May 15, 2023 • 25 mins
This episode I'll be diviing into the history of consent decrees in Memphis, if having the DOJ establish one is worth, and the ordinances that have taken affect in Memphis. For more content be sure to follow me on Facebook and Instagram @TheLawAccordingtoAmber
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:07):
Hey guys, and welcome to theLaw according to Amber. Every other Monday,
we'll discuss controversial topics with the mixtureof opinion and legal facts. Thus
the Law according to Amber. Besure to give me a follow on Facebook
at the Law according to Amber aswell as Instagram same name The Law according
to Amber. Hey, y'all,Hey, welcome to another episode of the
(00:33):
Law according to Amber. I've beenbeen in news this episode for a while,
but I want to get a littlebit more information because some things had
been happening and want to make sureyou have the most up today info to
give y'all. So, a fewweeks ago, Kristen Clark, who is
the head of the DLJ Department ofJustice, came to Memphis and met with
(00:53):
some folks around who will basically metwith folks who have been urging her to
open a pattern our practice investigation intothe patterns and practices of the Memphis Police
Department. Now, I'll just prefacethis and say that I don't believe in
that. I don't think that's gonnawork, but I do think it's important
to get all the facts and allthe information when it comes to different things
(01:15):
because with people asking for this patternor practice investigation. There were a lot
of rumors going around, so Iwas like, you know, let's just
get the facts. Let's just getthe right information. So to kind of
set things up, I'll start withthe fact that one Memphis already has a
consent decree. So folks are askingfor this pattern our practice investigation to essentially
(01:37):
establish a consent decree. Memphis alreadyhas a consent decree. They've actually had
one for a very long time.There's a CONSENTDA creed that was established because
of a civil lawsuit that became afederal issue called the nineteen seventy eight Kendrick
Consent Decree. That teensent decree wasoriginally established because Chan Kendrick and Myke Honey
(01:59):
and the ACLU of West Tennessee mfoul a lawsuit basically about the Memphis Police
Department spying on them using like differenttools, having cops follow them, stuff
like that, keeping tabs on themfor their First Amendment rights. So,
gathering political intelligence such as indexing,fouling, maintaining, and storaging any information,
(02:28):
or any other investigative activity relating toany person's beliefs, opinions, associations,
and other side otherwise sorry, exercisinga first TENDMO rights. So basically
there are folks who were protesting andyou know, being able to organize do
protests all that stuff as the firstENMO right, and the police were violating
(02:49):
those rights by maintaining political intelligence mand basically creating files on these people.
So then in twenty eighteen there wassomething called the blacklist in Memphis, which
a lot of folks knew about wholive here, but people who don't live
here might not have known about it. So in between that time, of
course, technology has advanced. Thingshave you know, got a little bit
(03:14):
easier to basically monitor folks, Iguess you could say, or it's just
easier to to UM like track peopleand the stuff that they're doing. So
the police department were sued again becausethey were tracking people and he created a
blacklist of activists in the city,UM saying that they require police escorts to
(03:38):
enter city Hall, which is illegalof course, and also the Mempholis department
had used a fake Facebook accounts tospy on activists, like to spy on
their personal lives. So the ACLU, along with UM different activists in the
city sued the city of Memphis forviolating the consent decree, and a federal
(03:59):
judge found they did violate the consentdecree and that they had to modify how
they were operating, and so theconsent decree was amended. And then in
twenty nineteen, the City of Memphisfiled a sell motion and federal court asking
a judge to modify the consent decreethat bars them from gathering political intelligence.
(04:23):
So then they went back to courtand in twenty twenty they found that they
released the decision saying no, they'renot going to do that, and they're
going to further protect the rights ofcitizens and their right to free speech and
their other First Meman rights, andthey includes political intelligence. And basically the
City of Memphis legal officer was sayingthat the reasoning they had is that there
(04:46):
was an ongoing struggle with them tryingto use twenty nineteen technology and crime fighting
best practices to fit in to fitwithin the nineteen seventy eight consent Decree and
their incidents where we have struggled andfelt it impractical for us to do proper
law enforcement, basically making up excusessaying that because of the consind decree from
nineteen seventy eight, and how Iwas amended using technology in this you know
(05:11):
day and age. They just they'rehaving problems doing proper law enforcement, which
is some bullshit. We all knowthat. They are just upset that they
haven't figured out other ways suspire onpeople. And so because of that,
they're just gonna file a motion totry to, you know, get out
of that. And the judge saidno, which they should have because the
(05:32):
police are full of shit. Theydon't need any other tools. Um,
if this is one of the mostsurveiled cities in the United States, they
don't need any other tools. They'renot preventing anything. They just want to
be in people's business and they wantto discriminate against organizers and activists and they
want to be in you know,find ways to disseminate movements. That's it,
(05:56):
like be for real. So afterthat, the consent cry was not
modified after that the next filing,and so they still are held up to
those standards. So that's a civilcounsind decree and that's what memphisis had since
nineteen seventy eight, although it's beenamended two times. Folks who were asking
(06:18):
for the DJ Department of Justice ChristenClark and her team to come in and
do a criminal consent decree. Soa patterns are practice investigation is essentially when
they come in and say, hey, we feel like there's a pattern or
practice here, we want to doan investigation and see if so and if
(06:41):
there are these violations, then wewould develop a consend cry and that's a
consentdic cree developed by the federal governmentand the Criminal Justice Division of the dj
not a civil action like this otherlawsuit. I had a lot of a
lot to say about that. Ithink the most important thing that I said
in the meeting with Kristan Clark isthat we already know there's a pattern of
(07:04):
practice, and I think by thempushing her to do this pattern of practice
investigation, they want to like solidifyand have it on paper, But realistically
it is solidified and on paper.If you look at the documents of the
folks who are being arrested, thepeople who are being targeted, the types
of things to the different task forceare doing, it's very documented. They
(07:25):
have a pattern of practice that's known. I don't think that we need the
DLJ to come in and save us. And also this doesn't give us any
kind of immediate relief. These DLJinvestigations take two to three years. The
investigation they didn't to Brown and Taylor'smurder just was finished a few months ago,
and now they're developing a consent decree. But that's been it's been almost
(07:45):
three years since that happened, andso my immediate response is like, that
doesn't really do anything for me.What can we do now currently? Right?
Like what policies can we pass ata local level? What ways can
we stop giving money to police?How can we control the budget in the
city because it's budget season in allthese different cities. How can we stop
giving them money? Like what actualtangible things can we do instead of relying
(08:11):
on the federal government to come inand save us, Because that's how these
folks were acting, and to me, it made no sense. So the
other questions I asked her around consentdecrees were basically, you know, the
only remedy that y'all have our consentdecrees. When developing those consend decrees,
(08:31):
they do use the local community todo that. They have different meetings,
people are able to give input,But I still felt like it wasn't as
accessible as it could be using Louisvillefor an example. So Louisville is going
to be establishing a consend decree andthey touch all these different town hall meetings
to meet with community members. Allthe meetings except for three of them are
(08:52):
during the day from like eleven Aand the two PM in the middle of
the day, so you're not engagingworking class folks. And then and at
first they didn't have any meetings scheduledin the West End in the evening,
and the West End is the majorityblack area of Louisville and where Brown Taylor
was killed, So how can younot include the community who's the most affected
(09:13):
by policing. They've since added anevening session. But one thing I noticed
from the DLJ and how they move, they don't prioritize those who are actually
affected by policing. And you cansee that in the way they set up
these town halls. Even when theywere developing the the case like starting to
(09:33):
patting the practice investigation, when theyannounced it in everything they asked folks to
come in for these meetings to talkabout their experiences to the police. They
were scheduled at ten am eleven AMin the day, like folks, regular,
actual working class folks who are impactedby policing cannot come to those meetings,
and they know that and people callthem out for it. So I
think that's the first part of it, is that from the beginning to the
(09:54):
end is disenfranchising to working class folks, to black people, to poor black
and brown folks for those who areactually impacted by the criminal injustice system.
And then when you look into likeall the rumors that are around it,
I'll started asking her specific questions becausefolks are saying, well, oh,
the city has to pay for theinvestigation, so we don't want this because
(10:15):
you know the city is gonna haveto pay for it. I'm trying to
use that as a way to getmore funding for police. And I asked
her outright, does the city payfor the funding? She said no,
So the city does not paid forI mean the city pay for the investigation.
She said no. So the CITIdoes not pay for the investigation of
DLJ. Does a DLJ the Departmentof Justice pays for the investigation, the
flights, the meetings, everything theyhave to do to come and actually do
(10:37):
the investigation, the hours the attorneyshave to take on. They pay for
all of that. What the citywould have to pay for it is in
the end, if there are specificmodifications along with the consent decree, like
paying for a monitor for the consenddecree, the city does have to pay
for that. And I do feellike that opens up this gay way to
give cities and and police excuses toask for my money. And why is
(11:03):
it that we should take on aburden for something that they cause themselves.
They're the police, are the dangerousones, They're the ones causing the issues.
It shouldn't be a burden on usas a city and as citizens.
Is saying, oh, well,I have to give them all this money.
No, that's not okay. Likethey could just stop harassing people,
they could stop doing traffic enforcement,they could stop interacting with citizens, they
can stop doing all kinds of practicesthey know are harming folks and traumatizing them.
(11:28):
That's a choice that they're making,and they have to accept those choices
and the outcomes that come with that, which could be a consent decree limiting
their activity in the way they interactwith folks, setting guidelines and place stuff
like that. So then I asksome further questions because I think a lot
of folks are really tied into thisidea of the consent creates. If it's
(11:48):
gonna save us, it's gonna fixthings. And I don't agree, Like
that's just not realistic. And soI ask our specific questions. You know,
of the different places that have currentconsent decrees, like she mentioned Seattle,
I asked her specifically, have thecases the percentages of police brutality decrease
in those places. So she mentionedSeattle in her response, saying that Seattle
(12:13):
had had us a consenda crew fordecades and they were just now closing out
that consenta decree because the police hadmet the guidelines and they had decreasing numbers.
And I said, specifically, haveyou worked in a place have you
had a consent to create in aplace that has a majority black population,
not Seattle, because Seattle is notrepresentative of Memphis. Memphis is a majority
(12:35):
of black city over sixty Seattle isnot. So the consenda cry they have
there, it's gonna be completely differentfrom what we have here. And the
impact of policing has on black peopleand the folks in Memphis is completely different
compared to Seattle. And she said, oh, well, we have a
consenda cree in New Orleans that's beengoing on for a while, and I
specifically asked her of the folks,who are you know opera in that consend
(13:00):
decree? Have the numbers of policebrutality cases decreased? She can not answer
the question to something that she wasnot sure, And I honestly appreciate her
being truthful. I would rather someonetell me they don't know than to lie,
and she was very true for shedoes not know. And it also
reassures what I have said before,there is no there's no savior in a
consend decree. One she didn't know, but two I looked up the cansend
(13:24):
decree in the reports from it,and they haven't decreased. If anything,
they're pretty much sure the same,that the people are interacting with folks the
same. They just had a caselast year where police officers were sexually assaulting
multiple people. So to me,nothing has changed under that consendicree. And
I haven't seen any places where aconsend decree has changed the way that folks
(13:45):
are police in majority black places,not your seattles, not these other majority
you know, white areas I'm talkingabout in Memphis, in New Orleans.
Like places that have a consend decreewhere the police are known to purpose,
lead, discriminate, and harm blackpeople, have they worked. And I'm
not seeing any proof that it has. And that's another reason why I don't
(14:07):
think a consend decree from a patternof practice investigation will work. What I
do think will work, it's actualfolks pushing the city council and other folks
to stop giving police more money.What I do think will works folks funding
public safety initiatives that are actually gonnaresult in some public safety, like funding
parts, giving kids things to do, having better food resources, making folks
(14:31):
feel like their communities are safe bylike having well paid streets and giving folks
the opportunity to be able to playpast a certain time because there's actual street
lights in the neighborhood. Stuff likethat. Like that's public safety, not
the police. And I mentioned that, I've mentioned it to several folks multiple
times. I've explained, you know, why cossend decrees don't work, why
(14:56):
they just aren't actually like producing whatwe will want. But the consend decrees,
like the civil one that the cityhas actually is you know, the
city has a monitor for the civilconsenterat the Kinder consent decree that is constantly
monitoring the police department. The policehave stuff to make filings every three months
of the type of surveillance they havedone, and they are being held accountable
(15:20):
in real time. That's completely differentfrom this possible DLJ consind decree that I
really just haven't seen evidence from.And every time the police have tried to
adjust the consent decree or they've beensued and it's been amended, you know,
the truth has come out and they'vebeen held accountable. I'm not seeing
that with kurdsendcrees that have happened throughthe DJUM. So that's another reason why
(15:46):
I pushed back against it. Ithink that it's a waste of money.
I think that the police and thecity government, especially the mayor, will
try to use it as a reasonto give the police more money, because
if there isn't is a consenacree established, they're gonna say, like, we
need money to fund this. Sothat's my opinion on consent decrees. I
know other folks have different responses,but I think the most realistic way to
(16:11):
get changed is to stop giving moneyto police, to remove police from interacting
with citizens to establish laws and policiesthat restrict the way they're allowed to talk
to folks, to implement more accountability, like we've seen with the ordinances,
which I also talk about because nowthey're taking place, and so that's how
I feel like consent decrees. Idon't think they're realistic. I don't think
(16:33):
they're effective. What I do thinkit's effective is policy things that you can
hold folks accountable to, things thatyou can call them to the carpet on.
And that looks like these policies thatwe've passed here in Memphis, so
they are now in effect. Ithink one of the best, the best
ordinances that we got passed was theone around tracking traffic stops, because this
(16:53):
doesn't exist anywhere right now, especiallyin the South, where people are able
to see that kind of ormation inreal time. And I think that that's
going to be something that allows usto really hold the police accountable because right
now we're having to wait on likea four year request or something, right
or we have to rely on thepolice, the police report that the police
are gonna write, and we knowthey're gonna lie in the police report because
(17:15):
the police are liars, so theywould have to have to make note of
every stop and have to list thedate, time of the stop, the
reason for the stop, the vehiclemaking model, the outcomes of the stop,
and demographic info if you consent toit. They are now required to
provide a unique ID number for thestop, regardlessive of a citation or other
(17:37):
action is given, which I alsothink is important because before, if you
were not giving a citation or ticket, then we weren't able to really track
what actually happened to someone, andthat's where a lot of police brutality was
happening. And then starting on Octobereleven, twenty twenty three, you can
review your stop online, so there'llbe a database. They had six months
of stablage the database, so thattime is they have a few more months
(18:00):
to get that together. But oncethey have that database up and running,
then you'll be able to go andactually track your stop in real time,
which I think is also important becauseit's gonna make it so much easier for
hold them accountable, like when somethinghappens immediately, if you don't have that
unique ID, or if you don'tsee these things listen out on the stop,
they're getting reprimmended for that because theyare required to do so and they
(18:23):
know that. And then another thingthat was really good about the orderances we
have passed was around using MR cars. So they're not allowed to use us
on our cars, and we're seeingthem change in real time how they're operating
because they're not allowed to use onour cars. They're still using Task Force,
but they have to be in MARKcars, so you know, at
least you know it's the police,right and then they can't stop you for
(18:48):
what we're calling the five els,so you can they cannot conduct an initial
traffic stop for late registration within sixtydays, a light being out on your
car, locational temporary tag UM,but it must be clearly displayed in your
in your rear window somewhere UM,a loose license plate, and a loose
bumper or a missing bumper. Sothose are the five els that UM folks
(19:12):
can remember for not being able to, you know, make an initial stop.
And then if there's issues, youcan also report UM what's going on,
Like if you are stopped for someof these things. The car stret
Memphis is actually taking complaints because we'llbe updating in real time like what's actually
happening UM if the police are bidand by the new ordinances, because that's
(19:34):
also important. So if you findthat MPD violence these new laws, UM,
you can you just go through withit, like go through the stop
like normal, UM, record theinteraction. If you can get as much
information about the officer name and theBASH number UM, and then you'll be
able to get your most likely beable to get that case dismissed in court
(19:55):
because they did not comply with thenew law when they stopped you. UM.
But you can also contact decar StrayMemphis by email, so you can
send them an email about to stopand we'll look into it for you also
and provide some support that way.So you can email them at decars Ray
Memphis is D E C A RC R at Memphis, M E M
(20:15):
P h I S at gmail dotcom. It's I saw the same name
on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.So if you don't want to send an
emailup on sins like a DM orsomething, you can do that too.
And I think that it's really importantthat we are doing that accountability work right.
So like now we've got an ordinancespassed, we're pushing for more ordinances.
Of course we're working on an ordinanceright now around the specialized units and
(20:37):
task force, But in the meantime, we're also going to hold them accountable
for what's happening, because we knowthe police lie, and police, you
know, don't like being head accountable, so they'll just do what they want.
And I think that somebody had totake up that work and I'm cool
with doing it because I want tomake sure that people are able to get
to their houses safely. Like it'sjust it's just ridiculous that the police this
(21:00):
way. Before these laws are passed, forty three percent of traffic citations were
for unpaid fees, and that's somethingthat we really really talked about because none
of this is focusing on safety.Unmarked cards were used to conduct the traffics
oop to kill Tyree Nichols, andthey're no longer able to use those and
MPD has claimed a lot of ignoranceof its own around traffic operation after Tyree
(21:21):
Nichols was murdered, Like no onecan answer any questions. People asking the
police chief questions, she don't knowthe answer. She's saying, I don't
know. And so by being ableto being required to document traffic stops,
we're gonna be able to answer thoseimportant questions because most importantly, what was
he stopped for. Nobody knows.Why were they in the neighborhood. Nobody
knows. I mean, well,I know because they're targeting black people.
But you know, supposedly they're ina high crime area. They were not
(21:47):
in a high crime area. AndMK fifty did a really good article about
how this was not a high crimearea. Actually they only had one homicide
and that whole half mile radius anentire year of twenty twenty two, So
we're talking about violent crime, homicide, murders, so all that stuff that
wasn't happening there, and the policeknew that. The police were targeting black
(22:07):
people. They're targeting young black peoplebecause that's what they're told to do because
that's who's committing on the crime,which is bullshit. So now that we
you know, we only asked aboutit and they have to be held accountable,
we're seeing this play out in realtime. I think that's the coolest
part for me, Like watching policehave to adjust how they discriminate the target
(22:32):
people in real time is so funbecause they are so pissed. And my
answer is always we'll put your job. Then you know, let's wrap it
up, go ahead of turning yourbadge because you shouldn't be here anyways,
which of course they don't you know, respond to, but either way,
So yeah, that's my argument.I don't think consent decrees are worth it.
(22:55):
I'm probably I know I name thislike our consent decrees even worth it
because I keep hearing people talk aboutit. That's all people are talking about.
A consenda cry here, a consendacry there, Like this is not
Oprah. You don't get a consendacry. You don't get that's not that's
not how what happening is here.Like, what's gonna happen is that we're
not gonna get the police anymore money. What's actually gonna happen is that they're
gonna have new policies and laws haveto follow, and when they don't,
(23:18):
you getting fired. You're not gettingno pension, you gotta go. That's
what's actually gonna happen. That's what'sgonna actually keep people safe, because like
I said before, we keep ourselvessafe in community, me leading this organizing
these different organizations official Black Lives MatterMemphis and the CARSE Memphis, holding these
folks accountable showing up to these meetings, like calling their numbers, keep them,
(23:40):
hitting up the city council members likehey, what the fuck going on?
Like, you know, being ontheir ass. That works, and
that's what's been working. That's what'sgoing to work. That's what's gonna keep
folks safe. So yeah, I'lllet y'all know how how it plays out
and what happens nixt especially as weget into budget season, which is gonna
be very interesting, and I'm alreadyseeing, you know, the mayor trying
(24:04):
to give them my money. We'realready seeing folks putting out their proposals around
what they want to fund. SoI'll do a complete breakdown about the County
Commission budget and the city council budgetbecause we have two governments here and they're
both gonna pass budgets, and thecounty mayor has already started on his bullshit
(24:26):
about violent crime and meeting violence interruptors, and then I don't think any of
that manages if you're not including community, if the community isn't running it,
then I don't think it makes anysense. So we'll see how that goes
and where they go to. Butfor the most part, we are I
feel like we're going down a goodpath, but there's way more to do
(24:51):
and we're gonna keep doing it.So thank y'all for joining me for another
episode of the Law according to Amber. I hope now you you have a
better understanding of what a consend decreeis, how it can be effective,
if it is effective, what trulyis, you know, working for different
communities, and how you can implementthose same things in your community if you're
(25:12):
interested in, you know, establishingsome of these ordinances in your own community.
We have draft ordinances that I cansend to you. You can hit
me up on Instagram or Facebook.Same name the Law according to Amber.
So until next time, peace,
Hey guys, and welcome to theLaw according to Amber. Every other Monday,
we'll discuss controversial topics with the mixtureof opinion and legal facts. Thus
the Law according to Amber. Besure to give me a follow on Facebook
at the Law according to Amber aswell as Instagram same name The Law according
to Amber. Hey, y'all,Hey, welcome to another episode of the
(00:33):
Law according to Amber. I've beenbeen in news this episode for a while,
but I want to get a littlebit more information because some things had
been happening and want to make sureyou have the most up today info to
give y'all. So, a fewweeks ago, Kristen Clark, who is
the head of the DLJ Department ofJustice, came to Memphis and met with
(00:53):
some folks around who will basically metwith folks who have been urging her to
open a pattern our practice investigation intothe patterns and practices of the Memphis Police
Department. Now, I'll just prefacethis and say that I don't believe in
that. I don't think that's gonnawork, but I do think it's important
to get all the facts and allthe information when it comes to different things
(01:15):
because with people asking for this patternor practice investigation. There were a lot
of rumors going around, so Iwas like, you know, let's just
get the facts. Let's just getthe right information. So to kind of
set things up, I'll start withthe fact that one Memphis already has a
consent decree. So folks are askingfor this pattern our practice investigation to essentially
(01:37):
establish a consent decree. Memphis alreadyhas a consent decree. They've actually had
one for a very long time.There's a CONSENTDA creed that was established because
of a civil lawsuit that became afederal issue called the nineteen seventy eight Kendrick
Consent Decree. That teensent decree wasoriginally established because Chan Kendrick and Myke Honey
(01:59):
and the ACLU of West Tennessee mfoul a lawsuit basically about the Memphis Police
Department spying on them using like differenttools, having cops follow them, stuff
like that, keeping tabs on themfor their First Amendment rights. So,
gathering political intelligence such as indexing,fouling, maintaining, and storaging any information,
(02:28):
or any other investigative activity relating toany person's beliefs, opinions, associations,
and other side otherwise sorry, exercisinga first TENDMO rights. So basically
there are folks who were protesting andyou know, being able to organize do
protests all that stuff as the firstENMO right, and the police were violating
(02:49):
those rights by maintaining political intelligence mand basically creating files on these people.
So then in twenty eighteen there wassomething called the blacklist in Memphis, which
a lot of folks knew about wholive here, but people who don't live
here might not have known about it. So in between that time, of
course, technology has advanced. Thingshave you know, got a little bit
(03:14):
easier to basically monitor folks, Iguess you could say, or it's just
easier to to UM like track peopleand the stuff that they're doing. So
the police department were sued again becausethey were tracking people and he created a
blacklist of activists in the city,UM saying that they require police escorts to
(03:38):
enter city Hall, which is illegalof course, and also the Mempholis department
had used a fake Facebook accounts tospy on activists, like to spy on
their personal lives. So the ACLU, along with UM different activists in the
city sued the city of Memphis forviolating the consent decree, and a federal
(03:59):
judge found they did violate the consentdecree and that they had to modify how
they were operating, and so theconsent decree was amended. And then in
twenty nineteen, the City of Memphisfiled a sell motion and federal court asking
a judge to modify the consent decreethat bars them from gathering political intelligence.
(04:23):
So then they went back to courtand in twenty twenty they found that they
released the decision saying no, they'renot going to do that, and they're
going to further protect the rights ofcitizens and their right to free speech and
their other First Meman rights, andthey includes political intelligence. And basically the
City of Memphis legal officer was sayingthat the reasoning they had is that there
(04:46):
was an ongoing struggle with them tryingto use twenty nineteen technology and crime fighting
best practices to fit in to fitwithin the nineteen seventy eight consent Decree and
their incidents where we have struggled andfelt it impractical for us to do proper
law enforcement, basically making up excusessaying that because of the consind decree from
nineteen seventy eight, and how Iwas amended using technology in this you know
(05:11):
day and age. They just they'rehaving problems doing proper law enforcement, which
is some bullshit. We all knowthat. They are just upset that they
haven't figured out other ways suspire onpeople. And so because of that,
they're just gonna file a motion totry to, you know, get out
of that. And the judge saidno, which they should have because the
(05:32):
police are full of shit. Theydon't need any other tools. Um,
if this is one of the mostsurveiled cities in the United States, they
don't need any other tools. They'renot preventing anything. They just want to
be in people's business and they wantto discriminate against organizers and activists and they
want to be in you know,find ways to disseminate movements. That's it,
(05:56):
like be for real. So afterthat, the consent cry was not
modified after that the next filing,and so they still are held up to
those standards. So that's a civilcounsind decree and that's what memphisis had since
nineteen seventy eight, although it's beenamended two times. Folks who were asking
(06:18):
for the DJ Department of Justice ChristenClark and her team to come in and
do a criminal consent decree. Soa patterns are practice investigation is essentially when
they come in and say, hey, we feel like there's a pattern or
practice here, we want to doan investigation and see if so and if
(06:41):
there are these violations, then wewould develop a consend cry and that's a
consentdic cree developed by the federal governmentand the Criminal Justice Division of the dj
not a civil action like this otherlawsuit. I had a lot of a
lot to say about that. Ithink the most important thing that I said
in the meeting with Kristan Clark isthat we already know there's a pattern of
(07:04):
practice, and I think by thempushing her to do this pattern of practice
investigation, they want to like solidifyand have it on paper, But realistically
it is solidified and on paper.If you look at the documents of the
folks who are being arrested, thepeople who are being targeted, the types
of things to the different task forceare doing, it's very documented. They
(07:25):
have a pattern of practice that's known. I don't think that we need the
DLJ to come in and save us. And also this doesn't give us any
kind of immediate relief. These DLJinvestigations take two to three years. The
investigation they didn't to Brown and Taylor'smurder just was finished a few months ago,
and now they're developing a consent decree. But that's been it's been almost
(07:45):
three years since that happened, andso my immediate response is like, that
doesn't really do anything for me.What can we do now currently? Right?
Like what policies can we pass ata local level? What ways can
we stop giving money to police?How can we control the budget in the
city because it's budget season in allthese different cities. How can we stop
giving them money? Like what actualtangible things can we do instead of relying
(08:11):
on the federal government to come inand save us, Because that's how these
folks were acting, and to me, it made no sense. So the
other questions I asked her around consentdecrees were basically, you know, the
only remedy that y'all have our consentdecrees. When developing those consend decrees,
(08:31):
they do use the local community todo that. They have different meetings,
people are able to give input,But I still felt like it wasn't as
accessible as it could be using Louisvillefor an example. So Louisville is going
to be establishing a consend decree andthey touch all these different town hall meetings
to meet with community members. Allthe meetings except for three of them are
(08:52):
during the day from like eleven Aand the two PM in the middle of
the day, so you're not engagingworking class folks. And then and at
first they didn't have any meetings scheduledin the West End in the evening,
and the West End is the majorityblack area of Louisville and where Brown Taylor
was killed, So how can younot include the community who's the most affected
(09:13):
by policing. They've since added anevening session. But one thing I noticed
from the DLJ and how they move, they don't prioritize those who are actually
affected by policing. And you cansee that in the way they set up
these town halls. Even when theywere developing the the case like starting to
(09:33):
patting the practice investigation, when theyannounced it in everything they asked folks to
come in for these meetings to talkabout their experiences to the police. They
were scheduled at ten am eleven AMin the day, like folks, regular,
actual working class folks who are impactedby policing cannot come to those meetings,
and they know that and people callthem out for it. So I
think that's the first part of it, is that from the beginning to the
(09:54):
end is disenfranchising to working class folks, to black people, to poor black
and brown folks for those who areactually impacted by the criminal injustice system.
And then when you look into likeall the rumors that are around it,
I'll started asking her specific questions becausefolks are saying, well, oh,
the city has to pay for theinvestigation, so we don't want this because
(10:15):
you know the city is gonna haveto pay for it. I'm trying to
use that as a way to getmore funding for police. And I asked
her outright, does the city payfor the funding? She said no,
So the city does not paid forI mean the city pay for the investigation.
She said no. So the CITIdoes not pay for the investigation of
DLJ. Does a DLJ the Departmentof Justice pays for the investigation, the
flights, the meetings, everything theyhave to do to come and actually do
(10:37):
the investigation, the hours the attorneyshave to take on. They pay for
all of that. What the citywould have to pay for it is in
the end, if there are specificmodifications along with the consent decree, like
paying for a monitor for the consenddecree, the city does have to pay
for that. And I do feellike that opens up this gay way to
give cities and and police excuses toask for my money. And why is
(11:03):
it that we should take on aburden for something that they cause themselves.
They're the police, are the dangerousones, They're the ones causing the issues.
It shouldn't be a burden on usas a city and as citizens.
Is saying, oh, well,I have to give them all this money.
No, that's not okay. Likethey could just stop harassing people,
they could stop doing traffic enforcement,they could stop interacting with citizens, they
can stop doing all kinds of practicesthey know are harming folks and traumatizing them.
(11:28):
That's a choice that they're making,and they have to accept those choices
and the outcomes that come with that, which could be a consent decree limiting
their activity in the way they interactwith folks, setting guidelines and place stuff
like that. So then I asksome further questions because I think a lot
of folks are really tied into thisidea of the consent creates. If it's
(11:48):
gonna save us, it's gonna fixthings. And I don't agree, Like
that's just not realistic. And soI ask our specific questions. You know,
of the different places that have currentconsent decrees, like she mentioned Seattle,
I asked her specifically, have thecases the percentages of police brutality decrease
in those places. So she mentionedSeattle in her response, saying that Seattle
(12:13):
had had us a consenda crew fordecades and they were just now closing out
that consenta decree because the police hadmet the guidelines and they had decreasing numbers.
And I said, specifically, haveyou worked in a place have you
had a consent to create in aplace that has a majority black population,
not Seattle, because Seattle is notrepresentative of Memphis. Memphis is a majority
(12:35):
of black city over sixty Seattle isnot. So the consenda cry they have
there, it's gonna be completely differentfrom what we have here. And the
impact of policing has on black peopleand the folks in Memphis is completely different
compared to Seattle. And she said, oh, well, we have a
consenda cree in New Orleans that's beengoing on for a while, and I
specifically asked her of the folks,who are you know opera in that consend
(13:00):
decree? Have the numbers of policebrutality cases decreased? She can not answer
the question to something that she wasnot sure, And I honestly appreciate her
being truthful. I would rather someonetell me they don't know than to lie,
and she was very true for shedoes not know. And it also
reassures what I have said before,there is no there's no savior in a
consend decree. One she didn't know, but two I looked up the cansend
(13:24):
decree in the reports from it,and they haven't decreased. If anything,
they're pretty much sure the same,that the people are interacting with folks the
same. They just had a caselast year where police officers were sexually assaulting
multiple people. So to me,nothing has changed under that consendicree. And
I haven't seen any places where aconsend decree has changed the way that folks
(13:45):
are police in majority black places,not your seattles, not these other majority
you know, white areas I'm talkingabout in Memphis, in New Orleans.
Like places that have a consend decreewhere the police are known to purpose,
lead, discriminate, and harm blackpeople, have they worked. And I'm
not seeing any proof that it has. And that's another reason why I don't
(14:07):
think a consend decree from a patternof practice investigation will work. What I
do think will work, it's actualfolks pushing the city council and other folks
to stop giving police more money.What I do think will works folks funding
public safety initiatives that are actually gonnaresult in some public safety, like funding
parts, giving kids things to do, having better food resources, making folks
(14:31):
feel like their communities are safe bylike having well paid streets and giving folks
the opportunity to be able to playpast a certain time because there's actual street
lights in the neighborhood. Stuff likethat. Like that's public safety, not
the police. And I mentioned that, I've mentioned it to several folks multiple
times. I've explained, you know, why cossend decrees don't work, why
(14:56):
they just aren't actually like producing whatwe will want. But the consend decrees,
like the civil one that the cityhas actually is you know, the
city has a monitor for the civilconsenterat the Kinder consent decree that is constantly
monitoring the police department. The policehave stuff to make filings every three months
of the type of surveillance they havedone, and they are being held accountable
(15:20):
in real time. That's completely differentfrom this possible DLJ consind decree that I
really just haven't seen evidence from.And every time the police have tried to
adjust the consent decree or they've beensued and it's been amended, you know,
the truth has come out and they'vebeen held accountable. I'm not seeing
that with kurdsendcrees that have happened throughthe DJUM. So that's another reason why
(15:46):
I pushed back against it. Ithink that it's a waste of money.
I think that the police and thecity government, especially the mayor, will
try to use it as a reasonto give the police more money, because
if there isn't is a consenacree established, they're gonna say, like, we
need money to fund this. Sothat's my opinion on consent decrees. I
know other folks have different responses,but I think the most realistic way to
(16:11):
get changed is to stop giving moneyto police, to remove police from interacting
with citizens to establish laws and policiesthat restrict the way they're allowed to talk
to folks, to implement more accountability, like we've seen with the ordinances,
which I also talk about because nowthey're taking place, and so that's how
I feel like consent decrees. Idon't think they're realistic. I don't think
(16:33):
they're effective. What I do thinkit's effective is policy things that you can
hold folks accountable to, things thatyou can call them to the carpet on.
And that looks like these policies thatwe've passed here in Memphis, so
they are now in effect. Ithink one of the best, the best
ordinances that we got passed was theone around tracking traffic stops, because this
(16:53):
doesn't exist anywhere right now, especiallyin the South, where people are able
to see that kind of ormation inreal time. And I think that that's
going to be something that allows usto really hold the police accountable because right
now we're having to wait on likea four year request or something, right
or we have to rely on thepolice, the police report that the police
are gonna write, and we knowthey're gonna lie in the police report because
(17:15):
the police are liars, so theywould have to have to make note of
every stop and have to list thedate, time of the stop, the
reason for the stop, the vehiclemaking model, the outcomes of the stop,
and demographic info if you consent toit. They are now required to
provide a unique ID number for thestop, regardlessive of a citation or other
(17:37):
action is given, which I alsothink is important because before, if you
were not giving a citation or ticket, then we weren't able to really track
what actually happened to someone, andthat's where a lot of police brutality was
happening. And then starting on Octobereleven, twenty twenty three, you can
review your stop online, so there'llbe a database. They had six months
of stablage the database, so thattime is they have a few more months
(18:00):
to get that together. But oncethey have that database up and running,
then you'll be able to go andactually track your stop in real time,
which I think is also important becauseit's gonna make it so much easier for
hold them accountable, like when somethinghappens immediately, if you don't have that
unique ID, or if you don'tsee these things listen out on the stop,
they're getting reprimmended for that because theyare required to do so and they
(18:23):
know that. And then another thingthat was really good about the orderances we
have passed was around using MR cars. So they're not allowed to use us
on our cars, and we're seeingthem change in real time how they're operating
because they're not allowed to use onour cars. They're still using Task Force,
but they have to be in MARKcars, so you know, at
least you know it's the police,right and then they can't stop you for
(18:48):
what we're calling the five els,so you can they cannot conduct an initial
traffic stop for late registration within sixtydays, a light being out on your
car, locational temporary tag UM,but it must be clearly displayed in your
in your rear window somewhere UM,a loose license plate, and a loose
bumper or a missing bumper. Sothose are the five els that UM folks
(19:12):
can remember for not being able to, you know, make an initial stop.
And then if there's issues, youcan also report UM what's going on,
Like if you are stopped for someof these things. The car stret
Memphis is actually taking complaints because we'llbe updating in real time like what's actually
happening UM if the police are bidand by the new ordinances, because that's
(19:34):
also important. So if you findthat MPD violence these new laws, UM,
you can you just go through withit, like go through the stop
like normal, UM, record theinteraction. If you can get as much
information about the officer name and theBASH number UM, and then you'll be
able to get your most likely beable to get that case dismissed in court
(19:55):
because they did not comply with thenew law when they stopped you. UM.
But you can also contact decar StrayMemphis by email, so you can
send them an email about to stopand we'll look into it for you also
and provide some support that way.So you can email them at decars Ray
Memphis is D E C A RC R at Memphis, M E M
(20:15):
P h I S at gmail dotcom. It's I saw the same name
on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.So if you don't want to send an
emailup on sins like a DM orsomething, you can do that too.
And I think that it's really importantthat we are doing that accountability work right.
So like now we've got an ordinancespassed, we're pushing for more ordinances.
Of course we're working on an ordinanceright now around the specialized units and
(20:37):
task force, But in the meantime, we're also going to hold them accountable
for what's happening, because we knowthe police lie, and police, you
know, don't like being head accountable, so they'll just do what they want.
And I think that somebody had totake up that work and I'm cool
with doing it because I want tomake sure that people are able to get
to their houses safely. Like it'sjust it's just ridiculous that the police this
(21:00):
way. Before these laws are passed, forty three percent of traffic citations were
for unpaid fees, and that's somethingthat we really really talked about because none
of this is focusing on safety.Unmarked cards were used to conduct the traffics
oop to kill Tyree Nichols, andthey're no longer able to use those and
MPD has claimed a lot of ignoranceof its own around traffic operation after Tyree
(21:21):
Nichols was murdered, Like no onecan answer any questions. People asking the
police chief questions, she don't knowthe answer. She's saying, I don't
know. And so by being ableto being required to document traffic stops,
we're gonna be able to answer thoseimportant questions because most importantly, what was
he stopped for. Nobody knows.Why were they in the neighborhood. Nobody
knows. I mean, well,I know because they're targeting black people.
But you know, supposedly they're ina high crime area. They were not
(21:47):
in a high crime area. AndMK fifty did a really good article about
how this was not a high crimearea. Actually they only had one homicide
and that whole half mile radius anentire year of twenty twenty two, So
we're talking about violent crime, homicide, murders, so all that stuff that
wasn't happening there, and the policeknew that. The police were targeting black
(22:07):
people. They're targeting young black peoplebecause that's what they're told to do because
that's who's committing on the crime,which is bullshit. So now that we
you know, we only asked aboutit and they have to be held accountable,
we're seeing this play out in realtime. I think that's the coolest
part for me, Like watching policehave to adjust how they discriminate the target
(22:32):
people in real time is so funbecause they are so pissed. And my
answer is always we'll put your job. Then you know, let's wrap it
up, go ahead of turning yourbadge because you shouldn't be here anyways,
which of course they don't you know, respond to, but either way,
So yeah, that's my argument.I don't think consent decrees are worth it.
(22:55):
I'm probably I know I name thislike our consent decrees even worth it
because I keep hearing people talk aboutit. That's all people are talking about.
A consenda cry here, a consendacry there, Like this is not
Oprah. You don't get a consendacry. You don't get that's not that's
not how what happening is here.Like, what's gonna happen is that we're
not gonna get the police anymore money. What's actually gonna happen is that they're
gonna have new policies and laws haveto follow, and when they don't,
(23:18):
you getting fired. You're not gettingno pension, you gotta go. That's
what's actually gonna happen. That's what'sgonna actually keep people safe, because like
I said before, we keep ourselvessafe in community, me leading this organizing
these different organizations official Black Lives MatterMemphis and the CARSE Memphis, holding these
folks accountable showing up to these meetings, like calling their numbers, keep them,
(23:40):
hitting up the city council members likehey, what the fuck going on?
Like, you know, being ontheir ass. That works, and
that's what's been working. That's what'sgoing to work. That's what's gonna keep
folks safe. So yeah, I'lllet y'all know how how it plays out
and what happens nixt especially as weget into budget season, which is gonna
be very interesting, and I'm alreadyseeing, you know, the mayor trying
(24:04):
to give them my money. We'realready seeing folks putting out their proposals around
what they want to fund. SoI'll do a complete breakdown about the County
Commission budget and the city council budgetbecause we have two governments here and they're
both gonna pass budgets, and thecounty mayor has already started on his bullshit
(24:26):
about violent crime and meeting violence interruptors, and then I don't think any of
that manages if you're not including community, if the community isn't running it,
then I don't think it makes anysense. So we'll see how that goes
and where they go to. Butfor the most part, we are I
feel like we're going down a goodpath, but there's way more to do
(24:51):
and we're gonna keep doing it.So thank y'all for joining me for another
episode of the Law according to Amber. I hope now you you have a
better understanding of what a consend decreeis, how it can be effective,
if it is effective, what trulyis, you know, working for different
communities, and how you can implementthose same things in your community if you're
(25:12):
interested in, you know, establishingsome of these ordinances in your own community.
We have draft ordinances that I cansend to you. You can hit
me up on Instagram or Facebook.Same name the Law according to Amber.
So until next time, peace,
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