Memphis Police Used Excessive Force and Discriminated Against Black Residents, Justice Dept. Finds. (NY Times)

I lived in Memphis 1983-1986 while a Memphis State University law student. Racist city, racist cops, racist history -- has anything changed?  From The New York Times: 

Memphis Police Used Excessive Force and Discriminated Against Black Residents, Justice Dept. Finds

The Police Department has been under scrutiny since Tyre Nichols’s death last year. The report noted that children in particular had experienced “aggressive and frightening encounters with officers.”

A vigil at the corner where Tyre Nichols was fatally beaten by Memphis police officers last year.Credit...Desiree Rios/The New York Times

By Emily Cochrane and Shaila Dewan

Dec. 4, 2024

The Justice Department released the results of its investigation into the Memphis Police Department on Wednesday, finding that it had used excessive force, treated Black people more harshly than white people and mistreated those with mental health issues. The report said that the civil rights violations had a “corrosive effect.”

The 73-page report made special note of the treatment of children, saying that they had experienced “aggressive and frightening encounters with officers.” One 8-year-old boy with behavioral health issues had at least nine encounters with officers from December 2021 to August 2023, the report said, during which he was repeatedly threatened, pushed, handcuffed or thrown.

The Police Department has been under scrutiny since January 2023, when officers fatally beat Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, after pulling him over on his way home from work. The body and street camera footage that captured the violence prompted a national outcry and testimony from other residents about the agency’s pattern of excessive force.

The Justice Department opened a civil rights investigation, known as a pattern-or-practice inquiry, six months after Mr. Nichols’s death. The investigation is separate from the series of federal and state charges that have been filed against five former Memphis officers in connection with the case.

The death of Mr. Nichols has continued to weigh heavily on Memphis.Credit...Nichols family, via Associated Press

“The people of Memphis deserve a Police Department and city that protects their civil and constitutional rights, garners trust and keeps them safe,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s civil rights division said in a statement on Wednesday. She added that the agency was looking forward “to instituting reforms that will address the harms we identified.”

The city, however, has already indicated that it may not agree to fully cooperate with an overhaul of its Police Department. Shortly before Wednesday’s report was released, the city sent a letter to the Justice Department rejecting its push to negotiate an agreement, known as a consent decree. The city said that “there are better ways to reimagine policing that do not slow the process or cost the taxpayers millions of dollars.”

Read the Justice Department’s Report

The agency released the results of its investigation into the Memphis Police Department, finding that the department used excessive force, treated Black people more harshly than white people, and mistreated people with mental health issues.

READ DOCUMENT 73 PAGES

The unusual rejection comes as President-elect Donald J. Trump prepares to take office. The practice of using consent decrees fell out of favor during the first Trump administration, only to be revived under President Biden, whose Justice Department took a tougher approach toward law enforcement.

“This is, of course, a reaction to the election and nothing more,” said Christy Lopez, a professor at Georgetown Law who oversaw consent decrees as a Justice Department official during the Obama administration.

Under the Biden administration, a dozen investigations have been opened into police departments since April 2021. The Memphis report is the sixth to be released.

The city of Memphis and its Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The report said that the city, including former Mayor Jim Strickland, police officials and others had cooperated with the investigation.

According to the report, Memphis police officers relied on traffic stops to address violent crime and did not understand the limits on their authority, resulting in dismissed cases and dropped charges. Officers rapidly escalated encounters, used excessive force even when people were already handcuffed, fired at moving cars and resorted to “intimidation and threats,” the report said.

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Such actions, the report said, drove up racial disparities between Black and white residents. The federal analysis found that the Police Department was 21 percent more likely to cite Black drivers than white drivers for driving violations, and 17 percent more likely to arrest or cite Black people for drug-related offenses.

At the same time, the report said, the department has a poor record of solving violent crime. The department made an arrest in just 14 percent of murders last year, far below the national rate of 50 percent.

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According to the report, Memphis police officers relied on traffic stops to address violent crime and did not understand the limits on their authority, resulting in dismissed cases and dropped charges.Credit...Brad J. Vest for The New York Times

The racially disparities extended to youth: From January 2018 to August 2023, 180 Black children were arrested for curfew or loitering violations, compared with only four white children. One white child was arrested for disorderly conduct, compared with 120 Black children.

And the report highlighted a “dangerous and punitive use” of police dogs, with one teenager going to the hospital after a dog bit and held his arm for 30 seconds.

The report noted that Memphis had originated the “crisis intervention” model, in which some officers are specially trained to respond to mental health calls. But, the report said, the program suffered from poor oversight. 

In one incident recounted in the report, the shoplifting of a $2 soft drink resulted in nine squad cars and 12 officers showing up. They pepper sprayed, kicked and fired a Taser at the shoplifting man, who was unarmed and had a mental illness. Though the man put the drink down and tried to leave, other officers shoved him against a squad car, kneed him repeatedly, pulled him to the ground and then stunned him with the Taser repeatedly, even after he was handcuffed.

In its letter to the Justice Department, the city argued that it had taken its own steps to overhaul policing, though at least one of those ordinances was overturned by the Republican-dominated Tennessee legislature.

The report acknowledged those efforts, noting a “Reimagining Policing” report issued in 2021 and the disbanding of the Scorpion street-crime unit that was responsible for the death of Mr. Nichols. The city’s police chief at the time, Cerelyn Davis, who is Black, remains in an interim role.

But the report listed a series of other changes that it believed the department should enact, including new force training, required documentation of stops and searches, better discipline practices for misconduct and improved transparency.

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The body and street camera footage that captured the violence against Mr. Nichols prompted a national outcry.Credit...Desiree Rios/The New York Times

The death of Mr. Nichols has continued to weigh heavily on Memphis.

Video from the Jan. 7, 2023, traffic stop shows that when Mr. Nichols, a FedEx worker, broke away after trying to comply with a barrage of commands, some officers chased him down and continued to kick and pummel him despite his pleas for help. He died three days later.

Five Black officers were charged in federal and state court, and several other law enforcement officials were fired or reprimanded. Two of the officers pleaded guilty and later testified in a federal trial against the three other officers. In October, the three officers were found guilty of federal witness tampering charges but were acquitted of the most serious charge of violating Mr. Nichols’s civil rights and of causing his death.

A separate state trial is expected to begin early next year.

Emily Cochrane is a national reporter for The Times covering the American South, based in Nashville. More about Emily Cochrane

Shaila Dewan covers criminal justice — policing, courts and prisons — across the country. She has been a journalist for 25 years. More about Shaila Dewan

See more on: U.S. Justice Department, Tyre Nichols

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