Memphis United is a coalition of grassroots organizations and community groups that was recently revived to combat structural and institution racism in Memphis. The organization was initially started as a counteraction to the 2013 Ku Klux Klan rally in Memphis.
After being wrongfully arrested for video recording a police harassment incident, Paul Garner, the Memphis United organizing coordinator, saw the need for reform in the criminal justice system in Memphis. MU is currently advocating for the restructuring of the Civilian Law Enforcement Review Board.
After Garner was arrested, he filed a complaint with the Police Department’s Internal Affairs unit and quickly realized the board was nonexistent and that there was no police accountability in Memphis. The police were policing themselves.
MU is in the process of getting an ordinance approved that will give power to the Civilian Law Enforcement Review Board and to ensure that elected officials and law enforcement officers are held accountable to those they serve and protect. The ordinance passed April 21 and went for the first reading before the City Council. It takes three readings for the ordinance to be passed. The next reading is May 5.
MemphisOTL sat down with Garner to learn more about the goals of Memphis United’s campaign.
Q: What is Memphis United?
A: Memphis United originally formed as a coalition effort when the [Ku Klux Klan] came to Memphis in 2013 because we didn’t want people to have to engage directly with them. When they came in the 90’s there was violence and people got hurt and people got tear gassed and it just wasn’t a good scene. We wanted people to be able to engage in something positive and alternative and not just have to sit at home and feel powerless watching it unfold on TV. So we organized an alternative event “The People’s conference on Race and Equality” that we held at Tiger Lane at the fairgrounds.
[With Memphis United, we are making] a commitment that the work to end racism is not just one day when people in town with white hoods are here but to continue that work after they are gone and the problems are still here. It’s not just racists in white hoods that are the problem it’s the ones who wear the business suits and that create racist policies and enforce them. It made sense to reform a group that had originally come together to look at structural and institutional racism to take a look at our criminal justice system and some issues here locally as well as on the state and national level.
Q: Why did MU start the campaign for civilian oversight of police?
A: The campaign chose us. We didn’t go just looking for this; it was just there. We started poking and we scratched the surface and this is what we found. So we were already working on these issues before this sort of conflict spilled over nationally [with the shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed teen, in Ferguson, MO.] Now it’s like people are really having meaningful conversations about race and racial profiling and militarization of police and law enforcement. I think it’s one of the defining issues of our time: do we want to live in this militarized security state or do we want to have freedom and you can’t have both.
Through filing complaints with Internal Affairs and documenting that process, we realized [there were] a lot of holes in that system as well as a lot of barriers to [people] being able to effectively file a complaint and see that process all the way through. It’s very frustrating. My experience with [Internal Affairs] has taken me six and nine months just to get basically a one statement letter in the mail with no real explanation as to how they arrived at their decision. We had gone through that process and we weren’t satisfied with the way those complaints were handled, and we were aware that the city had, by ordinance, formed a Civilian Law Review Board back in 1994, so we tried to contact the review board.
There is a number listed on the city’s website that I tried to start out by contacting, got a generic voicemail with just a number on it and never got a call back. Called back a few times, left a few more messages, didn’t get a hold of anybody. Finally [I] got through to somebody one day and it was just a very confused and that person didn’t know what we were talking about when we said we were looking for the Civilian Law Enforcement Review Board.
After talking to some folks who used to be on the board, we realized the board had been disbanded basically under the Wharton administration, which is a violation of the city ordinance. As the council passes an ordinance it is then the responsibility of the mayor’s office to ensure that it is carried out and from what we heard they intentionally took it out.
We basically wrote a resolution empowering us to do what that committee was supposed to do back in 2009.
Q: What is MU trying to accomplish?
A: The main things that I believe are important sticking points are [giving the Civilian Law Review Board] subpoena power, the power to investigate the complaints [at the same time as internal affairs], and forcing the director [of the Memphis Police Department] to respond as to why or why not they take a recommendation from the review board. We think that those will be things that not only make the complaint process more accessible to folks, but it will also make it more transparent and have more of a chance of holding law enforcement accountable.
Q: Why should people care about this issue?
A: Right now we have zero civilian oversight of police, even with the board having the members on it again. Without the powers that we are trying to get for this board, they are a toothless dog. We’ve had 20 officers arrested just in the past year. To us, [the need for police accountability] is just a common sense safeguard that we think will balance out the process. We’re just providing some balance to that system so that it’s not fully weighted on the side of police policing themselves. There has to be accountability; there has to be transparency, or what’s the point of people filing a complaint anyway?
This is supposed to safeguard the public and make those who took an oath to serve and protect accountable to the people who pay their salaries.
Q: How does this affect people who are impoverished?
A: It affects poor people the most in every way conceivable. Issues of social injustice or economic injustice always affect people at the lowest rung the most, and that’s often who are targeted because they are the most vulnerable, they are the least likely to be able to fight back. The least likely to have the time, the resources, etc. to do anything about it. That’s why when you go down to 201 Poplar [Memphis Police Department] it’s packed and it’s all about making money off the backs of people without enough to fight City Hall. So poor, black communities are disproportionally targeted by police, people experiencing homelessness are disproportionately targeted by the police, people of color in general are targeted disproportionately by the police and that’s who is in our jails.
Q: Why do you care, Paul?
I don’t know how you couldn’t. People’s lives are being ruined every day. Every day we hear about another incident where a young person of color has been targeted by the police. Every day another young person is locked up and locked away for the rest of their lives, and it’s insanity and it has to stop.
Q: How can people get involved?
A: We try to make it easy for people to get involved. Memphis United meets the first and third Wednesday of every month right here at the Peace and Justice Center, 3573 Southern Ave., from 6 to 8 p.m. We have lots of events always going on in between. We have workshops; we have trainings; just show up and be like ‘hey I want to get involved’ and I’ll put you to work. We’re on social media; just helping us spread the word to other folks about what we are doing is always helpful. Right now we’re asking people to make calls and write emails to their City Council people.
We also want to be sort of a resource to the community because we think everybody can be a part of this work and everybody hopefully will.
After being wrongfully arrested for video recording a police harassment incident, Paul Garner, the Memphis United organizing coordinator, saw the need for reform in the criminal justice system in Memphis. MU is currently advocating for the restructuring of the Civilian Law Enforcement Review Board.
After Garner was arrested, he filed a complaint with the Police Department’s Internal Affairs unit and quickly realized the board was nonexistent and that there was no police accountability in Memphis. The police were policing themselves.
MU is in the process of getting an ordinance approved that will give power to the Civilian Law Enforcement Review Board and to ensure that elected officials and law enforcement officers are held accountable to those they serve and protect. The ordinance passed April 21 and went for the first reading before the City Council. It takes three readings for the ordinance to be passed. The next reading is May 5.
MemphisOTL sat down with Garner to learn more about the goals of Memphis United’s campaign.
Q: What is Memphis United?
A: Memphis United originally formed as a coalition effort when the [Ku Klux Klan] came to Memphis in 2013 because we didn’t want people to have to engage directly with them. When they came in the 90’s there was violence and people got hurt and people got tear gassed and it just wasn’t a good scene. We wanted people to be able to engage in something positive and alternative and not just have to sit at home and feel powerless watching it unfold on TV. So we organized an alternative event “The People’s conference on Race and Equality” that we held at Tiger Lane at the fairgrounds.
[With Memphis United, we are making] a commitment that the work to end racism is not just one day when people in town with white hoods are here but to continue that work after they are gone and the problems are still here. It’s not just racists in white hoods that are the problem it’s the ones who wear the business suits and that create racist policies and enforce them. It made sense to reform a group that had originally come together to look at structural and institutional racism to take a look at our criminal justice system and some issues here locally as well as on the state and national level.
Q: Why did MU start the campaign for civilian oversight of police?
A: The campaign chose us. We didn’t go just looking for this; it was just there. We started poking and we scratched the surface and this is what we found. So we were already working on these issues before this sort of conflict spilled over nationally [with the shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed teen, in Ferguson, MO.] Now it’s like people are really having meaningful conversations about race and racial profiling and militarization of police and law enforcement. I think it’s one of the defining issues of our time: do we want to live in this militarized security state or do we want to have freedom and you can’t have both.
Through filing complaints with Internal Affairs and documenting that process, we realized [there were] a lot of holes in that system as well as a lot of barriers to [people] being able to effectively file a complaint and see that process all the way through. It’s very frustrating. My experience with [Internal Affairs] has taken me six and nine months just to get basically a one statement letter in the mail with no real explanation as to how they arrived at their decision. We had gone through that process and we weren’t satisfied with the way those complaints were handled, and we were aware that the city had, by ordinance, formed a Civilian Law Review Board back in 1994, so we tried to contact the review board.
There is a number listed on the city’s website that I tried to start out by contacting, got a generic voicemail with just a number on it and never got a call back. Called back a few times, left a few more messages, didn’t get a hold of anybody. Finally [I] got through to somebody one day and it was just a very confused and that person didn’t know what we were talking about when we said we were looking for the Civilian Law Enforcement Review Board.
After talking to some folks who used to be on the board, we realized the board had been disbanded basically under the Wharton administration, which is a violation of the city ordinance. As the council passes an ordinance it is then the responsibility of the mayor’s office to ensure that it is carried out and from what we heard they intentionally took it out.
We basically wrote a resolution empowering us to do what that committee was supposed to do back in 2009.
Q: What is MU trying to accomplish?
A: The main things that I believe are important sticking points are [giving the Civilian Law Review Board] subpoena power, the power to investigate the complaints [at the same time as internal affairs], and forcing the director [of the Memphis Police Department] to respond as to why or why not they take a recommendation from the review board. We think that those will be things that not only make the complaint process more accessible to folks, but it will also make it more transparent and have more of a chance of holding law enforcement accountable.
Q: Why should people care about this issue?
A: Right now we have zero civilian oversight of police, even with the board having the members on it again. Without the powers that we are trying to get for this board, they are a toothless dog. We’ve had 20 officers arrested just in the past year. To us, [the need for police accountability] is just a common sense safeguard that we think will balance out the process. We’re just providing some balance to that system so that it’s not fully weighted on the side of police policing themselves. There has to be accountability; there has to be transparency, or what’s the point of people filing a complaint anyway?
This is supposed to safeguard the public and make those who took an oath to serve and protect accountable to the people who pay their salaries.
Q: How does this affect people who are impoverished?
A: It affects poor people the most in every way conceivable. Issues of social injustice or economic injustice always affect people at the lowest rung the most, and that’s often who are targeted because they are the most vulnerable, they are the least likely to be able to fight back. The least likely to have the time, the resources, etc. to do anything about it. That’s why when you go down to 201 Poplar [Memphis Police Department] it’s packed and it’s all about making money off the backs of people without enough to fight City Hall. So poor, black communities are disproportionally targeted by police, people experiencing homelessness are disproportionately targeted by the police, people of color in general are targeted disproportionately by the police and that’s who is in our jails.
Q: Why do you care, Paul?
I don’t know how you couldn’t. People’s lives are being ruined every day. Every day we hear about another incident where a young person of color has been targeted by the police. Every day another young person is locked up and locked away for the rest of their lives, and it’s insanity and it has to stop.
Q: How can people get involved?
A: We try to make it easy for people to get involved. Memphis United meets the first and third Wednesday of every month right here at the Peace and Justice Center, 3573 Southern Ave., from 6 to 8 p.m. We have lots of events always going on in between. We have workshops; we have trainings; just show up and be like ‘hey I want to get involved’ and I’ll put you to work. We’re on social media; just helping us spread the word to other folks about what we are doing is always helpful. Right now we’re asking people to make calls and write emails to their City Council people.
We also want to be sort of a resource to the community because we think everybody can be a part of this work and everybody hopefully will.