In 2019 officer-involved shootings were the 6th leading cause of death for young Black men in America. It is well documented that police violence has increased since then.
A report by the FBI states that drivers are 20.8 times more likely to be killed by police than police while on duty.
Traffic stops are the #1 reason people come into contact with police and Traffic stops show no evidence of reducing violent crime.
Homicides in Memphis are down by 12%, but police violence in Memphis is up. There were 9 officer-involved shootings in Shelby county in 2022. More than years past.
Memphis Police Department (MPD) Related Facts
The MPD has been involved in/responsible for 330+ car wrecks and has yet to address them. The Memphis City Council approves the MPD budget and the Council hasn’t proven to be fiscally responsible with those funds.
The police budget is nearly 43% of the entire city budget.
In December 2022 the city attorney said that Police officers have no duty to investigate crime.
In late December 2022 during severe inclement weather and a water crisis, the MPD issued a statement telling residents of Memphis not to call them if there was a wreck.
Random Traffic/Tyre Nichols Related Facts
Tyre’s home was located in Memphis City Council District 3 – Patrice Robinson | Super District 9-1 Chase Carlisle 9-2 | Ford Canale 9-3 Jeff Warren. HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE TOO
In 2018 a report showed that 53 Memphis police officers have violated the department’s body camera policy since the cameras were deployed in October 2016, according to police records obtained by local newspaper, The Commercial Appeal. The department has issued more than 20 reprimands to police officers who have violated its body camera policy. At least 10 of those officers were suspended. Four officers received oral reprimands. Body Cameras are not enough to stop police from killing people.
“Safety” is too narrowly associated with the criminal legal system, which causes decision-makers and some of the public to ignore solutions that address root causes and provide a more holistic safety for people.
The harmful–and sometimes deadly–consequences of this narrow definition of safety fall disproportionately on Black and Brown communities.
Expansion and enhancement of the criminal legal system are not the magic wand that will lead to greater safety.
When we tie “safety” too strongly to the criminal legal system, we default to the policies that got us to where we are now–namely, calling for more police and harsher punishment.
This increased police presence results in the overcriminalization of, more often than not, communities of color that have been historically neglected by government and business—and as we are once again too painfully reminded, this systemic overcriminalization has real life-or-death consequences for our Black men, women, and youth.
One thing is clear: we will be waiting indefinitely for a safe community if we continue to rely on the same “solutions” to deliver safety to Memphis and Shelby County residents.
When we start to ask ourselves “why” some communities feel safe while others do not, we end up getting to a variety of seemingly unrelated issue areas—housing, education, healthcare, mental health services, food security, access to transportation, and a plethora of other interconnected systems that meet people’s everyday needs.
We will achieve true equity and safety when we (as a collective city, county, and community) ensure everyone has their basic needs met by implementing solutions identified by and centered on Black and Brown justice-impacted people and communities.
It is time to expand our definition of “safety” and liberate it from the criminal legal system. It’s time to start building systems of care that divert people away from the criminal legal system every step of the way. When people are no longer forced to make decisions weighed down by poverty and trauma, they have more space to operate from abundance and lead thriving lives.
Systemic problems call for systemic solutions, all the way up to reimagining policing entirely.
It’s time to stop talking about “bad apples” within law enforcement. Even though the individual officers involved in Tyre Nichols’ death are beginning to be held accountable, we know that unchecked police brutality is a much bigger issue embedded deep within the system, and Black and Brown people are more likely to be harmed by it.
Safe communities are not those with the most police, especially when the police themselves are the perpetrators of undue and excessive violence.
Like the rest of the country, here in Memphis we are increasingly relying on police to respond to problems related to poverty and disinvestment, leading to more frequent and unnecessary contact between law enforcement officers and civilians, just like what we saw with Tyre Nichols on January 7. The likelihood of unnecessary pretextual traffic stops increases with higher police presence, and we join the calls for more transparency in traffic data and less reliance on police overall.
This act of police violence was preventable. It was unnecessary. And it is all too common. True justice for Tyre means that no more lives are taken by these preventable acts of police brutality, and we continue to fight for everyone’s right to be free from fear of law enforcement.
