Memphis Mayor Violates Consent Decree & Protesters Constitutional Rights

Thousands marched the streets of downtown Memphis, July 10, 2016, in protest of assaults on African Americans by MPD.  They started in what appeared to be an unorganized manner but, quickly became a very well and orderly movement.  This movement caught the City government totally off guard, an embarrassment by any standard, a massive protest with a hand full of officers, no traffic control, and no permit but, not a single incident of violence.

Who called these people together?  Was it Black Lives Matter, an organizer genius, or a collaboration of many units of concerned leaders.  From a government perspective (racist) like that of Memphis; the biggest question is: how this movement happened without their  knowledge?  A massive movement of African American youth, marching in the streets of Memphis, and without Mayor Jim Strickland’s administration knowledge.  The greatest oversight and embarrassment in Memphis’s history would cause the administration to overreact, overreach, and over-enforce.

This peaceful movement continued for blocks until its approach of the exit lane from Arkansas that enters Front Street from the bridge.  At this point, the movement proved a lack of leadership.  A caller yelled, “To the bridge”, but another yelled, “No, keep straight”.  Those in the rear couldn’t hear those at the front; that’s when the body separated; one group move to the bridge and the other kept straight.

Unless one is racist, the old adage “They shouldn’t be there in the first place” wouldn’t apply.  They had every right and all business to protest against the wrongs, lack of jobs, and a good quality of life that Memphis (government) has imposed upon them.  The majority of those young people had good intentions but, as always, without solid leadership and good planning movements are very easy to miss their target.

The objective of any protest is simple, harness as much media attention as possible,  except if the movement and protest is perceived African American.  In fact, these young people launched the most successful protests in history.  Because of a lack of planning, poor leadership, and no real demands the emotional movement and protest found itself face to face with power, causing a collapsed in middle. While occupying the bridge, a tense period between protesters, police officers, and Mayor Strickland produced a chilling episode.

Mayor Strickland and his administration classified these young Memphians as troublemakers.  They moved against them with the power of government unlike seen before, even in greater force than during the days of Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. and the days of his Memphis assassination.

Strickland and his administration created an illegal surveillance operation and shared the collected information with people (individuals and possibly corporations) outside of law enforcement.  The actions they took against these activists is the same as taken by dictators in third-world countries.  It’s apparent they had no regard for these people’s Constitutional rights and a 1978 consent agreement between City of Memphis and ACLU of Tennessee, prohibiting the city from conducting such activities.

The City collected “political intelligence” by Memphis Police Dept. and Homeland Security, together, they intercepted electronic communications, infiltrated the group through “Bob Smith” Facebook account.  MPD didn’t familiarize its officers regarding the consent decree, didn’t create an approval process for investigations that might reveal info implicating First Amendment rights, and collected the identities of protest participants for the purpose of maintaining a record.

U.S. District Judge Jon P. McCalla decreed (read his entire decree here) on Friday OCT 26, 2018 that the ACLU of Tennessee could sue the city of Memphis for breaking a 1978 agreement prohibiting the city from conducting such activities.

After violating (not only) the rights of Citizens of Memphis, but also the rights of People of Color, Mayor Strickland is now asking POC to, once again, re-elect him into public office.  He’s campaigning and parading around the city making promises to the same people whom he violated their Constitutional rights. The most serious of all crimes against American citizens is: a politician’s violation of a single person’s civil, human, and Constitutional rights.