MEMPHIS, Tennessee — It’s been a notable year, 2020, not even counting the pandemic.
With the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor cities across the U.S. sparked into protests.
Even here in Memphis where cries of ‘I Can’t Breathe” could be heard for days in a row downtown. It brought the issue of police brutality and over policing to the forefront and what Memphis Police would do about it.
“Because policing and the authority of policing comes from the people, if the people don’t act and behave as if they have power it’s going to be very difficult to reimagine policing,” said Myesha Braden, the Special Justice Initiatives director under Alliance for Justice in Washington D.C.
The “reimagine policing” initiative and 8 Can’t Wait policies were MPS’s response to protesters’ demands.
The Hooks Institute panelists also discussed the controversial Operation LeGend – which expanded to Memphis in August.
“They didn’t come in to answer local calls for service,” said Sgt. Richard McKinney, with the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office. “They were here to assist with dealing with the most violent offenders that we have here.”
Another question raised was if Mayor Jim Strickland listened to protesters enough.
“No, he hasn’t listened to us on this,” said Shahidah Jones, with the Black Lives Matter Memphis chapter. “I think one of the things that has been most frustrating is that after the bridge shutdown we all met with him.”
Jones said Strickland ignored protesters’ demands cherry-picking who he met with this year.
“So this go around he specifically chose activists that weren’t part of the original conversation.”
Jones also defined what the term “defund the police” – often chanted by those holding signs in protest this year means.
“While many activists have changed their perception of it, and everybody can take it and mold it how they want to, the specifics of defund the police was about decreasing the size, the scope and the power,” she said.
Other panelists stressed that bringing about change with the Memphis Police Department and city is largely holding officials accountable once promises aren’t kept.