MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Memphis City Councilmember J.B. Smiley is requesting body camera video in yet another allegation of police brutality in Memphis.
The push for video comes as community members pressed council to look into the injuries of Cortavius Claxton after an encounter with Memphis police officers.
The incident happened on April 23, and is pulling the attention of community members and local elected officials.
Cortavius Claxton’s mom, Yolanda Claxton is pleading for community support as she deals with the aftermath of what she calls a violent situation between her son and MPD.
She’s accusing officers of slamming her son into a wall during the incident, leaving him with a busted lip, a cracked tooth and a broken nose.
“The ones that was supposed to protect us is now the ones that’s killing and hurting us,” she said.
The initial citation from MPD said the incident began with them pulling over Claxton, and multiple others in a vehicle, for a cracked windshield. But, in the most recent police report MPD shared with ABC24, officers said they stopped the vehicle for a cracked windshield, disregarding a four-way stop and failure to use a turn signal.
MPD’s Officers Page accused Claxton of getting out of the car, ignoring officers and trying to run.
They said two people in the car were armed, but officers were not able to detain those who left the car. However, Claxton’s misdemeanor citation said he did not have a handgun on him at the time of the incident.
Officers instead cited Claxton with resisting official detention, despite there not being an initial reason listed for him to be under arrest prior to their citation of him resisting.
The calls for transparency come one week after Mayor Jim Strickland’s proposal to increase the MPD budget in 2024. Activists speaking out against the increase say the proposed money could be used other ways.
“They have shown time and time again that no amount of funding will keep them from killing people, from brutalizing people or help them decrease crime,” activist Amber Sherman said.
“I mean it’s not sensical to think about the fact that we spend all of this money – 40 percent of our city’s budget goes to policing and our crime rate is still astronomical,” LJ Abraham. “So, if police were there to prevent crime, we would not have a crime problem, yet we have a crime problem.”
Shortly after the Tuesday evening council meeting ended, Councilman Smiley started the process of getting body camera and dash camera video from the incident as well as the related police report for the council to assess.
Smiley said the ability for councilmembers to have timely access to video from traffic stops comes from a recent ordinance passed. The ordinance comes after the death of Tyre Nichols, allowing the city council to have some oversight into traffic stops that become violent in Memphis.