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.”
“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.
The Memphis Police Department (MPD) is aware of threats circulating on social media targeted towards schools in the area. While officers and Memphis Shelby County Schools (MSCS) are investigating threats, the schools have been placed on soft lockdown per MPD.
Officer Christopher Williams of MPD said no injuries have been reported at this time and instructed media to reach out to MSCS for additional information.
Memphis Shelby County Schools posted a statement to their social media pages that they were aware of these threats.
“As a precautionary measure, please do not go to your child’s school as law enforcement is actively investigating,” the statement said. MSCS said they will provide updates as necessary.
A Facebook user by the name of Joseph Braxton posted photos of screenshots from Instagram stories from a user by the name of @austinsmith9624. These screenshots tagged Southwind High School with the user threatening to “take out 30 people or more with a sk and a ar15 [sic].”
The user also posted they will be delivering their message at lunch time and that people will regret bullying them.
“Anyone in my way may be dealt with outside or inside,” the user said in another post.
This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
Shawn Jones. Photo Credit: Memphis Police Department
The Memphis Police Department has parted ways with Shawn Jones, former Assistant Chief of Police Services.
Interim Chief Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis and Mayor Paul Young held a press conference at City Hall on Monday night to make the announcement. Young mentioned that Jones had been the “subject of conversation,” over the past week, and that they wanted to inform the public that Jones had been let go.
“It was not due to any issues or concerns around residency,” Young said. “It’s really just overall just looking at the broader direction of the department, and we believe that he’s done great work for the city, but it’s time for him to move on.”
Earlier this month it was revealed that Jones’ reported primary residency was in Georgia. However, Young said due to recent changes in Tennessee law, this wasn’t a violation, and that his decision was based on what’s going to “take MPD to the next level.”
House Bill 0105 was passed and went into effect in April 2022. Under this legislation, local government is not allowed to enact penalties or repercussions on first responders because of where they live.
Young said anytime he needed Jones he was present, and Davis said he came to the office every day and took “very few days off.” She also said he had a residency in Harbor Town, and that his role was not a permanent one.
“The role in [the] Memphis Police Department requires a lot of hours and we all work a lot of hours — not just during the week but also on the weekends. He was fulfilling that role just like any of my other employees,” Davis said.
She also said Jones was hired as someone who was familiar with the way she liked to operate, and it was not intended that he was to live in the city permanently.
Young emphasized that since he’d taken office, there had been conversations regarding “morale” of the force and other internal issues. During these talks, Young said Jones’ name would repeatedly be brought up. He continued to assert that his decision was not based of of Jones’ residency in Georgia.
“I think he was making moves and taking actions that were necessary, but it also caused some conflict,” Young said.
Davis said Jones was responsible for administrative duties such as training, investigation services, and “financial aspects” of the department.
Judge Carol Chumney, at the dais, was among the many members of the political community to pay homage to the late Dr. Joe Weinberg, civic activist supreme, at the Great Hall of Germantown Monday night. (Photo: Jackson Baker)
It may be only a semantic issue, but, then again, there could be legal ramifications from the matter of what title interim Memphis Police Chief C.J. Davis goes by, should she be approved by the city council in its pending retry of her reappointment.
In January, Davis, originally an appointee of former Mayor Jim Strickland, was rejected by the council when then newly inaugurated Mayor Paul Young submitted her name for reappointment.
Young subsequently designated Davis as interim MPD head and indicated he would ask the council to reconsider. Reportedly he will resubmit her name when the city’s ongoing budget deliberations are concluded.
Meanwhile, Young has also announced that he intends to name a public safety director (or public safety advisor). The job’s exact nomenclature, like the timeline for that appointment and the outlines of the public safety official’s intended relationship to the MPD chief, remains somewhat uncertain.
The city charter mandates that the head of police services be referred to by the title “director,” and every supervisor of MPD operations — uniformed or otherwise — since E. Winslow “Buddy” Chapman during the mayoralty of Wyeth Chandler (1972-1982) has borne that title. Except for C.J. Davis, who allegedly indicated a preference for the title “chief’ when she was hired.
No one seems to remember what title was used in the Strickland-era council’s deliberations — nor, for that matter, in the deliberations of the current council earlier this year. But questions arise:
If and when Mayor Young’s appointment of the putative new public safety official comes to pass, will there be a power struggle with the police chief, as there was between Director Chapman and then-Chief Bill Crumby Jr. before Chapman won out?
Unless Davis is resubmitted as police director, does she even need to be approved by the council to continue serving as chief?
Legal briefs
• The ouster trial of Shelby County Clerk Wanda Halbert has been scheduled to begin on August 26th in the court of Circuit Court Judge Felicia Corbin-Johnson, who rejected a motion to dismiss the petition filed by special prosecutor Coty Wamp of Hamilton County. Meanwhile, a motion to suspend Halbert while the case is ongoing was set for June 25th.
• A resentencing hearing for former state Senator Katrina Robinson has been scheduled by Chief U.S. District Judge Sheryl Lipman for September 20th. Robinson had previously been convicted on two wire-fraud charges in connection with her nursing-school operation and sentenced to time served and a year’s probation.
The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals later restored an additional count she had been convicted of before it was thrown out. Robinson, a Democrat, was expelled from the Republican-dominated Senate after her original conviction on the wire-fraud charges. She is seeking a new trial on one remaining count.
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.
Push is coming to shove in the public outrage stemming from the shooting death last week of MPD Officer Joseph McKinney. And the shoving, on behalf of stouter crackdowns on local crime, is coming from more sources than ever before.
Mayor Paul Young, who has arguably been somewhat slow on the draw in fleshing out his crime program, cruising along with an interim police chief and nobody yet to fill his ballyhooed position of public safety director, is suddenly all cries and alarms.
Sounding almost like some of the more active Republican critics of Memphis crime in the legislature, Young released a statement including these words: “Together, let’s petition our judges and the DA for stronger, swifter sentencing for violent offenses. If you are part of the judicial system, hear my voice first. We need to work together to do better for our community.”
DA Steve Mulroy himself expressed anger that a $150,000 bond that he’d previously set for previous crimes committed by the youth suspected in the death of Officer McKinney had been somehow amended by a judicial commissioner to allow the youth back on the streets through his own recognizance.
And Shelby County Commissioner Mick Wright, a leading critic of the current crime wave, was warning, on behalf of his commission mates, “We are not finished. … You’re going to see some judges get exited stage left if I have anything to say about it.”
It was a definite irony that, scarcely a week after the MPD had announced the 100th homicide in Memphis this year, Young scheduled this week’s public celebration of his first 100 days in office at Mt. Vernon Baptist Church.
Perhaps the mayor will use that occasion to outline further his and the city council’s plan for a new nonprofit organization to reverse the crime trend.
• Former Shelby County Democratic chair Gabby Salinas, who in recent years ran two close races against established Republican office-holders, has a different situation on her hands this year.
She’s running for the state House District 96 seat being vacated by Democratic incumbent Dwayne Thompson. Not a Republican contestant in sight so far, but Salinas has four Democratic rivals — Eric Dunn, Telisa Franklin, Orrden Williams Jr., and David Winston. She remains the favorite.
• As mentioned in this space of late, Democrats are seriously contesting the state House District 97 seat now held by Republican John Gillespie. Mindful of the potential perils of procrastination, they brought out some heavy artillery last week.
At a fundraiser for party candidate Jesse Huseth at the home of attorney Robert Donati last week, an important attendee was 9th District U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, the county’s senior Democratic office-holder, who formally bestowed his endorsement on Huseth and was critical of Gillespie for legislative actions intended to shift various aspects of law-enforcement authority from the city to the state.
Cohen noted that the 97th, which was redistricted by the legislature last year, would now seem to be tilted demographically to Democrats in this election year — “up three points for Huseth and up five points for Biden.”
As Huseth himself put it, the East Memphis-based district had lost “four solid-red precincts and picked up two light-blue precincts and two light-red precincts.”
The point of the redistricting, which was carried out by the General Assembly’s GOP supermajority, remains something of a mystery, although it is said that Gillespie signed off on it, thinking it gave him more potential access to‚ and opportunity to serve, the business community.
• No doubt emboldened by the local unpopularity of Governor Bill Lee’s school-voucher program, which was formally opposed by the Memphis-Shelby County School Board and by the boards of the six municipal school districts as well, Democrats are taking another crack at the state House District 83 seat held by Mark White, House education chair and a champion of vouchers.
At least one Democrat is: political newcomer Noah Nordstrom, an MSCS Spanish teacher.
New data shows that not only does traffic enforcement in Memphis seem to be ineffective in promoting a safer city, but Black residents receive four times as many traffic tickets as white residents.
Decarcerate Memphis, an organization devoted to solving systemic policing problems, published “The People’s Report 2024: Driving While BIPOC” on Monday, which includes data collected from 2017 to August 2023. The group says their findings conclude that traffic stops increased by a quarter following the death of Tyre Nichols.
“This year’s report shows racial disparities continue — 81 percent of citations are issued to people of color in Memphis, who also receive 90 percent of tickets with two or more citations per ticket,” the group says. “Furthermore, the report finds no relationship between traffic stops and reported crimes, while citations for non-moving violations are associated with an increase in traffic fatalities.”
In the aftermath of the death of Tyre Nichols, Memphis City Council passed a number of driving ordinances such as the Driving Equality Act in Honor of Tyre Nichols, which prohibits officers from pulling drivers over for minor violations such as broken tail lights. However, Decarcerate Memphis’ report says that the Memphis Police Department (MPD) issued more citations.
“Despite the ineffectiveness of non-moving violations on crime or road safety, MPD has significantly emphasized non-moving citations since 2020,” the report says. “After all traffic enforcement cratered in March 2020, MPD officers brought non-moving violations roaring back to pre-pandemic levels within months. Moving violations, meanwhile, are still in lockdown.”
A majority of MPD’s traffic citations (60-64 percent) since 2020 were the result of non-moving violations, the report says. The organization says this is a “weak strategy” and adds that court records proved that traffic enforcement does not help resolve serious crimes.
After pulling a random sample of 1,432 court cases in 2023, the group found that 150 of the cases were pretextual traffic stops with “minor infractions.” The data also concluded that 91 of these cases (61 percent) didn’t result in felony charges.
Discrimination was another key finding in the report, as Black people make up about 64 percent of Memphis’ population and were found to receive a majority of traffic tickets (74 percent.) This further proved the assertion that non-moving traffic violations are not only ineffective in public safety measures, but disproportionately affect people of color.
“Black residents make up 81 percent of defendants in criminal court — among pretextual traffic stop defendants, 91 percent are Black,” the report reads. “Counterintuitively, white defendants are more likely than Black defendants to be convicted of petty charges. This likely reflects a relative absence of summoning white Memphians to court for charges that aren’t worth pursuing.”
Decarcerate Memphis added that their data suggests racial disparities can be “partially explained” by the types of traffic enforcement such as the Organized Crime Unit and the now disbanded SCORPION unit. They say these officers “spend less time on safety-related citations than conventional units.”
To illustrate this, the group compared citations from the “top ticketers of uniform patrol and specialized unit.” The findings showed that 87 percent of the specialized unit officer’s citations were for non-moving violations, while the uniform patrol officer reported 22 percent. While specialized unit officers’ main goal is to “take guns and drugs off the streets,” the organization says they rarely achieve their goal by pulling over and searching “suspicious” cars.
“The burden of the fruitless detentions, searches, and petty charges falls squarely on poor people and people of color,” the report says. “This uniform patrol officer issued 73 percent of their tickets to Black drivers — still disproportionate by population, roughly in line with the overall racial disparity for MPD. “
The report concludes with a number of recommendations proposed by the group, heavily emphasizing traffic enforcement laws. They also urge the leadership of MPD to not only comply with these laws, but to provide timely updates to measure the success of their implementation.
Other suggestions include the end of specialized units as well as data transparency from these units. The group also encourages the deprioritization of non-moving violations.
“Memphis and Shelby County have, in some respects, truly become more threatening in recent years: traffic fatalities have risen, especially since 2020; fewer people are able to legally drive; and people of color face more discrimination on the road and in court. These developments occurred, not in spite of law enforcement efforts, but because of the ineffective and harmful approaches that law enforcement favors.”
Memphis Police Department Chief CJ Davis did not win immediate support from the Memphis City Council to keep her job last week. But the final decision may come next week.
More than 77 percent of 106 voters in an X poll by council chairman JB Smiley Jr. last week said they did not want Davis as top cop anymore.
Damn Weather
Snow and cold temperatures were forecast for Memphis before press time. To prepare, The Damn Weather of Memphis asked Facebook friends about uniquely Memphis weather preparations.
One stocks a Yeti cooler with Tops food. Another showed a “full carb sellout” with empty bread shelves at the Germantown Kroger. Most suggested stocking up on alcohol, lots of alcohol.
Lion Tale
Posted to Facebook by John Hinant
That urban myth about a Memphis Zoo lion used as the original MGM logo lion surfaced again in the Historic Memphis Facebook group last week. The myth has been denied by zoo officials at least as far back as the 1950s.
Justin J. Pearson and Gloria Johnson (left) march to a Shelby County Commission meeting in April. (Photo: Andrea Morales for MLK50)
On July 27, 2023, the Department of Justice opened a civil rights investigation of the Memphis Police Department. Although the investigation comes six months after the beating death of Tyre Nichols at the hands of the MPD, U.S. Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said the investigation was not prompted by any single incident, but rather by multiple reports of violence and racism which suggested fundamental problems with the department’s standards and practices.
“It can’t be overstated how important it is, and what a critical opportunity this is for our community,” says Josh Spickler, founder of Just City, a nonprofit devoted to criminal justice reform.
Around the same time the DOJ announced its investigation, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation released its 2022 crime report, which breaks down all reported crimes and arrests in each jurisdiction. As reported in “What’s Wrong With The MPD?,” the previous Memphis Flyer story in this series, MPD’s 2021 clearance rate, the ratio of crimes reported to arrests made, was 22 percent. In 2022, it fell to 18 percent.
Josh Spickler (Photo: Andrea Morales for MLK50)
Clearance rates have been falling across the country for years. In 1960, the national clearance rate for murder was higher than 90 percent; today, that number is just over 50 percent. The Nashville Metro Police Department’s 2022 clearance rate was 25 percent.
Even so, the MPD’s ineffectiveness, as measured by their own standards, is shocking, especially given that the police department’s $284 million budget represents 39 percent of the total city budget. “If we talk about the basics of government function, which our current mayor does quite a bit, one of the basic responsibilities of a police department is to try to solve crime. Eighty-two percent of the time, they’re failing to do that,” says Spickler. “Hopefully we will have some really frank conversations about the results of the [DOJ] investigation. We have to have accountability for this police department because that’s what leads to trust. Trust leads to solving crimes, which leads to this clearance rate going up, which leads to people who commit crime and harm us being held accountable. That’s what we all ultimately want.”
Renardo Baker, far right, executive director of I Shall Not Die But Live! and his Memphis Allies SWITCH (Support With Intention to Create Hope) team. They are the newest ally organization — joining LifeLine to Success and Neighborhood Christian Centers — fielding SWITCH teams alongside Youth Villages. Baker’s group launched Memphis Allies work in Orange Mound. (Photo: Courtesy Youth Villages)
Guns Everywhere
When you talk about crime in Tennessee, guns are the elephant in the room. According to the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission, gun-related violent incidents have been climbing steadily since 2016. So far this year, gun crime is up 11 percent over 2022.
Guns are everywhere in Tennessee, and that’s how the Republican supermajority in the legislature likes it. In 2021, the Tennessee State Legislature made it legal for almost anyone to carry a firearm without a permit. After the March 2023 Covenant School shooting in Nashville, where a former student killed three children and three teachers with a legally purchased AR-15 assault rifle, a student-led protest movement urged the legislature to pass red flag laws, which would allow authorities to confiscate guns from people who are deemed dangerous to themselves or others. When Democratic state representatives Justin J. Pearson, Justin Jones, and Gloria Johnson brought the protests into the House chamber, the Republican supermajority responded by expelling Pearson and Jones, both of whom are Black. (Johnson, who is white, missed expulsion by one vote.) President Joe Biden called the expulsions “shocking, undemocratic, and without precedent.” Both Pearson and Jones were easily reelected to their seats earlier this month in time to participate in a special session called by Governor Bill Lee, ostensibly to address the state’s exploding epidemic of gun violence.
“The erosion of our protections from gun safety legislation has led to a direct increase of the number of funerals of children that we go to and the number of people in our community who are being killed because of gun violence,” says Pearson. “Gun violence is the number-one killer of children because of the decisions of the Tennessee state legislature that invoked permitless carry and that have put the values of the Tennessee Firearms Association, American Firearms Association, and the National Rifle Association over the lives of people.
“We need to have more laws that protect kids, not guns,” Pearson continues. “We need laws such as extreme risk protection orders that take guns away from people who are domestically abusing their spouses. We need laws that strengthen background checks to make sure people who are getting access to guns who shouldn’t have them no longer have them. We need to be able to track where these guns are coming from and how they are getting into our community. Memphis doesn’t have any gun manufacturers, yet we have this extreme amount of gun violence. We need to figure out why that is and who is proliferating and profiting off of the pain and suffering we are experiencing.”
Recent proposals before the city council would repeal permitless carry in Memphis and ban the sale of assault rifles. Many assume that if these proposals passed, the Republican supermajority in the state legislature would simply preempt them. “In fact, our racist Speaker Cameron Sexton said that he was an ‘overseer’ to more progressive cities,” says Pearson. “The reality is, we are always going to be facing the issue of preemption. Our state legislators who represent Memphis and Shelby County, they’re going to have to start standing tall and speaking up and using their voices.”
Pearson says the Black communities in Tennessee are disproportionately affected by gun violence. Twelve percent of Tennesseans are Black, but they represent 38 percent of crime victims in the TBI report. “I buried a friend this year,” says Representative Pearson. “Last year, I buried a mentor who died from gun violence. This is not normal.”
Daniel Muhammad, of the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform, leads a training for Memphis Allies staff. (Photo: Courtesy Youth Villages)
What Won’t Work
Is the solution to Memphis’ crime problem simply to hire more police officers? “There is evidence that the presence of police has an impact on crime, which feeds this [faulty] argument that we just need more of ’em,” says Spickler.
While people are less likely to commit crime in the presence of a police officer, the assumption that a bigger police department leads to safer communities does not hold up to scientific scrutiny. A meta study published in the August 2016 Journal of Experimental Criminology collected all available data about police force size and crime rates from 1968 to 2013. The researchers found that “The overall effect size for police force size on crime is negative, small, and not statistically significant,” and that “Changing policing strategy is likely to have a greater impact on crime than adding more police.”
A just-published report from Catalyst California and ACLU of Southern California crunched data on sheriff’s offices throughout their state. “A common, long-held belief is that communities need to greatly invest in law enforcement — rather than other potential safety solutions — to prevent serious violence from occurring,” the authors wrote. “This ‘tough on crime’ approach views law enforcement as the primary (if not sole) solution to protect community members from heinous harms like homicide, robbery, and assault. It presumes that law enforcement agencies significantly focus their efforts on responding to calls for help (e.g. 911) from community members in imminent danger, and that their actions are an effective means of harm prevention.”
Instead, the study found that California sheriff’s departments spent very little time actually responding to calls for help. In Los Angeles County, only 11 percent of deputies’ time was spent on “service calls.” The rest of the time was spent on traffic stops, two-thirds of which were non-moving violations used as a pretext to search for drugs and weapons.
While this study did not cover Tennessee, it is consistent with a larger pattern in modern policing. The incident that ended in Tyre Nichols’ death began as a pretextual traffic stop by the MPD’s SCORPION unit. “The reality is that things like ‘jump out squads’ have been happening in communities, especially poor communities of color, for generations,” says Spickler.
“Fundamentally, we have to rethink the Memphis Police Department,” he says. “I think that it needs to be replaced with something broader than a police department — something more along the lines of an office of public safety that includes not just armed people in cars patrolling, but also people who can be responsive to some of the drivers of what people think of as crime but are really more nuisances or public health issues.
“Administrative things like traffic and car tags, mental illness, homelessness — those are all things that we can respond to in another way. It will keep us from having things like Tyre Nichols or the many, many other use-of-force incidents we’re familiar with. This department needs to essentially go away and be rebuilt and rebranded as something different than an occupying force that is out there trying desperately to do something about crime. It’s no knock on the people out there trying, wearing the badges. That’s an impossible task. Let’s give them a job that they can accomplish instead of just sending them in to fail.”
Signs of Hope
K. Durell Cowan knows the effects of injustice first hand. In 2010, his uncle died in police custody in Richmond, Virginia. In 2015, a friend asked Cowan to give him a ride. The friend had just been robbed, and Cowan says, “He ended up seeing the guy who actually robbed him that day, and [my friend] killed him. Just because I’m a big Black guy in Memphis, no one would believe that I had no involvement in the thing. I was charged with first-degree murder.”
K. Durell Cowan (Photo: Courtesy Heal 901)
Cowan avoided serious jail time, but he lost his job as an office manager. His life in ruins, “I was admitted into two mental hospitals in Memphis. In the middle of a mental episode, a voice came to me and said, ‘If you had another chance in life, what would you do?’ … Heal 901 was created from taking my pain and turning it into power.”
Heal 901 began by feeding the homeless and bringing social services to people who could not access them. In 2019, a brawl erupted at a basketball game between Westwood High School and Fairley High School. In the aftermath, Cowan stepped in to mediate between the feuding groups. The experience inspired him to expand his conflict-resolution efforts to the streets of South Memphis. “We look at gun violence at Heal 901 as a public-health issue, understanding that guns are readily available, and that we have been desensitized when it comes to the value of life.”
Heal 901’s crew of violence interventionists are drawn from “those who have been part of the justice system,” Cowan explains. “We give them the opportunity to go and fix the same neighborhoods that some of them played a part in destroying. We work closely with the Shelby County Office of Reentry, Probation, and Parole to find qualified candidates to go out and do this work. … My staff walks into an environment where people are walking around holding AR-15s, AK-47s, long guns, short guns, extended high-capacity magazines. And they’re out there with nothing but a cell phone.”
Heal 901’s current target area is the New Horizon Apartment Complex at Winchester and Millbranch. “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that when you hear loud yelling and commotion, those verbal altercations lead to physical altercations, which lead to gun violence. That’s the flow; that’s the formula. You have to interrupt as soon as you hear the chitter-chatter.”
The interventionists defuse volatile situations. “You tell them that you care about them as an individual, to take the time to help them associate themselves with reality. Like, hey, this is probably not the best move when you got children who depend on you. Gun violence is not something that takes a long time to do. It takes less than three seconds to pull a gun and pull the trigger. So you have to intervene quickly and have someone thinking of something else before they make that decision. Because it’s now to a point that people are reacting with these weapons.”
Susan Deason (Photo: Courtesy Youth Villages)
Susan Deason is executive director of Memphis Allies, an initiative that was launched by Youth Villages in 2021 to reduce gun violence in Memphis and Shelby County. She says, “This is a collaborative initiative that engages multiple other organizations in addition to Youth Villages to serve those at highest risk for involvement with gun violence and to provide services to those individuals to change the trajectory that they have been on previously.
“We serve individuals anywhere from the ages of 12 to 30 and above. There’s a few criteria we look at, and of course you also have to get to know the individual to understand their particular circumstances. But typically it would be somebody who does have an extensive history with the legal system. So they may have already received some weapons charges. They have recently, within the past 12 to 18 months, been shot or shot at. They have close friends or family members who have been recently shot or shot at. They are typically out of school or unemployed and are also typically involved in a gang or a crew.”
Deason says most people are looking for a way out of their violent circumstances. “While there are individuals who don’t need to be out on the streets based on the crime that they committed, ultimately we believe everybody needs a chance to be rehabilitated and to make different choices — and oftentimes, someone who is at highest risk and who is involved in gun violence doesn’t really know about those other opportunities, or hasn’t had somebody to help them make those changes. And it’s very difficult to make a complete lifestyle change on your own.”
Cowan agrees it’s important to help people understand they’re not alone. “It’s sad to hear adults say that they’re afraid of children, and these children are literally asking for help.”
In April 2022, Mayor Strickland appointed Jimmie H. Johnson, a 12-year MPD veteran, as the administrator for the city of Memphis’ Group Violence Intervention Program. “We’ve contracted with 901 Bloc Squad as our street intervention team, and they have staffed up to approximately 100 individuals,” Johnson says. “They are mainly out there in the neighborhood, staying abreast of what’s going on between groups, keeping street beefs down to a minimum. We have approximately eight hospital interventionists that are assigned to and at the disposal of Regional One, and we’re soon to be in Methodist North Hospital. We want to expand to every hospital in the city.”
Johnson’s “credible messengers” talk to people with fresh gunshot wounds. “When somebody’s being transported to the hospital, you have to go to them and say, ‘We’d like to stop this cycle of violence. We wanna help you.’”
Root Causes
Throughout history, crime and violence have always been associated with poverty. It’s no coincidence that the American cities with the highest crime rates, including Detroit, St. Louis, Baltimore, and Memphis, are among the country’s poorest cities. According to the University of Memphis’ 2022 Memphis Poverty Fact Sheet, 23 percent of Memphians live below the poverty level, 10 points higher than the national average. Thirty-three percent of Memphis’ children are impoverished, almost double the national average of 17 percent. “The most important thing that we can do to deal with gun violence and gun violence prevention is to deal with the issue of poverty,” says Pearson. “If we don’t address root causes of economic inequality and racial injustice in Memphis and Shelby County in Tennessee, then these types of issues like gun violence are going to continuously be entrenched in policies and practices of the legislature and of people in positions of power.”
While there are signs of hope on the poverty front, restoring the community’s trust in policing will be a long, painstaking process. “It’s not one switch that we just haven’t found yet,” says Spickler. “One day, we can get to a trust place again, but it ain’t gonna be anytime soon until we deal with the past and plot a course for the future.”
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.”
