MEMPHIS—Pepper sprayed, physically assaulted, tasered multiple times, arrested and served two days in jail for theft and disorderly conduct. The offending crime that earned such an egregious assault? A mentally ill man attempted to shoplift a $2 can of soda from a gas station.
Though he gave up his attempt to take the soda and left the store, a police officer followed him onto the parking lot, yelling at him to leave. More patrol cars arrived on the scene.
Despite raising his hands, an officer suddenly grabbed him—without warning—and threw him against a squad car, while a newly arrived officer kneed him and pressed his forearm on the man’s neck after pulling him to the ground.
As the man screamed for the officers not to kill him and attempted to run away, he was tased. When the shock did not incapacitate him, another officer held him in a chokehold while he was tased three more times, including once when he was already face down on the ground and his hands restrained behind his back.
By the time the encounter ended, at least nine police cars and 12 Memphis Police Department (MPD) officers had responded to the scene.
This was only one of many incidents cited in a December 4th findings report issued by the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division (D.O.J.) announcing that they have “reasonable cause to believe” that MPD and the City of Memphis (The City) have “engaged in a pattern or practice of conduct that violates the U.S. Constitution and federal law.”
The 17-month investigation began July 2023 after the brutal and fatal beating of Tyre Nichols by five MPD officers that gained national attention. The five officers were convicted of federal felonies. RowVaughn Wells, mother of Mr. Nichols, has filed a landmark $550 million lawsuit against the City of Memphis.
The report is rife with systemic abuse of authority, inadequate training of police personnel and improper handling of encounters with mental health sufferers and children, and racial discrimination in a city that is majority Black and home to the largest law enforcement agency in Tennessee, which is also predominately Black.
“Memphis police officers regularly violate the rights of the people they are sworn to serve,” the report states. “Our investigation found that officers use force to punish and retaliate against people who do not immediately do as they say.
They readily escalate encounters, including traffic stops and excessive force even when people are already handcuffed or restrained. They resort to intimidation and threats.”
The report also showed a pattern of training that encouraged the use of force. “For example, one training’s imagery on escalation implies that if officers can physically overpower a person, they should do that first, rather than talking to them; while another training officer instructs, ‘if a fight is unavoidable, hurt them first and hurt them bad.’”
Officers were also not given clear guidance on what they can and cannot do and supervisors failed to ensure that departmental policies are followed and offer very little oversight. “Supervisors encourage officers to make large numbers of traffic stops and reward those who do so with advancement in the police department,” the report claims.
This is problematic because Memphis has relied on traffic stops to address violent crime. They are encouraged to flood neighborhoods with traffic stops, but MPD officers were found to conduct unreasonable frisks or searches following pedestrian or traffic stops without justification.
They routinely handcuff and detain people in their patrol vehicles during stops, conduct invasive body searches in public view, including body cavity searches; conduct unlawful vehicle searches, and, at times, these stops end in physical encounters resulting in hospitalizations or even death.
It is the predominately Black neighborhoods that are often targeted with this type of “saturation policing,” resulting in higher rates of citations and arrests among Black residents and a disproportionate amount of the Black population experiencing these violations of rights.
“MPD’s intrusive and unconstitutional stops, searches and arrests violate the rights of people throughout Memphis. The impact of being unlawfully stopped, frisked, detained, handcuffed, searched or arrested is hard to quantify. The damage to one’s dignity, reputation and self-image can be lasting and traumatic,” the report stated.
“One man told us, ‘Getting pulled over in our community is a frightening experience.’ He said officers ‘spark fear in order to control.’ A man who experienced a cavity search said that he now spends more time in his house, ‘can’t eat’ and gets jumpy whenever he sees a police car,” continued the report narrative.
Senior Pastor Andre E. Johnson of Gifts of Life Ministry was not surprised by the findings.
“People in this community, the activists and others concerned about policing in the City of Memphis were vindicated in our protests and activities,” he said. “We were telling the city and anybody who would listen, the MPD was bad for us.”
He continued: “It is not the color of the officers or who is in charge that dictates who gets abused, it’s the color of the victims. People still trying to wrap their heads around [the fact] we have a majority Black police department, but to us who research and write about this work, rooted in all of this is an anti-Blackness that is pervasive throughout.”
“Policing in America, period, is grounded and rooted in racism, anti-blackness and a whole host of issues and problems,” Senior Pastor Johnson said. “Even the report was talking about training. If you are already rooted in that, how else can you train? How else can you move up [in the department] other than what you have been trained in? This, at its root, is our problem.”
In an address to the Black Police Association in Philadelphia, delivered August 14, 1997, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan addressed this mindset.
“The uniform that you wear is the uniform of that which is perceived as an enemy. Because, traditionally, the police have not been the friends of the Black community,” Minister Farrakhan said. “And sometimes when we join the force, in our own mental sickness, we have become more vicious in our treatment of our own, oft times, than the White members of the police force.
And in our mental sickness, to show them how much you hate what our people are doing and the ignorance of our people, sometimes you feed into the racist mentality that pervades police work in the United States.”
From 2021 to the present, the D.O.J. is currently investigating and/or has issued findings on 11 other police departments and in all of the investigations, with the exception of one, they had two common threads that tie them together: excessive use of force and discriminatory policing against Black citizens.
On the day the findings were released, City Attorney Tannera G. Gibson, issued a written response to D.O.J. Civil Rights Division litigants citing reasons for the City’s decision to not enter into an Agreement in Principle (consent decree) with the D.O.J.
Among the primary concerns were lack of adequate time to review the findings, the methods of evaluation of information, credibility of the witnesses and the facts used to arrive at the conclusion and the potential financial cost.
“Such a proposal is not the right solution for Memphis. After evaluating the effects of these consent decrees in other cities, we believe there are better ways to reimagine policing that do not slow the process or cost the taxpayers millions of dollars,” wrote Atty. Gibson.
“Following a review of your findings report, we will work with partners within the City of Memphis as well as with national police reform experts and the DOJ to produce an improvement plan that can be implemented more effectively and efficiently than a consent decree.”
Newly-elected Mayor Paul Young addressed Memphis residents, via a news conference, which can be viewed on the City’s YouTube channel, as well as a published statement in the city’s weekly communications newsletter.
The report predates Mayor Young’s administration. Mayor Young, sworn-in in January of this year, assured the city the findings were being taken seriously and delved deeper into the financial concerns.
“We are committed to an open-minded review of the report and recommendation it offers. No police department is perfect, but we must strive to come as close as possible,” the mayor wrote.
“But we must pursue change without putting undue financial burden on our city. For context, the consent decrees in cities like Chicago have exceeded $500 million, Seattle around $200 million and New Orleans more than $100 million, often spanning over a decade.
In many cases, even more troubling, crime rates have risen under such decrees. We cannot allow this to happen in the city I love—the city WE love.”
Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis shared that MPD had already initiated 700 policy changes during the last couple of years and has worked to garner more community engagement and partnerships.
Community-oriented town hall meetings are also in the works, as Memphis also has the third-highest homicide rate and the highest rate of aggravated assaults, which are often gun-related, in 2023 in the nation.
Newly-elected City Councilwoman Pearl Eva Walker was among the signers on a letter to the D.O.J. to initiate the investigation into the MPD, at the behest of State Representative G.A. Hardaway, but is very supportive of Chief Davis in her efforts. ‘I support C.J. Davis,” she said, “she takes a holistic approach.”
“I think it’s a culture that C.J. Davis inherited. The MPD is a new millennium of the slave patrols, so it’s a contradictory paradigm. If I’m in a car wreck, someone breaks in my home, I’m going to call the police. But on the other hand, this entity that you reach out to in a time of need and they are helpful and they are supportive and necessary, but they also act as this rogue nation,” Councilwoman Walker said.
One of her biggest concerns has been the lack of dialogue amongst her constituents, community leaders and religious leaders over the findings.
“People have been absolutely quiet. Nothing from a citizen regarding the D.O.J. report. I think it’s a lack of awareness and those who are aware—lack of info and understanding around the topic and there seems to be a reluctancy for people to comment on things,” Councilwoman Walker said.
Veteran activist Al Lewis asked the question: “What are the threats that we [Black people] hold to this area? Because, to handle our people like this, that they would treat us with such brutality. That’s what I want to talk about with some people. Conversations need to be had with MPD in the room.”
He further expressed that he would like to know what the policy changes were that Police Chief Davis alluded to and where was the accountability. “How do we know if they are being adhered to?” Mr. Lewis asked. “How would we know, if we don’t know what they are?”
The mayor’s response to inquiries from The Final Call newspaper was still pending at press time. The chief of police has not responded. The D.O.J. scheduled an open meeting on Dec. 18 at the National Civil Rights Museum to discuss the findings.
“Whether we sign it [the consent decree] or not, whatever is on the other side, I want it to be something positive for the community and the MPD. If something is broke, we need to come together and fix it,” concluded Councilwoman Walker.
The full 73-page report can be read at: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-finds-civil-rights-violations-memphis-police-department-and-city-memphis
