A Growing Divide
Harassment of people experiencing homelessness is sadly an all too common occurrence in our city, and each incident is a tragic and outrageous reality our brothers and sisters on the streets face.
H.O.P.E. is the name of a Mid-South Peace and Justice Center sponsored organization whose members are exclusively people who are currently or have formerly experienced homelessness. For over a year now, H.O.P.E. has been organizing and agitating around the issues that are a priority to the homeless community. Our group has been meeting at the Manna House every Thursday night from 6 p.m.- 8 p.m. for almost a year now. For our members, H.O.P.E. meetings are a safe space to share thoughts, ideas and struggles in a secure, supportive environment. While we regularly talk about the harassment of individuals experiencing homelessness by law enforcement, we have never had an instance at our meetings when that safe space was violated by MPD until Thursday Nov.15.
H.O.P.E members have participated “Know your Rights” workshops on situations like this before and complied with presenting their identification when asked. H.O.P.E. members calmly asked the officers if they were being detained or arrested, and asked for the names and badge numbers of Officers Anderson and Smith. Officer Anderson aggressively replied, “You can have my badge number, it’ll be on the ticket I’m about to write you,”. The officer then wrote three citations for “Obstructing a Sidewalk” to H.O.P.E organizer Paul Garner, H.O.P.E. member Edward Jackson and H.O.P.E. organizer and Disability advocate Marian Bacon of the Memphis Center for Independent Living. The officers in question ignored Ms.Bacon’s request to sit down as due to her disability as she cannot stand for long periods of time without intense pain. Officer Anderson also was incredible rude and aggressive to Ms. Bacon and accused her of being a prostitute claiming to know her from around the neighborhood.
The experience was deeply upsetting for all of our members but especially so for Ms. Bacon who actually has in the past acted as a trainer for the Memphis Police department’ Crisis Intervention Team, which responds to calls for individuals who have mental illness issues. On Friday November 16th our members filed official complaints with MPD over this incident and the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center will support our members and join them in court on Jan 14th of 2013 to fight these bogus charges and police harassment against our people. While this may seem outrageous or hard to believe to some people, for our members and many others, it’s just another Thursday night in Memphis.
Crossing the Rubicon
This all too common case in point highlights one of our our most pressing and urgent issues is the deteriorating relationship between our community and the Memphis Police Department. In the past year we have all seen a massive tide of reports in the media of indictments of official misconduct of police officers ranging from officers engaging in criminal activities to negligence that has resulted in tragic loss of life. For the past six months the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center has been working with over 70 community leaders from across the city and members of law enforcement from MPD, the Shelby County Sheriff’s Dept, Shelby County Juvenile Court and the District Attorney’s office to engage in a process of improving community police relations. We are working to find community led and supported solutions to crime and violence in Memphis.
This project has had members of a Community Circle and the Police Circle meeting monthly in separate groups to open a dialog about the issues both emotional and structural that create barriers to a more respectful and positive relations between the community and law enforcement. On November 16th these two circles merged and met together for the first time to move this process to the next phase.
At this meeting the process was opened by sharing personal stories about the communities interactions with the police and the police officers present shared why they became officers and their daily frustrations both emotional and systemic within the department and while on patrol. This opening round of sharing experiences was facilitated by Playback Memphis which uses interactive techniques in the style of Theater of the Oppressed. This allowed participants to open up within this space to speak openly and honestly about the many difficult subjects that came out of this process.
Community members shared previous encounters of harassment with police officers that led to their distrust of law enforcement. Police officers shared with the group the emotional toll that the job takes on a person as well as the scope of the number of calls and dangerous situations officers face, all the while being constantly pressured to move quickly to the next call. Community members discussed the lack of cooperation and input they have in police operations and officers shared their frustrations with the lack of emotional support and counseling opportunities not afforded to them. This was very enlightening to both groups and set the tone for the rest of the session as both “sides” agreed that conditions must improved and that both “sides” desired the same things.
The group shared a meal together and the afternoon session was facilitated by Laura Sullivan focused on highlighting issues of commonality and conflict from previous sessions and setting the tone for future engagements. Over the course of the next three months the Community Police Relations Project will be isolating key systemic barriers to improved relations. Participants will be trained as facilitators themselves and in the spring this process is set to move citywide series of town halls open to the greater community facilitated by one police officer and one community member in areas where they work and live. From these forums an action plan for system-wide changes that has real community buy in will be created and be the basis for a citywide grassroots organizing campaign to ensure it’s implementation.
As we believe to our core that those affected the most by a problem are those who posses the solutions to the problem the community will be fully engaged at every level, as such H.O.P.E. is currently setting up a meeting with the Memphis Police Department to set up a facilitated discussion between members of H.O.P.E. and officers of the Union Precinct, to not only address police harassment but also build better relationships between the police and our community around issues of common concern like hate crimes which among people experiencing homelessness is dangerously under reported.
We invite you to a part of this process by joining the Community Police Relations circle and by hosting Town halls in your community. Please contact Melissa Miller-Monie, Organizing Coordinator for Community Police Relations at melissa@midsouthpeace.org or Paul Garner, Organizing Coordinator for H.O.P.E. at paul@midsouthpeace.org or Brad Watkins Organizing Director of the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center at brad@midsouthpeace.org.
Please join us for an annual tradition of friends, fellowship and family and a new celebration as we open our doors at our new office to the community. The Open House & Holiday Party will take place on Thursday November 29 from 5-9pm at our new offices at 
Thank you so much to all of you who made the ninth Gandhi-King Community Conference possible at BRIDGES this year.
This year’s Gandhi-King Conference has brought tremendous feedback from the participants, presenters, panelists and facilitators who contributed their talents. We thank you so much.
VOTE! We at the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center want to remind you to make sure that you exercise your right to vote. Tomorrow, November 6th is election day and while most eyes will be focused on the Presidential election there are two very important ballot initiatives that need your support.
The Memphis City Council voted to place on the ballot a referendum for a 1¢ cent tax per gallon of gas purchased within the city of Memphis. If it’s approved, the tax could provide as much as $3 million to MATA as a guaranteed source of revenue for local public transit. This small tax would amount to a mere $10.00 per year for a person who drives 20,000 miles a year at 20 miles to the gallon.
The 1¢ Gas tax referendum is supported by the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center, the Memphis Bus Riders Union,The Sierra Club, Memphis Center for Independent Living, ADAPT of Tennessee, Latino Memphis, the League of Women Voters and the National Federation of the Blind of Tennessee.
Early Voting has has ended, but you can still cast your vote FOR 30 million dollars to improve public education in Memphis and Shelby County on Nov. 6th by voting FOR the Shelby County Sales Tax Referendum.
Community-Police Relations (Reconciliation) – CPR 
The forums between community and law enforcement, and subsequent community meetings, will lead ultimately to a series of suggestions f