After Tyre Nichols beating, lawmakers call for DOJ investigation into Memphis police

Five weeks after Tyre Nichols died at St. Francis Hospital, members of the clergy and NAACP are asking for the Department of Justice to open a pattern-or-practice investigation into the Memphis Police Department.

The investigation would take a deeper look at the entire department, searching to see if regular stops, searches or arrests violate the Fourth Amendment, along with looking for signs of discriminatory policing or constitutional rights violations, including First Amendment violations.

A letter written by state representatives G.A. Hardaway and Joe Towns, both of Memphis, said the death of Nichols, 29, after a traffic stop in January, appears to be "part of a systemic 'pattern or practice' behavior'," that violates the U.S. Constitution. The letter was sent Thursday to Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general for the DOJ's civil rights division.

At a press conference held at Memphis' NAACP headquarters Friday afternoon, several signatories of the DOJ letter stressed the importance of identifying policies that begat and cover for violence carried out against Memphians and more broadly discussed what accountability looks like.

Hardaway called the moment Memphis finds itself in, "the most important event in decades."

"There are scores of young men and women that have been terrorized by officers of this force... this (DOJ) investigation is the tip of the spearhead," Hardaway said.

Hardaway and Towns also discussed various legislative efforts both current and future that focus on myriad factors from requiring more thorough and regular psychological evaluations to enhancing safety for department whistleblowers.

"We believe 'bad cops' have been emboldened by the implicit or explicit approval of their superiors to act upon the systemic racist and classist biases within the MPD," the letter states.

The DOJ has already been called in to investigate the specialized units at the Memphis Police Department, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland confirmed Feb. 3, but a pattern-or-practice investigation would have a significantly wider scope.

Van Turner, the president of the Memphis branch of the NAACP, made a point to differentiate between the two DOJ investigations. The type of investigation state lawmakers are calling for, he said, is more thorough.

Josh Spickler, the executive director of the criminal justice reform-focused nonprofit Just City, said the organization is prepared to use their own data-analyzation abilities to sift through affidavits and other police reporting documents to identify unjust or dishonest patterns.

"The announcement by the City of Memphis administration to engage with the USDOJ's voluntary program services, which lack enforcement authority, such as Community Outreach Policing Services (COPS), suggests an administrative preference for a voluntary, collaborative review of a limited scope, which is, in essence simply far too little and much too late," the letter — which included 22 signatures from politicians, clergy and activists — continued.

The FBI has also launched a civil rights investigation into Nichols' beating, with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation also investigating the officers for criminal conduct.

The calls for an investigation of the entire department came from activists and civil rights leaders around the time the first five officers — Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills, Jr., Emmitt Martin III and Justin Smith — were fired.

Those calls intensified after the City of Memphis released four videos, three body camera videos and one SkyCop video, that showed the initial traffic stop and then the brutal beating at the hands of MPD officers.

Nichols was pulled over for what officers say was a traffic stop, although Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn "C.J." Davis later said there was no evidence to show that Nichols ever violated any traffic laws.

Body camera footage shows Nichols being pulled from his car and pushed to the ground by officers, who then yelled a flurry of commands at Nichols.

Nichols was pepper sprayed and then ran away. As he was running, Preston Hemphill — the sixth officer to be fired — shot his taser at Nichols.

Officers caught up to Nichols as he was running towards his mother's home. He was tackled under 100 yards from the house.

Officers then began to punch, kick, pepper spray and hit Nichols with a baton. He was eventually pulled along the ground and leaned on the side of a police car.

Bean, Mills, Jr., Martin, Smith and Haley have each been indicted and face second-degree murder, aggravated assault, kidnapping, official oppression and official misconduct charges. Each former officer pleaded not guilty to the charges Friday morning.

Nichols' celebration of life drew in national and local officials, including U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris. Family members of George Floyd, Eric Garner and Breonna Taylor, each of whom was killed by officers in other states, also attended.

Harris voiced her support of police reform, including a call for the reintroduction of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. A number of figures, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, also called for national reform legislation, along with localized policy reform.

The letter also asked the DOJ to look at supporting agencies for Memphis police. When footage of the beating that took Nichols' life was released to the public, the public learned that city paramedics were negligent and waited to render aid to a clearly distressed and injured Nichols.

Along with Hardaway and Towns, the following people signed the letter: State Rep. Justin J. Pearson, D-Memphis; NAACP Memphis branch president Van Turner; Amber Sherman, president of the Shelby County Young Democrats; the Rev. Walter Womack, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference;  Shelby County Commissioner Erika Sugarmon; Shelby County Commissioner Britney Thornton; Dr. Rosalyn R. Nichols, president of MICAH (Memphis Coalition for Action and Hope); Kermit Moore, president of the A. Phillip Randolph Institute; Mackenzie Graham, Shelby County Justice and Safety Alliance; Cardell Orrin, executive director, Stand for Children, Tennessee; Keedran Franklin, at large organizer, Black Men Build; J. Lawrence Turner, senior pastor of Mississippi Blvd. Christian Church; Josh Spickler, executive director, Just City Inc.; Joseph B. Kyles, executive director, Rainbow Push Coalition Memphis; Andre E. Johnson, Ph.D., senior pastor of Gifts of Life Ministries and associate professor of rhetoric and media students, University of Memphis; Earle J. Fisher, Ph.D., senior pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church; Latonia Blankenship, president of Orange Mound Collaborative Group; Pearl Eva Walker, executive director of I Love Whitehaven Neighborhood and Business Association; Lou Ella Marshall, Orange Mound Neighborhood and Veterans Association Inc.; Tikeila Rucker, organizer, Memphis for All; Janiece Lee, vice president, MICAH; LaTrena Ingram, Esq.

Lucas Finton is a news reporter with The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at Lucas.Finton@commercialappeal.com and followed on Twitter @LucasFinton.

Micaela Watts is a news reporter focusing on issues tied to access and equity. She can be reached at micaela.watts@commercialappeal.com.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis clergy, NAACP ask for DOJ investigation into police practice