Nichols Death Case

Mikhaila Markham, MLK50: Justice Through Journalism

This story was originally published by MLK50: Justice Through Journalism. Subscribe to their newsletter here.

EDITOR’S NOTE: In the United States, federal trials carry a prohibition against recording by the media. In our commitment to community-centered reporting, we asked contributing artist Mikhaila Markham to help us bear witness by illustrating scenes from the frontlines of accountability.  

In the most functional sense, a trial is a community event. The American criminal legal system presents courts and their due process as a way to address our collective grievances and repair what’s been harmed. The widely circulated video of Memphis police officers fatally beating Tyre Nichols laid bare where harm happened. The recently concluded federal trial against three of those officers showed that repair is much harder to see.. 

Last week, a federal jury of their peers found Tadarrius Bean, Justin Smith and Demetrius Haley guilty of some charges related to the death of Tyre Nichols. Bean and Smith were convicted of witness tampering, but acquitted of civil rights charges. Haley was convicted of violating Nichols’ civil rights by causing bodily harm (a lesser charge that absolves the officer from causing his death), witness tampering and conspiring to hide the officers actions. They were acquitted of more serious civil rights charges they were facing. 

“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,” said the family’s attorney Ben Crump in a statement following the verdicts. Other officials echoed the sentiment that they were grateful the officers were held partially accountable. 

Cases like these offer a unique perspective on the limits of our current criminal legal system. The individual police officers in the case are being held responsible by a series of charges tailored to each one’s respective involvement on the scene. 

We’ve watched how Tyre’s family, particularly his parents, respond to the expectations that accompany their visibility. They are stewards of their son’s legacy, fighting to prevent it from being erased by the system that allowed his death to happen. They are fighting to keep another life from being robbed rather than protected. They know the pain of the wounds they carry in the wake of his death and how elusive it is to find healing.

This trial’s conclusion, while holding these police officers to account, comes up short in addressing the violent systemic issues that created the circumstances that led to Tyre’s death and keep our communities under oppression. Healing requires justice, but scenes of justice in our criminal legal system are rare. 

Mikhaila Markham, MLK50: Justice Through Journalism

SEPT. 20, 2024 | The three defendants — Demetrius Haley, Justin Smith and Taddarius Bean — were all seated along the left wall, facing the jury. They did not testify during the proceedings. While they were tried together, each faced individual charges and was represented by their own attorney. During the trial, the attorneys repeatedly shifted blame onto the other defendants.

Mikhaila Markham, MLK50: Justice Through Journalism

SEPT. 20, 2024 | (Left) Federal judge Mark S. Norris presided over the case. (Right) Dr. Marco Ross, the chief medical examiner who wrote Tyre Nichols’ autopsy report, testified to the internal and external injuries Nichols suffered. “Nothing would have reversed it [the brain damage] other than preventing the cardiac arrest,” Ross said. “There is nothing that would have made those injuries heal any more quickly.” 

Mikhaila Markham, MLK50: Justice Through Journalism

SEPT. 25, 2024 | Former Memphis police officer Desmond Mills testified for the prosecution over two days. “I made his child fatherless,” an emotional Mills said from the stand on the first day. In the cross examination, attorney John Keith Perry — representing Bean — asserted that Mills was the only officer whose hands were free, and therefore the only officer who could have prevented former officer Emmitt Martin III from beating Nichols. Mills denied this, maintaining that any one of the officers on scene could have intervened. Faced with charges of his own, Mills pleaded guilty last fall to civil rights and conspiracy charges arising from Nichols’ death. 

Mikhaila Markham, MLK50: Justice Through Journalism

OCT 3. 2024 | Activists, elected officials, and friends attended court regularly alongside the Wells family to observe and offer comfort. Pictured here are (left to right) Amber Sherman, a Memphis-rooted activist; Keyana Dixon, Tyre’s older sister and Tennessee state representative Justin J. Pearson.

Mikhaila Markham, MLK50: Justice Through Journalism

SEPT. 27, 2024 | After a morning of testimony, Judge Norris dismissed the jury for a break. People in court are asked to stand and wait when that happens. Most stood facing forward. As she stood, RowVaughn Wells turned towards the aisle and paused before walking out. 

Mikhaila Markham, MLK50: Justice Through Journalism

SEPT. 25, 2024 | Haley, Bean, and Smith listened to former Memphis police officer Desmond Mills testify in detail about the choices they made together to cover up their role in killing Tyre Nichols. 

Mikhaila Markham, MLK50: Justice Through Journalism

OCT. 2, 2024 | (Left) Attorneys John Keith Perry, representing Bean, and (right) Martin Zummach, representing Smith, during their closing arguments. Perry used a visual aid to chart what he argued was a case against his client that did not meet a burden of proof for his guilt. According to him, Bean was following Memphis Police Department policies, broken as they are, faithfully. “Make the decision, the right decision, because you got the receipts,” Perry said. “Don’t defund the police. Refund Mr. Bean.” Zummach’s closing asked the jury to consider the key roles Martin and Mills, the two officers who already pleaded guilty, took in the beating and attempted cover-up when making a decision about Smith. He also referred to his client’s former supervisor, a retired police officer, who said: “If it was one of my kids that had done something to be arrested, I’d want Justin arresting them.” 

Mikhaila Markham, MLK50: Justice Through Journalism

OCT. 2, 2024 | (Left) Attorney Stephen Leffler, representing Haley, used a large timer to illustrate to the court how much time elapsed before his client made it to the second scene of the MPD’s stop on Nichols. It was at the second scene, a few feet away from his mother’s home, where the fatal assault on Nichols took place. (Top right) RowVaughn Wells and (bottom right) Judge Norris watch.

Mikhaila Markham, MLK50: Justice Through Journalism

OCT. 3, 2024 | After the jury handed down their verdict, Tyreece Miller (right), the United States Marshal for the Western District of Tennessee, escorted the three former police officers out of the courtroom.

Mikhaila Markham is a visual artist based in Memphis. Her work can be viewed on her website: mikhailamarkham.com

Andrea Morales is the visuals director for MLK50: Justice Through Journalism. Email her at  andrea.morales@mlk50.com

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

The Crime Beat, Then and Now

Emcee Otis Sanford, Buddy Chapman, and David Wayne Brown at Brooks book-reading event (Photo: Jackson Baker)

As the Greater Memphis community continues to try to sort out whether it is in the grip of a crime wave or whether, as a recent Crime Commission report indicates, crime statistics are actually on the wane, the subject continues to dominate local attention.

One matter that has remained more or less on the back burner is that of Mayor Paul Young’s proposed director of public safety, a pending position (sometimes referred to in administrative ranks, somewhat less reassuringly, as “public safety advisor”).

Young suggested the new office back in January after the city council declined to endorse his proffered reappointment of C.J. Davis as police chief, and the new mayor, in response, fell back on the expedient of keeping Davis on as interim chief.

From the beginning, it was uncertain whether the proposed directorship was to be a fundamentally new concept or a retooling of a dormant position. Compounding the confusion was the fact that, at some hard-to-pinpoint period in the administration of former Mayor Jim Strickland, the existing title of police director had somehow morphed back into that of police chief, a development making Davis’ currently impermanent position seem all the more tenuous.

But now the suggestion comes from administration sources that the task of filling the new position — however it is to be titled and whatever its scope — is in the “latter” stages and may be just around the corner, with a narrowing down of prospects by mid-June and a likely appointment by July 1st, in time for the new fiscal year.

Meanwhile, coincidentally and maybe usefully, the individual most identified in Memphis history with the erstwhile rank of police director, E. Winslow “Buddy” Chapman, has published his memoir, under the title of Call Me Director: Memoir of a Police Reformer.

Chapman’s service at the helm of city law enforcement came during the administration of former Mayor Wyeth Chandler (1972-1982), and it coincided with conditions that were not unlike those of our present moment.

Mayor Young’s apparent intention with his new directorship is to establish a wide-ranging civilian control over police authority, and that was the mission also of Chapman, who had to fight a protracted battle with the good-old-boy regime of then-Police Chief Bill Crumby to achieve, finally, a workable dominance over local law-enforcement policy.

As Chapman writes in his book, and as he related to an appreciative audience in a book-signing and reading at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art on Monday night, the issues he had to deal with were very like our own these days.

They included instances of police brutality, racism in the MPD ranks, severe financial shortages and under-staffing, and the imperatives of federal supervision. He also had to face down and survive simultaneous police and fire strikes in the crisis year of 1978.

What he strove to impose as an alternative to established practices was a form of what we would call today community policing. And, as he ended his tenure and resumed civilian status, he founded the local CrimeStoppers organization, which he ran as director until recently when he turned the reins over to David Wayne Brown, the co-author and collaborator of his memoir.

The book grapples with the conundrum of finding the right balance between carrot and stick in law enforcement — same as Mayor Young and his soon-to-be public safety director will shortly face — and is well worth their reading and ours.

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News News Blog News Feature

DA Office Confirms Fallen MPD Officer Died by ‘Friendly Fire’

Photo: Memphis Police Department

The Shelby County District Attorney Office has confirmed that fallen Memphis Police Department (MPD) Officer Joseph McKinney was killed by friendly fire.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the DA’s office said they have decided to drop the murder charges against the 17-year-old involved in the Friday, April 12th, shooting.

“We have not proceeded with a murder charge at this time because current information indicates that Officer McKinney was killed by friendly fire,” the DA’s office said in a statement.

McKinney was killed during a police-involved shoot-out in Whitehaven on April 12th. Two suspects opened fire on police after three officers investigated a suspicious vehicle around 2 a.m. near Horn Lake Road and Charter Road. This resulted in McKinney being killed, with one officer being taken to Regional One Health, and another being grazed by a bullet and treated on scene.

The 18-year-old suspect died at the hospital, while the 17-year-old was admitted under critical condition on Friday morning.

While the DA’s office came to this conclusion from their “current information,” they said the 17-year-old’s “reprehensible actions” are still to blame for McKinney’s death.

“Should a legal avenue open up for additional prosecution, be assured we will pursue it,” the DA’s office added.

Chief C.J. Davis of MPD released a statement shortly after this information was released saying that they “continue to mourn the death of Officer Joseph McKinney.”

“The facts remain that our officers responded to a very violent encounter that tragically resulted in Officer McKinney being fatally shot,” the statement read.

The statement showed support McKinney’s family and the Memphis Police Department “in honor of his valor.” The department will conduct a “Sea of Blue” on Sunday, April 21st, in McKinney’s honor.

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News News Blog News Feature

Leaders React to MPD Officer Death with Grief, Sympathy, Anger

Credit: Memphis Police Department via X

Reactions of grief, sympathy, and anger mounted Friday morning as new details emerged about a shootout early Friday morning that left one officer and one suspect dead, and three others injured.  

Memphis Police Department (MPD) officer Joseph McKinney was killed in the event in Whitehaven. He died at Regional One Health Friday morning. He had been assigned to the Raines Road station. 

Three officers investigated a suspicious vehicle around 2 a.m. near Horn Lake and Charter Roads. Two suspects opened fire as police approached the vehicle. 

McKinney was shot and killed. Another officer was shot and taken to Regional One and is now in non-ciritcal condition. The third officer was grazed by a bullet, treated on the scene, and is in stable condition.

Both suspects, 18 and 17, sustained gunfire and both were taken to Regional One. The 18-year-old suspect died at the hospital. The other was in critical condition as of Friday morning. MPD did not release the names of the suspects.  

The 18-year old-suspect was arrested by MPD in March 2024, according to police chief Cerelyn Davis. He was in a stolen vehicle and carried an illegal modified semi-automatic weapon with a Glock switch attached. The switch converted the weapon to a fully automatic machine gun.  He was also charged at that time for two stolen vehicles and having a programming device commonly used to steal cars, Davis said. The suspect was released at that time without bond.  

Reactions from leaders have poured out online: 

Tennessee Senate Minority Leader Raumesh Akbari (D-Memphis) issued a statement Friday morning. 

“This morning MPD Officer Joseph McKinney was killed by gunfire that also injured two of his colleagues,” Akbari said. “Additionally, an 18-year-old is dead and a 17-year-old is in the hospital. Our community is hurting again after another act of senseless gun violence. In this moment, we need to lift up the MPD and the families who are grieving and then come together in finding ways to stop the next tragedy.”

Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9) issued the following statement:

“I am deeply saddened to hear of the death of Officer McKinney, shot in the line of duty this morning,” he said. “Police officers protect society and put their lives in jeopardy every day. Police officers have difficult, often dangerous jobs. We need to keep working to provide them with the resources they need to work as safely as possible.

“I want to express my condolences to Officer McKinney’s family and friends, and my sorrow to the families of the officers injured in this terrible incident.”

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News News Blog News Feature

Locals Respond to DOJ Investigation Into MPD

Credit: U.S. Department of Public Affairs

Many local leaders are hailing the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation into the Memphis Police Department (MPD) as “the right course of action” to address “systemic issues” within the department.

DOJ officials announced Thursday they are opening a civil rights investigation into the city of Memphis and the MPD.

Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general for the civil rights division of the DOJ’s local office said that this investigation will determine “whether there is a pattern or practice of conduct that violates the Constitution or our federal civil rights law.”

Clarke said the move is not in response to a single incident or event, nor is it “confined to a specific unit or type of unit within the MPD.

Local leaders began sharing their thoughts about the investigation after a press conference on the matter Thursday afternoon.

Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy

“I’m pleased the DOJ is investigating civil rights practices within the MPD. While I’m sure most officers are people of good faith, we have systemic issues we need to address. The Tyre Nichols incident was not a one-off, but suggests wider problems of culture.

Only an outside investigation can restore the public confidence we need to get the community cooperating with law enforcement, which is the most important thing to bend the curve on crime. And only DOJ can provide the kind of thorough investigation into systemic practices that we need to restore public confidence.” 

Memphis mayoral candidate Michelle McKissack

“This independent investigation is the right course of action. We need transparency and truth surrounding the tragic death of Tyre Nichols and patterns of misconduct within MPD.

Our community must have trust and faith in the Memphis Police Department. As mayor, I would be committed to fully cooperating with the investigation because it will leave us with a stronger department and a safer city.” 

Attorneys Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci (legal counsel for the family of Tyre Nichols)

“The family of Tyre Nichols is grateful that the Department of Justice heard their cries for accountability and are opening this investigation.

Actions such as this will continue to show that the federal government will not let corruption within police departments take the lives of innocent Americans.

It is our hope that the investigation by the DOJ, under the leadership of Attorney General Garland and Assistant Attorney General Clarke, will provide a transparent account of the abuses of power we have seen and continue to see in Memphis.”

Sen. Raumesh Akbari (D-Memphis)

“My hope is that city and police officials embrace the Department of Justice’s civil rights investigation as an opportunity for systemic change.

Our families are sick and tired of crime and they need our police department to succeed. But well-meaning officers cannot build trust if the department does not holistically address the failures it has made in the past.”

Former Shelby County Commissioner Tami Sawyer

“Let’s not forget that the last time DOJ investigated Memphis, it found that Black youth were treated unfairly in Juvenile Court, the detention center, and by MPD and SCSO. Mayors [Jim] Strickland and [then Shelby County Mayor Mark Lutrell] successfully lobbied the Trump administration to remove those DOJ monitors.”

Just City

“Just City is pleased and encouraged that the Department of Justice has answered our community’s call for a pattern or practice investigation into the city of Memphis and the Memphis Police Department. We proudly added our voice to those of lawmakers, pastors, and advocates leading this demand and provided data analysis as evidence of their claims.

Today’s announcement is evidence of the power of our collective efforts since the tragic killing of Tyre Nichols, but we are also grateful for those who have advocated for more accountability and transparency for years. The opening of this investigation is validation of a long-held understanding by many in our community that our police department is rooted in a culture of violence, racial discrimination, and resistance to accountability.

We hope that our city’s next mayor will take this evidence and investigation seriously and move toward creating meaningful accountability for police officers and enact plans to reduce the over-policing of Black communities. This is a pivotal opportunity, and we hope this investigation results in renewed trust and public safety in a community desperate for both.”

Democratic State House Minority Leader and Memphis mayoral candidate Rep. Karen Camper

“The announcement of the Department of Justice investigation into the patterns and practices of the Memphis Police Department brings us one step closer to putting an end to a culture of racism, violence and violation that has been systemic in the department.

This investigation is focused on what we know must be fixed right now, but I believe it will be a catalyst for reform so that we do not have to have to fix it again in the future.

The work to create a more just and equitable Memphis continues and I promise you that I will always be in the fight with you.”

Rev. Al Sharpton

“When I delivered the eulogy for Tyre [Nichols] this February, I made a clear call for the Justice Department to look at the policies and procedures that led to his death.

“You cannot allow a police department to continue business as usual when there’s clear video of multiple officers ripping him from his car, shoving him to the pavement, and senselessly beating him to death.”

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

Local Journalist Files Suit Over Memphis Police Audits

What happened to government transparency? (Photo: Phartisan | Dreamstime.com)

For two and a half years, the City of Memphis has sent journalist Marc Perrusquia perfunctory communications that it is still reviewing and considering his records request, each time pushing the date for its response down the road. Perrusquia asked for the audits and evaluations of a Memphis police program that provides non-disciplinary intervention when police officers exhibit behavior and performance problems. The city’s policy and procedure manual requires an audit of the program every six months to evaluate the outcomes of supervisory interventions and the quality of reviews. Quarterly reports are also required.

Perrusquia, a journalist in Memphis for more than 30 years, asked for five years of the audits and evaluations on December 6, 2020. If an audit is done every six months in compliance with the city’s policy, that’s 10 audits. However, the city stonewalled his request, contacting him 41 times extending the “time necessary” to complete it. One time, the city told him that the responsive documents were with the city attorney for review. Then the next month, the city said it had not yet determined that records responsive to his request existed. Now Perrusquia has filed a lawsuit against the city over the delays, saying they amount to a constructive denial of his public records request. His attorney is Paul McAdoo with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and represents journalists in Tennessee as part of the Reporters Committee Local Legal Initiative.

The Tennessee Public Records Act (TPRA) outlines how government entities are required to respond to a public records request in T.C.A. § 10-7-503 (a)(2)(B):

“The custodian of a public record or the custodian’s designee shall promptly make available for inspection any public record not specifically exempt from disclosure. In the event it is not practicable for the record to be promptly available for inspection, the custodian shall, within seven (7) business days: (i) Make the public record requested available to the requestor; (ii) Deny the request in writing or by completing a records request response form developed by the office of open records counsel. The response shall include the basis for the denial; or (iii) Furnish the requester in writing, or by completing a records request response form developed by the office of open records counsel, the time reasonably necessary to produce the record or information.”

Perrusquia’s lawsuit says the city’s “chronic delay is a violation of the TPRA’s requirement that non-exempt public records be made ‘promptly’ available to the requester.” He also takes aim with the city’s multiple extensions of “the time reasonably necessary to produce the record or information.” “Mr. Perrusquia’s attempts to obtain these public records without filing a petition with this Court have been unsuccessful. It is therefore necessary to bring this action for access and judicial review,” the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit aims at a problem that confounds many journalists and others in Tennessee who request public records: A government entity that gives an estimate on when records will be available, then keeps extending the time over and over. Or, as in Perrusquia’s case: A government that never gives a time estimate and just keeps sending a pro forma letter that it is still reviewing the request and it will let you know later.

In my work as executive director of Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, I’ve often seen denial letters to journalists and citizens with this phrase: “The office is still in the process of retrieving, reviewing, and/or redacting the requested records,” with a note that the requester will hear back in another 30 days. The 30 days come, and the journalist gets the same response. Or they get no response, as if someone forgot to send out the letter again. On the outside, it feels like nothing is being done on your request for records and that maybe no one has even looked at it.

The problem with delays has been acute in Memphis for years. In August 2019, the Memphis Business Journal produced an investigative report about the city’s responses to public records requests. It documented a request it made on December 6, 2017. It was fulfilled a year later, but only after the editor of the newspaper was meeting with a high-level staffer about another matter and mentioned the delayed request. After he did, the staffer promised to look into it, and within three days the city fulfilled the request.

The city responded in the story, saying they initially thought they might have a staffing issue, either needing more people or more training of people. But later they told the newspaper they had a better handle on the situation and had updated its policy from a first-in/first-out to a rolling request system. “Under the new process, rather than letting one request hold up the queue just because it was received first, custodians will try to fill the easy requests quickly and fill large requests in sections.” That was 2019.

No matter the processes employed by government entities, Perrusquia’s lawsuit may be the first in Tennessee that has taken aim at unusual and inexplicable delays. It’s notable that he is asking for records that go to the heart of questions about police oversight in Memphis. His request was made in December 2020. In January 2023, Tyre Nichols was pulled over by police for what they said was reckless driving, then beat to such a pulp that he later died. Much of it was caught on body camera and a street camera. The police officers directly involved have been relieved of duty.

The audits of the city’s police program that seeks to intervene in behavior problems of police should have been released quickly, back in 2021. What do they show? Perhaps this lawsuit will shake them loose and, at the same time, push back on the pattern of delays that undermine transparency in government.

The case has been assigned to Shelby County Chancellor Melanie Taylor Jefferson.

Deborah Fisher is executive director of Tennessee Coalition for Open Government. Previously she spent 25 years in the news industry as a journalist.