Greetings, transit warriors! MATA has announced their new list of service changes for this month! This revised list has much fewer cuts, and this is a big win for bus riders. Thanks to everyone who called, canvassed, and showed up to support neighborhood bus service! MATA will be voting on these changes at their Board meeting THIS Thursday, October 25th at 3:30 PM. This meeting will be at the Hollywood Community Center (1560 N. Hollywood), and riders can get there on the #32 or #8 bus! See MATA’s new service changes here.

New Initiative Reduces Court Dates for Misdemeanor Citations

Under the strategy, people issued misdemeanor citations go to records to be identified and processed and then they go to court all in one day. In the past, they had to be booked one day and then return a second day for their initial court date.

“Not everyone can make it to court for two days,” said Brad Watkins, executive director of the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center. “Not all of us are fortunate to have jobs where we have paid time off or are allowed to take time off, so you have a lot of people who are choosing between making a living and taking care of what is a minor and nonviolent offense.”

(Read More)

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To support the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center in doing more work like the Misdemeanor Citation Consolidation please donate here: www.midsouthpeace.org/donate-now

[Caption: MBRU met with Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris to talk funding for MATA!]

Greetings, transit warriors! Our next neighborhood town hall is THIS week! We’ll be at the Orange Mound Community Center (2572 Park) on Thursday, October 18th from 5-7 PM. We wanna talk with residents of Orange Mound, Bethel Grove, and surrounding neighborhoods about how to make MATA service work better for you. Hop on the #57 Park bus and join us!

Also, MBRU is going to bat for more transit funding and more neighborhood bus service! Last week, our Executive Committee met with Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris to talk about how to make MATA stronger. We want to thank Mayor Harris and his team for supporting public transit in Memphis, and we look forward to working with them on solutions that bus riders can get behind. We’re also getting ready for MATA’s next Board meeting, where they will be voting on a revised list of service changes. We want to be sure that MATA is listening to the community’s needs, so we encourage you to attend on Thursday, October 25th at 3:30 PM. This meeting will be at the Hollywood Community Center (1560 N. Hollywood), and riders can get there on the #32 or #8 bus!

Finally, we had a great time at our October member meeting last Saturday! We got to debrief about last month’s fight against service cuts, talk about new ideas to get MATA dedicated funding, and prepare for our elections coming soon. Our next meeting is November 10th–if you’re passionate about better transportation in Memphis, come find out more about our work or become a member!

***Take MBRU’s new TRANSIT SURVEY! We want to hear from riders all over Memphis about how you use MATA service in your neighborhoods. We’re working on making versions that are accessible for even more Memphians. Take the online version in English here, and here is la encuesta en Español. We’ll also have paper surveys at all our town halls this year!***

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MBRU holds meetings on the 2nd Saturday of each month from 12-2 PM; our next meeting is November 10th at A Step Ahead Foundation, in the Crosstown Concourse. If you have any questions, or you’re interested in joining our work, contact organizer Justin Davis at justin@midsouthpeace.org. And follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to see more updates!

Otha Thurmond, 93 year-old man, Brutally Slammed & Arrested By MPD

MSPJC fought long and hard to re-establish Memphis’ Civilian Law Enforcement Review Board (CLERB) in 2015, to review cases when complainants aren’t satisfied with the investigation handled by MPD’s Internal Affairs. Prior to this, the only chance a person had at holding an officer accountable for misconduct was to file a complaint with MPD’s Internal Affairs, a process that amounts to police policing the police.

Even with the stronger ordinance, CLERB’s power is limited to making recommendations to the Police Director for policy and disciplinary action, but to date, Mayor Jim Strickland’s appointed police director, Michael Rallings, has shrugged off any recommendations from CLERB, refusing to even take a second look at the cases. This is frustrating to be sure, and has left many asking the question: “If MPD doesn’t have to follow CLERB’s recommendations, what’s it all for?”

This is a valid question, and there is much more work to be done to demand more from a Mayor that ran for office, in part, on police accountability and included CLERB in his campaign platform. However, it doesn’t mean that CLERB isn’t important.

Take October’s case for instance, that of 93 year-old (91 at the time of the incident), Otha Thurmond, a pillar in his South Memphis Neighborhood, was was brutally manhandled by officers and arrested. The incident occured while officers were responding to an unrelated call. Mr. Thurmond was out walking the block, as he was known to do on a daily basis, checking on things going on in the neighborhood, talking to residents, road crews, etc, and approached the officers to ask what was going on. The footage speaks for itself. The officers told him it was none of his business, told him they didn’t like him walking around with the walking stick that he used to ward off stray dogs and clear debris from sidewalks. Then as Mr. Thurmond appears to say, “you can have…[inaudible]” while holding the stick, one of the officers slammed Mr. Thurmond onto the hood of his squad car, twisted his arms behind his back, cuffed him, and placed him under arrest. Until that point, Mr. Thurmond had never even received a traffic ticket. The charges were dropped against Mr. Thurmond, and the officers involved received one day suspension, and were required to participate in some sort of sensitivity training.

Click photo to view the news story.

The footage of what happened to Mr. Thurmond is hard to watch, but we never would have seen it without CLERB. In our experience MPD charges upwards of $300 to get a copy of such footage. Since the re-establishment of CLERB, Memphians have had the opportunity to observe dozens of cases, and view body camera footage of police misconduct incidents that would have never seen the light of day without the forum provided by CLERB. In this case, CLERB ruled in favor of Mr. Thurmond, and plan to issue a letter of apology to him for the pain and suffering he’s had to endure.

That may seem small, but over time, as more and more cases are heard, patterns will emerge that provide the data needed to push for larger reforms around police accountability and transparency. In the meantime we can all do a few things to help us get there.

1. Attend CLERB meetings and bear witness to the process.

2. Call your Mayor (901.636.6000) and City Council (901.636.6786), and demand that they take steps to support CLERB, and greater accountability and transparency for law enforcement.

3. Don’t be discouraged. The wheels of justice turn slowly, but grind exceedingly fine.

[MBRU members, allies, and supporters packed the room at MATA’s September Board meeting!]

Greetings, transit warriors! Our next member meeting is THIS Saturday, and we want you to join the movement! We know that riders have power when they get together to hold our system accountable. We’ll be talking about the Board meeting, elections, and more on October 13th from 12-2 PM at the Crosstown Concourse (1350 Concourse Ave)! Look for our signs and find us at A Step Ahead Foundation’s office on the 4th floor.

Also, we have another neighborhood town hall coming up soon! We’ll be at the Orange Mound Community Center (2572 Park) on Thursday, October 18th from 5-7 PM. We wanna talk with residents of Orange Mound, Bethel Grove, and surrounding neighborhoods about how to make MATA service work better for you. Hop on the #57 Park bus and join us!

Finally, MBRU leadership has been keeping up the conversation in the media about MATA service cuts. Organizer Justin Davis and Cynthia Bailey went back on the radio Monday for Twana Coleman’s show, Let’s Talk About It! On WLOK, the two talked about Bird scooters and bike lanes, transit racism, and MATA’s upcoming Board meeting on October 25th. Justin also spoke to High Ground news for an article about Memphis 3.0’s plan to get $30 million in funding for transit: “I mean, for us as a city, we need to get out of this kind of trajectory where we cut service, ridership goes down, so more service gets cut and it really creates this dangerous cycle where eventually what we’re left with is a bare-bones system,” he said. “Neighborhood service is really important for many people to get from where they live to where the jobs are.” Read the full article here!

***Take MBRU’s new TRANSIT SURVEY! We want to hear from riders all over Memphis about how you use MATA service in your neighborhoods. We’re working on making versions that are accessible for even more Memphians. Take the online version in English here, and here is la encuesta en Español. We’ll also have paper surveys at all our town halls this year!***

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MBRU holds meetings on the 2nd Saturday of each month from 12-2 PM; our next meeting is October 13th at A Step Ahead Foundation, in the Crosstown Concourse. If you have any questions, or you’re interested in joining our work, contact organizer Justin Davis at justin@midsouthpeace.org. And follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to see more updates!

This October 13th, H.O.P.E. is having a Saturday Funday picnic at Shelby Farms from 9:00 am to 5 pm. Since it is a potluck, we’re asking that everyone who attends please bring a dish as well their families and children! We will have games, food, and entertainment! All are welcome but we are particularly asking those who experience homelessness, their families, and those who serve people experiencing homelessness (case workers, therapists, etc.) please attend! We hope that this will great time for everyone to get to know each other without all the red tape and appointments and just relax. We are so glad to have our sponsors, Medtronic, Idlewild Presbyterian Church, St. Vincent de Paul Soup Kitchen, and many more! If you would like to donate money or a food item, please contact Tamara Hendrix at 901-254-5964.

It’s Getting Close! Project Homeless Connect 2018 is right around the corner, and HOPE wants YOU... to volunteer at this day-long service provider fair, where people experiencing homelessness can access a host of services and resources under one roof. These services often include housing assessments, minor medical clinics, job resources, haircuts, and more! It is on October 11, starting at 8AM and will be held at the Cook Convention Center. Volunteer registration is now open, and you can choose from a list of duties and time-slots that best meet your availability and specific interest! For more info, and to register, just go to www.cafth.org. Also when you receive a confirmation about your shift, you will get an email to sign up for the training as well.

For more information about how you can help donate or support HOPE or those who do the work to combat homelessness, or would like to put on a HOPE shirt and volunteer, contact Tamara Hendrix, (901)725.4990 or  tamara@midsouthpeace.org.

Feed the Movement!

H.O.P.E. would like to thank Marcos Pizza for providing pizzas for our meetings on the 1st Wednesday of the month! H.O.P.E  is a supportive advocacy group for people with the experiences of homelessness. For many groups and organizations offering free food at meetings is a plus for their attendees, but for H.O.P.E. it is a necessity, due to the fact that most often the meal offered at H.O.P.E. meetings may be the only meal they will have that day. Also we would like to thank another one of our new sponsors, Hattie B’s! Please give these businesses your service and tell them H.O.P.E. sent you!

How can you help? You can help by donating prepared foods on Wednesdays to our meeting that afternoon. Don’t have time to cook or buy prepared foods and bring them to our meeting space? We also accept monetary donations towards this cause. Neither of those options seem feasible for you presently? We are also looking for restaurants willing to donate food to our meetings. As always, all forms of donations are completely tax deductible.

If you would like to discuss how you can offer support to HOPE please call Tamara @ 901-254-5964 or email tamara@midsouthpeace.org

Last Thursday the Juvenile Justice Project  continued our yearly tradition of visiting Austin Crowder’s US Government class at Soulsville Charter School. Mr. Crowder takes a unique approach at teaching government through modern case studies and relating their lessons to the lives of students. As part of that learning process, Mr. Crowder brings us in every year to facilitate our Know Your Rights Theatre workshops with his students, helping them understand the importance of the constitution and how it applies to their day to day lives. We value this partnership and love meeting his students every year. If you are interested in us coming to your school contact Faith Pollan at faith@midsouthpeace.org.

Most of us, even us “woke” folks, have been well schooled on what we think our rights are when it comes to encounters with police officers. Cop dramas and movies have informed many of our beliefs about the way police interact with the public, and often this has shaped the way we engage with law enforcement in real life either consciously or unconsciously. Memphis United and the Juvenile Justice Project (JJP) want to clear up these misconceptions so that we can all be successful when we encounter law enforcement.These unique workshops use interactive theatre to educate young people about their rights and how to better communicate with law enforcement. Participants become the actors playing out real-life scenarios without the real-life consequences of an encounter law enforcement.

The work of the Juvenile Justice Project unfortunately does not fund itself and we need your help! You can donate online at https://midsouthpeace.org/get-involved/donate-now/ and help keep the movement going!