MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Yolanda Claxton insists the Memphis Police Department is not telling the truth in a police report following their encounter with her son.
She's the mother of Cortavius Claxton and is standing beside other activists as she pleads for help from the community. She said an April 23 incident between officers of the Memphis Police Department (MPD) and her son left him with a cracked tooth, a busted lip and a broken nose.
Claxton is now protesting the MPD juvenile curfew, also known as the Juvenile Crime Abatement Program, as her and well-known activists say it’s no different than pretextual traffic stops, like the one that led to Tyre Nichols death.
Claxton said her son was “slammed to the wall and elbowed” after police pulled him over for a cracked windshield. ABC24 has not yet been able to confirm that altercation. In fact, a police report lists a “cracked windshield, disregarding a four-way stop and failure to signal a turn” as reasoning for the traffic stop.
The report goes on to say two of the individuals inside the vehicle had “handguns visible in their waistbands [and] attempted to walk away from the vehicle.”
Still, Tennessee laws currently do allow for 18-year-olds to possess a handgun. A new law lowering the permit-less carry age from 21 to 18 for “firearms,” not just handguns, will go into effect in July.
The report said two women came out of a nearby residence and attempted to intervene physically when Cortavius “fell and received injuries to his lip” and “other suspects fled on foot and were not apprehended.” The report also said Claxton was examined by personnel on this scene and then issued a misdemeanor for “resisting official detention.”
Yolanda Claxton said her son was wrongfully injured by police officers and is demanding answers about the situation.
“The ones supposed to protect us [are] now the one’s that’s killing and hurting us,” Claxton said. “Nobody will ever know the pain that I feel — the hurt that I cried our for help when I seen my son with a swollen lip; a chipped tooth and a fractured nose.”
Richard Massey, a local activist, said “on the heels of this grotesque mistreatment of a child at the hands of MPD, Mayor Strickland wants to compensate these officers.”
“He wants to enrich their department with a $42 million surplus," Massey said. "That’s preposterous. How about we actually elevate child welfare to the top of our priority list?”
Ms. Claxton and others against the Juvenile Crime Abatement Program are hoping their efforts to prevent it will take effect before the program begins this summer.