Pastors frustrated by reform meetings
Mayor is accused of reinforcing status quo
Nine Memphis pastors have accused Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland’s administration of reinforcing “the status quo” when it comes to police reform and lacking the “courage” to bring about substantive change.
They also object to the idea that they, activists and Strickland have reached agreement in the talks that have been underway since the death of George Floyd and the nationwide protests against police brutality.
“As African American clergy who participated in the meetings, we found the discussions to be frustrating and disappointing overall, characterized largely by those who represent the power structures of Memphis claiming that the processes in place are sufficient,” read a statement signed by nine pastors who said they had participated in the talks with Strickland and Memphis Police Department Director Michael Rallings.
In a written response, Strickland said that he shared the clergy’s disappointment.
“After meeting with the undersigned group of pastors collectively for about 12 hours over five meetings, they brought no new concrete solutions to the table, unlike the Black Lives Matters Memphis group I met with for one hour earlier this week who brought dozens of written, actionable suggestions,” Strickland wrote.
“A couple of the listed pastors did make oral recommendations individually, but it was unclear if all the pastors were recommending them, and they were not adopted by the group.”
Only two of the pastors who signed attended all five meetings, Strickland wrote. Strickland said those recommendations made by some of the pastors were to prohibit the use of a chokehold even if the life of the officer was in danger; to prohibit firing a gun into a vehicle, including if the life of an officer or citizen was in danger; and to prohibit the use of tear gas or rubber bullets under any circumstance.
The pastors provided The Commercial Appeal with two letters laying out suggested policy changes or steps to
ward reform that they said were provided to officials in the meetings.
No consensus reached, pastors say
The clergy statement came a day after Strickland, Rallings and Alex Smith, director of the city’s human resources department, held a press conference in which they laid out five areas they described as areas of consensus that had been reached during the discussions with clergy and activists.
Those areas included updating police policies to reflect the “8 can’t wait” rules, improving the Civilian Law Enforcement Review Board, enhancing implicit bias and cultural awareness training with participation from community activists, banning no-knock search warrants and more. “The five ‘reforms’ presented to us June 24, the date of the last meeting, stopped far short of the substantive changes we had requested in calling for a reimagined police department,” read the statement from the pastors. “Though the administration couched these ‘reforms’ as an agreement, we did not, in fact, agree to them. Rather, they demonstrated to us the administration’s lack of courage and appetite for making Memphis truly more equitable for all.”
In early June, after seven consecutive days of protests in Memphis, Strickland joined activists and clergy to speak outside Clayborn Temple before protests began.
There, he said the killing of George Floyd, a handcuffed Black man, at the hands of a white police officer “was not the start of this problem, but I want him to be the start of the solution.”
“As mayor, I am absolutely committed to fixing that problem of how the police deal with Black people,” he said.
Strickland then committed to the weekly meeting for the next month with activist groups and clergy.
‘One-off meetings are not going to do the job’
In his response to the clergy, Strickland said that the “initial meetings may have concluded, but the discussion and our work in the area of police reform is far from over.”
“We will continue to work every day to do better and to be better, and the community discussion will be broadened to include more people,” Strickland said. The Rev. J. Lawrence Turner, senior pastor of Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church and one of the pastors who signed the statement critical of Strickland, said “one-off meetings are not going to do the job” of a comprehensive effort to change policing in Memphis.
The pastors are calling for change such as ensuring that police are not the lead responders on mental health calls and that officers have better understanding of the communities they serve, he said. “I do not believe the only answer in Memphis is to increase the number of police officers on the street,” Turner said. The pastors also wrote that they were not invited to the press conference Thursday, nor did they know it was going to take place.
The statement was signed by the Rev. Stacy Spencer (New Direction Christian Church), the Rev. Keith Norman (First Baptist Church-broad), the Rev. Melvin Watkins (Mt. Vernon Baptist Church Westwood), the Rev. Earle Fisher (Abyssinian Baptist Church), Bishop Ed Stephens Jr. (Golden Gate Cathedral), Bishop Linwood Dillard (Citadel of Deliverance Church of God in Christ), the Rev. Gina Stewart (Christ Missionary Baptist Church, the Rev. Chris Davis (St. Paul Baptist Church) and Turner.
Katherine Burgess covers county government, religion and the suburbs. She can be reached at katherine.burgess@commercialappeal.com, 901-5292799 or followed on Twitter @kathsburgess.