ACLU trial Day 3: MPD director on the stand

His main concern was protecting the public

Memphis Police Director Michael Rallings testified in federal court Wednesday that the department monitored public safety at many rallies, regardless of whether they were organized by Black Lives Matter or the Ku Klux Klan.

Also during day three of an ongoing federal trial over police surveillance, activists spoke on how surveillance has affected them. And the city presented evidence to attack the activists' credibility.

U.S. District Judge Jon McCalla has already ruled that the city has violated a 1978 consent decree against gathering political intelligence, but he is allowing a bench trial to go forward while he considers a variety of other issues in the case.

Rallings spoke early in the day, continuing his testimony from Tuesday. He said the city police care about one thing: public safety.

“We were not concerned about anyone’s beliefs or associations," Rallings said. "We were concerned about protecting the public, protecting them, and allowing them to express (first amendment rights.)”

The ACLU argues that the federal judge should install a monitor to enforce the consent decree in Memphis, and should also do much more to educate police officers on the rules.

The city argues no monitor is necessary, and that the court should end the consent decree or modify it to accom-

modate social media and other modern realities.

Rallings said the city's parade and demonstration permit ordinance aims to protect public safety and help people express their free speech rights through a peaceful, safe event. For instance, if police officers know about an event in advance, they can bring officers to block traffic and help it flow properly, he said.

And even when protests are not permitted, the city hasn't broken them up, he said.

He also described in detail his experience on July 10, 2016, the day of the Hernando de Soto bridge shutdown. He said someone could easily have died as a crowd that included both armed people and babies moved onto the bridge and faced risks that included falls and the outbreak of violence.

“I thought that that situation could make Selma, Alabama look like a day at the park," Rallings said, referring to a violent bridge incident from the Civil Rights era. "We would have rewritten history for the city of Memphis and the history of the nation, and I did not want that to happen.”

No one was arrested or hurt that day in 2016. Rallings came onto the bridge himself, talked with protest leaders, and helped convince them to move off.

“I’ll give some individuals on the bridge credit," he said, adding that they came to realize they needed to resolve the standoff.

He described talking with activist Keedran Franklin. "Matter of fact, me and Keedran walked off the bridge drinking from the same water bottle."

In early 2017, Keedran Franklin was one of the activists who filed the federal lawsuit that led to this week's trial.

"I just wish the unity we had at that moment, we still had it today," Rallings said, referring to violence in the city.

Rallings mentioned another interaction with Franklin in relation to a subsequent protest at Graceland. He said people told him they planned to disrupt operations.

"Keedran Franklin was very specific every time we met. I think Al Lewis was part of that. Coalition of Concerned Citizens ... Many of them have my personal cell number and they would call to meet prior to the event," Rallings said.

He recounted telling them nobody had to be arrested for acts such as sitting in the street and blocking traffic.

"'Director, we want to commit acts of civil disobedience,'" he recounted them saying. He says he responded, "Why?" Rallings also said he was very concerned about a fake Twitter account that someone set up in his name. He said he feared the account would say something inflammatory, causing the city to erupt.

Rallings asked for a criminal investigation, and activist Paul Garner with the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center was identified as a suspect, according to testimony earlier in the week.

Rallings made most of his statements under questioning from attorney Buckner Wellford, who is the one of the city's defense lawyers in the case.

Rallings began speaking about 8:30 a.m. and wrapped up his testimony shortly after 10:30 a.m. As he left the courtroom, he passed Franklin, who was sitting on a bench in the hallway.

Franklin can't sit in the courtroom because he is a witness in the case.

Activists speak

Later in the day, Garner took the stand.

He described learning he was under surveillance from someone he met in a bar. He reported this person told him, "Watch your back. I know some guys in the department. They're looking at you and people you work with."

Under questioning from a lawyer for the city, he acknowledged creating the fake Twitter account. "If you're talking about the satirical, parody account that was @MPD_Rallings, then yes," he said.

He said many things that Rallings said at the time lent themselves to parody. "He made this comment about hot pee-pee," Garner said.

Rallings had used the "hot pee-pee" phrase while talking to a group of about the dangers of marijuana use, and how the drug could lead to a positive urine test, making it harder to get a job.

Garner said he got a call from an investigator about the @MPD_Rallings account and didn't comment. He said it may have been around that time he stopped posting on it. It's since been suspended.

Keedran Franklin went next, and described various activities he's taken part in, including working with 901 Bloc Squad, an anti-violence organization, and helping create community gardens.

He said police officials routinely follow him and that he'd asked Rallings to stop it, but it continued.

"I limit things I say. I limit where I go," he said, adding that he's even limited visits to his mother due to surveillance. He said some friends are afraid to come around and relatives check on him frequently to see if he's safe.

"I have family that's the police. And they afraid to claim me because they're afraid they'll lose their jobs."

Franklin says he's committed to nonviolence. But the city's attorneys put on videos that aimed to portray Keedran Franklin as aggressive and threatening, including one that Franklin made following an officer-involved shooting that injured a person in September 2017 in a Frayser shopping center.

Franklin went to the scene later and asked local businesses to share any surveillance video they had of the shooting. Some of those businesses balked, according to video shown in court, and Franklin said he'd organize boycott to make them give up the recordings.

At one point in the video he's conversing with a manager who appears to be an immigrant who doesn't speak good English and doesn't fully understand what Franklin is saying. "I guarantee you will be one shut down (expletive)," Franklin says at one point. He adds more expletives and comments about beating up the man.

Under questioning from an ACLU attorney, Franklin said he had made some of those comments when the man had already gone back in the store.

Franklin also defended an image he'd posted on his Facebook page that shows a mouse in a police uniform caught in a mousetrap. He said it's album art for his rap persona, T-N-T, and that it's advertising a song about police surveillance.

The trial was expected to wrap up Thursday.