Mid-South Peace & Justice Center

Our State, Our Stories :: A Better TN is Possible

On Tuesday March 12 hundreds of everyday citizens will climb onto buses, cram into vans, and carpool from Memphis, Chatanooga, Knoxville and the towns in between to descend on the capitol for the People’s Day on the Hill. We will come together under the banner of Our State, Our Stories: A Better Tennessee is Possible because we know that the grassroots communities of our state have the solutions to the problems that plague us. We know that real change never comes from the halls of the legislature, it comes from the people.

Join grassroots communities all over the state as we mark Tuesday March 12, 2013 as the first annual People’s Lobby Day on the Hill. 

We know that the problems faced across the state can be fixed using grassroots solutions. We are the experts; we are the voices that our representatives need. Join us!

Bus is leaving and returning from First Congregational Church at 5:30am on Tuesday March 12 and returning by 7pm that same day. 

Free Transportation provided, donations gratefully accepted.  Pay what you can for snacks and lunch.

Register online here.

Invite your friends to our Facebook event here.

This Thursday, February 7^th at 1:30pm at the Shelby County Criminal Justice Center members of the organization Homeless Organizing for Power and Equality (H.O.P.E.) will be having their day in court to fight against issues of police harassment against the unsheltered and insensitivity to people with disabilities.

We want to urge the community to stand with us tomorrow Feb 7^th at 1:30pm at General Session Div 1 at 201 Poplar to stand in solidarity with not only our members but for many of our brothers and sisters on the streets who suffer daily harassment due to the profiling of people experiencing homelessness. This is not about the community vs. the police but is about people of good will, decency and humanity standing against those who would misuse their authority and as such are the criminals.

Background

The grassroots group has been meeting at the Manna House at 1268 Jefferson every Thursday night for almost a year now. On Thursday Nov.15th at 7:15 p.m. as the meeting drew to a close, H.O.P.E., organizer Paul Garner was locking the gate to the Manna House and the group was about to depart, when two MPD squad cars made a U-turn and pulled up on the remaining seven members present.

One MPD officer named stepped out of his vehicle and approached the members who were standing by the two staff member vehicles. The officers present were rude and openly hostile to the membership going so far as accusing one of the ladies present of being a prostitute. That member was Marian Bacon, a disabilities advocate and Independent living specialist who works for the Memphis Center for Independent Living, and former trainer for MPD’s Crisis Intervention Team, which responds to calls for individuals who have mental illness issues. Ms Bacon, who suffers from anxiety and pronounced PTSD from a childhood incident involving police officers, was deeply traumatized by the event.

H.O.P.E. members calmly asked the officers if they were being detained or arrested, and asked for their names and badge numbers.  To this the lead officer 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 detained our members for over an hour and fifteen minutes and ignored Ms Bacon’s request to sit down or to be allowed to go to the restroom, as due to her physical disability she cannot stand for long periods of time without intense pain.  As a result Ms. Bacon was humiliated physically and emotionally to the point that she urinated on herself due to emotional stress and fatigue.

Since last November the group has for filed numerous complaints with MPD at the Union/Crump precinct and with MPD Internal Affairs, which as of yet despite meetings with MPD administrators have yet to receive any official reply about their complaints.

This began on November 16^th where members filed formal complaints at the Union/Crump Precinct about the incident. In violation of proper MPD procedure the members received no confirmation that the complaints were received. As a result we spoke with MPD Deputy Chief Martello and Deputy Director Berryhill and with their prompt assistance scheduled a meeting with the acting commander Major Casad at the Union/Crump precinct on December 21^st. At this meeting the group was informed that the matter had been transferred to Internal Affairs and that at that time internal affairs had taken no action, as they had no paperwork from our members. This is also a violation of proper procedure as how can our members fill out the proper paperwork if the department never informs them of the matter being transferred to IAD in the first place?

Members of HOPE and witnesses went to Internal Affairs on January 8^th and filed numerous statements and complaints in order to ensure that this matter was handled properly. At that time members of HOPE were told by IAD that we would receive notification of the finding of their investigation on January 28^th.

Once again proper procedure was not followed as there was no such notification given and when HOPE contacted IAD on January 30^th, we were told by Lt. Mark Winters that IAD had completed their investigation on January 10^th and had returned the matter to the Union/Crump precinct. They were awaiting the final actions of the precinct and that IAD was still awaiting a response from the precinct leadership. For the past three months our members have been jumping through numerous hoops and at each point we have followed the procedures laid out to us to the letter and yet at we are still no closer to a just solution to this issue than we were when we started.

Where do we go from here?

The group will be fighting these charges Thursday in court and will exhaust the appeals process to ensure justice however our chief concern is resulting emotional trauma to Ms. Bacon who suffers from anxiety and pronounced PTSD from a childhood incident involving police officers.

At the preliminary court date on January 14^th Ms. Bacon courageously confronted her fears by going to court despite the fact that she was deeply emotionally distressed and terrified. Sadly the city’s prosecutor refusal to dismiss the charges or hear witness testimony further triggered her PTSD. Ms. Bacon was reduced to tears and had a severe anxiety attack when in the presence of the offending officer. We have raised these concerns for Ms Bacon’s emotional health to the City of Memphis prosecutor Teresa Jones yet despite having legal counsel Ms. Jones refused to allow Ms Bacon to be excused from being in the courtroom during the upcoming court date.

HOPE members will discuss future legal and direct action on this issue at our regular Thursday night meeting as well as being a participant in the MSPJC sponsored Community Police Relations Project-CPR. For the past nine 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. Now that these two groups have merged this Core Organizing group is preparing to host a citywide series of community forums that will lead to a community crafted action plan to directly address and promote positive and institutional changes within MPD that can remove barriers to better Police and community relations. HOPE members are and continue to be part of this process and plan on direct engagement with the leadership and the officers of the Crump precinct.

MSPJC is offering our first weekend Core Organizer Training of 2013 on March 1-3!! Space is limited to the first 25 people who register, so register today!

The Core Organizer Training teaches participants the foundational skills they need to be effective organizers and win on issues that are important to them. We train using popular education and integrating experiential education, allowing people to learn in a hands-on, direct manner, while also drawing out the expertise that the individual already has within. The result is a training that is fully interactive and has direct application in each session.

Topics covered include: Intro to Organizing, Organizing your Community, Campaign Planning, Facilitating Meetings, Media, Transforming Conflict, and Nonviolent Direct Action.

What: Core Organizer Training. A maximum of 25 people will be trained in order for all to get individual support and for the maximum learning potential for the group.

When: Friday, March 1:     6a.m.-9p.m.

Saturday, March 2:  9a.m.-5p.m.

Sunday, March 3:    1p.m-5p.m.

Where: MSPJC, 3573 Southern Ave.

Cost: Sliding scale based on the individualʼs income. If your organization is sending you to the training, use the organizational budget to determine the fee. It costs MSPJC $200 per person to do the training. Fee includes over 14 hours of training, simple snacks and lunch on Saturday, and follow up support from a network of the Mid-South’s best organizers and activists.

If your annual income is… You pay …

Less than $15,000             $30

$15,000-$25,000              $50

$25,000-$35,000              $100

$35,000-$45,000              $150

$45,000-$55,000              $225

Over $55,000                     $300

Get registered online here. Email gio@midsouthpeace.org or call Gio at 725-4990 with any questions, to register over the phone, or to inquire about possible scholarships.

Once a month the membership of the MSPJC comes together to get updated on the work already happening and set the direction for future work. This month’s meeting is on February 13 from 6-7:30pm at your offices at 3573 Southern Ave. All members and folks interested in joining should attend. It is a potluck if you can event, so please bring a dish if you are able. If not able, please just bring yourself, we always have plenty of food & drink!

Here are a few of the topics currently set on the agenda for discussion:

• Report back from our current campaigns: H.O.P.E. on plans to establish the Streetwise Inc. Workers Coop and Project Homeless Connect; Community Police Relations will report back on progress to develop a community led vision of how we deal with crime and violence in Memphis; and an update on the Peoples Lobby Day scheduled for March 12, 2013 in Nashville.
• The Center is staffing the Social Equity workgroup for a regional effort to establish a community greenprint vision for our community. We will update folks on our progress and let you know more about the first community meeting for this effort on February 19.
• We have several trainings & workshops coming up to plan for and need membership input and leadership!

If you would like to have an item added to the agenda or have any comments, questions, or concerns, please email us at jacob@midsouthpeace.org.

Hope to see you there!

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.

♥ Project Homeless Connect 3

Last month we ask for your help with the Point In Time Count, which is conducted once a year by the Community Alliance for The Homeless and is required by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to retain federal funding for homeless programs. Now we are reaching out for your assistance with another event that will positively impact the lives of individuals experiencing homelessness.

♥ On Valentines Day, February 14, please join us in showing some love for our brothers and sisters on the street by participating in this third installment of Project Homeless Connect 3; a massive outreach and service event to break down barriers that make it difficult to leave homelessness.   We are expecting 1000 peoplewho are in need to attend this event, and we need just as many passionate volunteers to help connect folks with services! Check out the Facebook event page or visit the Community Alliance for the Homeless’ website for more details.You can also link straight to the volunteer sign-up by clicking here!

100k Homes: Memphis 100: UPDATE!

Back in October, H.O.P.E. members hit the pavement, volunteering with the Community Alliance for the Homeless for the 100k Homes campaign: Memphis 100 campaign, Which prioritizes individuals experiencing homelessness based on their vulnerability to living on the streets,  The program aims to get 100 people off the streets  by Easter who might otherwise be dead in the next two years. H.O.P.E. members were instrumental in securing the funding for this campaign and assisted with outreach, conducing surveys to connect folks with the housing and supportive services that they so desperately need.  We are now happy to announce that two of H.O.P.E. members who gave their time and energy to the success of this campaign have just received housing and wrap around services through the Memphis 100 program!

The Struggle Continues….

H.O.P.E. would like to thank everyone who came out to celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with us! We had a great time with folks from the community and other organizations like Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition [TIRRC], Memphis Center for Independent Living, Tennessee ADAPT, and the Memphis Bus Riders Union/ Sindicato De Pasajeros.

We watched coverage of the inauguration, screened the documentary, At The River I Stand, and followed that with a round-the-room discussion of the struggle for civil rights and equality for all people and how we can continue this work today.  It was a fun way to network with other organizations and hear about all the awesome work that is going on in our community. We also had special guest, Coby Smith, who is featured in the documentary. He is a founding member of The Invaders, which was a militant black power group that was organizing in Memphis during the 60’s and worked closely with Dr. King during the time he was in Memphis. Thanks to everyone who came out and special thanks to MCILfor hosting this event!

Feeding the Movement:

H.O.P.E would like to once again thank Just for Lunch and Trolley Stop Market for showing  some love by donating meals each month for our weekly H.O.P.E. meetings! We would also like to thank Catholic Charities and Memphis Center for Independent Living for providing us with space for our meetings. There are lots of ways to feed the movement, and we would like to thank all of our allies for their continued support.

If you are interested in how you can support the work of H.O.P.E. members, please contact Paul Garner @ 901.725.4990 or paul@midsouthpeace.org and don’t forget to like us on Facebook for more H.O.P.E. updates!

The community-Police Relations (CPR) project of the MSPJC is a groundbreaking effort that is creating a space for dialogue about the real issues between community members and law enforcement, which will ultimately culminate in a plan for action to improve community-police relations.  This action plan will include solutions that address all levels of the issue: political, economic, institutional, and psychological.

The core CPR group met for the third time on January 25, 2013.  In the morning session where only law enforcement were present, we shared a space for people to process their feelings around the December passing of Officer Martoiya Lang, the first Memphis policewoman to be killed on the job.  This very emotional gathering provided officers with a chance to share their mutual grief.  Some also shared feelings of guilt – the wish that they could’ve done something to have prevented what occurred, as well as feelings of anger about the structural and institutional factors that contributed to the circumstances of that tragic incident.  Many also shared stories about Officer Lang; she was a beloved and much-admired colleague.  Law enforcement participants also discussed problems with some of the policies and procedures in place at the Memphis Police Department (MPD), particularly how the pressure for generating numbers, as well as the effect of too little funding and too few officers on the ground, interferes with officers’ desires to connect more with people in the community.  Officers wish they had more time to be proactive, to be a part of the community, to know people and to be known, which is preventative in relation to crime, and they also wish they were able to spend more time with community members in the wake of incidents – when going out on calls or taking reports, or in the aftermath of a tragedy.

In the afternoon, community leaders and members of MPD and the Sheriff’s Department met together.  As the next stage of CPR is to move the dialogue circles out into other parts of the city through community forums, we discussed the importance of allowing enough time for thorough planning to ensure that these forums are as inclusive and successful as possible.  We agreed that we need to accurately frame the community forums, so that members of law enforcement do not feel they are walking into a hostile environment where they will be ambushed, and so that both community members and police will know that they are all going to heard and respected.  We decided to create a working group to undertake the immediate next step: to train facilitators for the community forums, which will begin in May at the earliest.

The second half of the combined meeting addressed concerns around media and messaging that had been brought up repeatedly in earlier meetings.  The group recognizes that the mainstream media’s reporting – especially that of local television news – presents a one-dimensional, distorted view of both law enforcement and members of the community.  The highly sensationalized coverage never reports on any positive events or people from either side, nor on any positive relations or times when community and police work together.  And the media do not provide any context for their stories on these topics; there is no examination of the structural, socioeconomic, institutional, or political dynamics that underlie conflicts and negative incidents, such as shootings of police or community members.  A proposal was made that we form a working group to start to map out CPR’s media strategy, both in terms of responding to inaccurate, problematic mainstream media coverage, and in terms of producing our own media (e.g. via Facebook or on the radio).

It was very encouraging when at the end of the meeting, over two dozen people volunteered for the two working groups (facilitation and media/messaging), which will be meeting in the coming weeks.   Over the next few months, CPR will be firming up neighborhoods, venues, and dates for the upcoming community forums.

CPR Core Group- next meetings

February 22nd, 2013

March 22nd, 2013

If you would like to be involved with CPR or host a community forum, please contact:

Melissa Miller-Monie
Organizing Coordinator- CPR
melissa@midsouthpeace.org
901-725-7990

Project Homeless Connect Memphis 2013

We need YOU to volunteer!

Thursday, Feb. 14, 2013 8-AM-4PM
Cook Convention Center (255 N Main Street)

Show Memphis some love this Valentine’s Day by  volunteering in this third installment of our massive outreach and service event to break down barriers that make it difficult to leave homelessness. 1,000 people needing help are expected to attend; we need just as many volunteers!

Services Anticipated:

Medical and Vision (limited), Housing counseling and placement, Employment services, Benefits (Food Stamps, Medicaid, etc.), Social Security, Substance Abuse and Mental Health, Veterans Benefits and services, Food, HIV/AIDS testing, counseling and support, IDs, Barber Shop, Legal assistance, Donated Goods

To volunteer please sign up on the CAFTH website: communityallianceforthehomeless.com
or call 901.527.1302, Mon-Fri 8AM-5PM
*must be 18 or older to volunte

G.O.T. Power, MSPJC’s training program, is committed to building our community’s capacity through building skills in grassroots organizing, providing support to people doing community work and offering anti-oppression and liberation education. Here are our upcoming trainings and workshops.

Mid-South Peace and Justice Center knows the importance of self care. We are dedicated to supporting the total health of our community and are excited to host this unique workshop on reflexology that will teach us how to take better care of ourselves, our families, and others in our community.

Guns, Crime, Data, Community and Police Relations

The Community-Police Relations (CPR) project has been moving ahead full-steam. Friday, December 7, representatives from the Memphis Police Department (MPD) and the Sheriff’s Department met with CPR leaders for the second time to continue the dialog about issues and problems between Law enforcement and the community.. Deputy Chief Berryhill from MPD and Chief Deputy Cash from the Sheriff’s Department were in attendance, signaling the commitment of both organizations to this important process.

This group of over 50 people broke out into smaller groups in a discussion group/focus group session before returning and bringing the ideas, questions and concerns back to the entire group.

They discussed needs for comprehensive community driven (re)investment in impoverished communities and in law enforcement institutions via police-community programs.Police members present cited barriers they face such as: the prioritization of statistics; the pressure to complete call times as quickly as possible and thus to answer more calls each shift as well as, budget cuts;and reform of current practices of interviewing, hiring, and training of new officers. They also cited the need for diversity and anti-racism training, particularly and more buy-in from elected officials to implement these ideas.

The next meeting of CPR participants will be on Friday, January 25, 2013, where we will focus on developing the format and content for a series of community forums. Where community members will share their views on the issues and will be held in neighborhoods all over the city.

In other news, CPR is encouraged to see signs that the MPD may be exploring a new direction in their law enforcement strategy. This may involve a departure from the Blue CRUSH model of policing, as alluded to in a recent editorial in the Commercial Appeal (January 5, 2013). This “data-driven” approach to crime prevention, implemented in 2005, has in our view proven to be problematic. The aim of Blue CRUSH (Crime Reduction Utilizing Statistical History) was to pinpoint concentrations of criminal activity using data gathered from a wide array of sources. Police would then saturate that area with police resources, including license plate scanners, cameras, and facial recognition software.

This coincided with the the dissolution of the prior COACT (Community Action) program, which emphasized police involvement in the communities they patrolled, more direct community input and communication and also included many youth activities such as midnight basketball and in the past boxing activities.This created a situation where, most police officers do not live in the area they patrol and have little contact with community members outside of negative interactions.

As a result since the implementation of the Blue CRUSH program, a large number of young people of color have been stopped, and many arrested and jailed, with an average time to disposition of 9-12 months. Others while not arrested are stopped and feel harassed by simply walking in their own communities. Such reactions are sadly growing far too common in the African America,Latino and LBGTQ communities.

All of these developments have led to feelings of fear, mistrust and frustration on both sides of the community-police relationship. Our Community wants a Law Enforcement strategy one that works to foster relationships between police and members of the community and we will support MPD in this course.

For more information about bringing Community-Police Relations to your community, please contact:

Melissa Miller-Monie
Organizing Coordinator, CPR
Office: 901-725-4990
e-mail: melissa@midsouthpeace.org