Elected leaders, community members discuss MPD
Elected officials and community members addressed police accountability during a meeting at Hamilton Middle School Tuesday night.
The conversation, led and organized by State Representative-Elect London Lamar, D-Memphis, started around 6 p.m. The discussion, came a week after the police-involved shooting of Martavious Banks, 25, that has since prompted several protests in the city.
At least 25 people gathered in the school’s auditorium for the event. Some residents said every seat in the room should have been filled.
“Every elected official who isn’t in a meeting needs to be here,” said Kermit Moore, a South Memphis resident. “The police need representatives here listening and everyone else. This auditorium should be full because our community needs to be in an uproar. This must stop now.”
Lamar sat on the stage next to State Rep. Raumesh Akbari, D-Memphis.
Residents have been questioning what the state has done to address police-involved shootings.
Akbari cited the 2015 fatal police-involved shooting of Darrius Stewart, 19, noting a push for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to investigate Memphis police-involved shootings. Akbari said the legislation was “unfortunately” modified to where police-involved shootings had to be fatal before TBI would investigate.
Akbari added things get “complicated” because of a need for resources from both the legislative and executive branch for state funding. Akbari said she has worked to bring in legislation focusing on “sensitivity” and “implicit bias” training for MPD, but has yet to garner substantial support from other officials.
“If they don’t believe that the issue exists, it’s hard to address it,” said Akbari.
Akabri’s biggest concern is a lack of transparency from MPD to Memphis neighborhoods.
“It’s difficult for a community to trust a situation where there is not transparency,” she added.
London said she hopes to make it harder for police to use deadly force to prevent fatal-shootings, but said much of that is up to police interpretation.
“We need to look more at these policies and figure out how we can tighten them up so we can stop issues like what happened to Martavious Banks,” Lamar said.
Lamar added that black communities suffer more socioeconomic issues, citing examples like a lack of educational resources, lower pay and in the case of Banks, car insurance.
“People have to choose between, ‘am I going to go get my child to school? Or am I going to make them stay at home because I can’t afford $250 a month in car insurance.’ Many of them take that risk,” Lamar said.
“When we talk about police-sanctioned violence and police brutality, we really have to go back and start looking at the root causes. How can we make it more affordable for people to have car insurance, so nobody else will have to get pulled over ?” Lamar added.
Both Akbari and Lamar agreed that having a conversation between police and community residents could help build trust before there is a “crisis.”
Malik Martin, a photographer for the Tri-State Defender who was covering the protests last week said MPD almost arrested him. A Memphis police officer pointed him out to be arrested and the only thing that stopped it was another sergeant who identified him as a member of the press, Martin said.
“They can pick and choose who they apprehend,” said Martin. “And at the point to where they start targeting media is where I have an extreme issue because I feel like they are silencing me. I was just doing my job, I wasn’t agitating.”
Others talked about frequent interactions with police, some saying they felt like they were targeted with multiple traffic stops.
“It’s going to take organization from us,” said Frank Johnson, who has lived in the area for more than 40 years. “We spend too much time saying ‘it’s not all police’ but the way they over-police, it seems they all view us in one way, no matter what education level.”