News

Our Ashley Caldwell attended the Civilian Law Enforcement Review Boardmeeting at City Hall.

Confusion among the board

A large portion of the meeting focused on how the board members did not understand the ordinance.  There was back and forth dialogue about whether or not the board had subpoena power.  The board also presented a packet of emails from July 2015 between then- City Councilman Alan Crone and City Council attorney Allan Wade, and were confused as to how the ordinance was passed granting them subpoena power even after Wade presented information proving subpoena power not to be possible.  Even after reading the section of the ordinance outlining their powers, they were still confused.

Possible Sunshine Law violation

Following the subpoena power discussion, the board discussed an issue brought forth by the Commercial Appeal last month, that their confidential deliberation may put them in violation of the state’s Sunshine Law.

To briefly sum it up, this law requires that any meeting containing more than one city appointed or elected official to be open to the public and the press.  As the CLERB members are appointed by the city, the newspaper may  be on to something.  There is a clause in the CLERB ordinance that allows the board members to deliberate privately or close the meeting by a unanimous vote from the board members if the situation calls for confidentiality or the case pertains to sensitive information.  The board discussed whether or not this still put them in violation of the Sunshine Law.

From these two conversations is where the big and somewhat frightening news derived.

City Council may want to create its own CLERB ordinance

Apparently, Councilman Worth Morgan told the board last month that due to confusion about whether the board is operating unlawfully under the Sunshine Law and if the ordinance wrongfully allows the board subpoena power, there is talk among some City Council members of amending the CLERB ordinance and creating a new ordinance themselves.

We probably don’t have to tell you how dicey this may become if the Council moves on this, or that it could result in an ordinance not reflecting the will of the public, which we collected in the first stage of our CLERB campaign.

CLERB considers first case

Aside from all the confusion, CLERB wrapped up their first case.  The board voted to sustain the findings of MPD Internal Affairs.  Their reasoning: there was information impossible to discover from all the evidence, and the hospital records state that no injuries (not even bruising or swelling) were observed on the complainant.  They did decide to recommend a policy change to Juvenile Hall to prevent situations like this from happening in the future.

Hints of progress

CLERB investigator Arthur Robinson announced that CLERB’s independent website is in the process of  being built now.

Also, the CLERB members are scheduling ride-alongs and civilian police academy training.

And in another bit of good news, CLERB members attended an executive meeting with all of MPD’s top brass.  At this meeting, Interim Police Director Mike Rallings told the board members that he looks forward to working with them and does not see them as adversarial.  Furthermore, Rallings agreed to provide the board a copy of MPD’s policy and procedures manual.

As you can see, we are going to have some work to do with the board to keep it on the path intended by the grueling process of amending the ordinance, but this will be manageable.

We will never shy away from advocating for the rights of the people.  Please help us continue our criminal justice reform work by supporting the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center today.

Mold at Warren apartments, May 29, 2015

Remember when we first raised the issue of Global Ministries Foundation being slumlords and criminals, and “respectable people” chastised us and debated if this was true?  They’re silent now, but the same can’t be said for the attorneys taking GMF to task.

As the Commercial Appeal reports, the Bank of New York Mellon Trust has asked a federal judge in Memphis to strip GMF of control of Warren and Tulane apartments.

Attorneys for the bank accused GMF of allowing the property to fall into a state of disrepair to the point of not meeting basic standards, according to the motion filed in U.S. District Court on Friday.  Attorneys also accused GMF of failing to alert bondholders of the notice of default the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development issued over nine months ago.  The bank indicated in court records it found out about HUD stopping federal subsidies for the property from the federal housing agency, not from GMF.  The bank’s motion also suggests GMF may have committed fraud.

The article also quotes our brave tenant organizer Cynthia Crawford who faced retaliation by GMF after she spoke out.

We have huge plumbing issues here.  The toilets overflow, tubs overflow after we shower,” said Cynthia Crawford, who lives at Warren and is also part of the tenant organization.  “That’s a health hazard.  We are going to move out but that’s going to take time.”

Crawford said she welcomed the idea of having someone new in charge of making repairs and ensuring tenants aren’t living in squalor.

While we are pleased to see action finally taken against GMF, we know that none of this would have happened without the work of our brave tenant organizers.  Please support our Tenants Rights Project here to ensure that this work continues.

Brad Watkins records Talk, Memphis.  Photo credit: Commercial Appeal

More than 750 subsidized housing families – as many as 2,000 people – are expected to be displaced in Memphis by Sept. 1.

Those are families now living in Foote Homes, the city’s last public housing project, scheduled to be razed, and the Warren and Tulane apartments, whose owner lost HUD funding.

Where will they go?  Is there enough livable and affordable housing for all of them?

“If this is not handled properly, we could have a serious housing crisis,” said Brad Watkins, executive director of the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center.

“A dry Katrina.”

Watkins has become the community’s leading advocate for subsidized housing residents.  He was instrumental in efforts to get the city, state, and federal officials to examine Global Ministries Foundation, which owns Warren and Tulane.

Listen to the full podcast here.

Support our Tenants Rights Project here.

The Clean Neighborhoods Act was passed by the Tennessee legislature in 2010 and signed into law by former Governor Phil Bredesen.

This law would allow community organizations, schools groups, church groups, and other groups of people to contract with the city and county for the mowing of grass and removal of trash from vacant properties.

Imagine what a boon this could be to grassroots and neighborhood-level groups operating in our community?

Further, by allowing people in their own communities to earn income from eliminating blight, this law could take tax dollars out of the hands of dubious contractors and put that funding directly into the communities that need them.

When combined with our Juvenile Justice Project, the Clean Neighborhoods Act could pave the way for a neighborhood-driven jobs program for our youth.

While the Clean Neighborhoods Act is state law, neither the Memphis City Council nor the Shelby County Commission has passed the simple resolution needed for local activation of the law.

It’s time we made this happen.

Global Ministries Foundation will sell several properties throughout the Southeast including Warren, Tulane, and Goodwill Village.

Those who seek to purchase these properties should be ethical landlords or, like Global Ministries, they will be held accountable.

#DryKatrina

Today we will honor mothers in our community whose loved ones have provided a tribute gift that honors their mother and continues the work of the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center in our community.

Mother’s Day began as a call to action to improve the lives of families through health and peace.  Ann Jarvis of Appalachia founded Mother’s Day in 1858 to promote sanitation in response to high infant mortality.  After the Civil War, abolitionist Julia Ward Howe made a Mother’s Day call to women to protest the carnage of war.

Thank you to all the mothers out there!

For the past few months, we have been in communication with tenant leaders at the Warren Apartments Tenants Association about a growing cause of concern.

The utility subsidy that many residents use to pay their Memphis Light, Gas, and Water (MLGW) bills was disrupted last month.  Normally, checks arrive between the first and the 10th of the month.  However, over the past two months there have been “hiccups” in the disbursement of these checks to tenants, with March’s subsidy arriving on April 8 and April’s subsidy arriving just two weeks ago.

As allies of these tenants, our chief concern is that these delays can and have resulted in tenants being late paying their MLGW bills.  This could damage their credit scores and could create undue hardships during this already difficult  process of securing alternative housing within the timeline given.

The Mid-South Peace and Justice Center has reached out to Congressman Cohen’s office as this matter relates to HUD, and we thank his staff for their quick response.

Today, we have been in contact with MLGW and have learned some good news.  MLGW will waive any negative credit reports for residents in this program for the past two months.

We are working diligently to provide MLGW a complete list of affected tenants as soon as possible.

We would like to thank Paul Young with Memphis Housing and Community Development and Clint Richardson with MLGW for their prompt attention to this matter.

Our important work cannot continue without your help.  Please support our Tenants Rights Project here.

Memphis United: Know Your Rights Theatre is offering FREE workshops to day camps and other youth programs throughout the summer.

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.

We have hosted these workshops for over 250 youth at Soulsville Charter School, Bridges USA, and the 2015 Gandhi King Youth Conference, ranging from elementary to college students.

Watch our video now!

We are proud to announce that local activist and longtime supporter Happy Jones has made a generous matching donation of $10,000 to seed a bold new endeavor from our Memphis United-Juvenile Justice Project program.  Please help us reach our goal by making a donation today!

Background

We’ve all seen the media-filled vitriol about the issues related to youth crime and criminal justice, as well as the great racial disparities in our community’s approach to addressing these issues.  We have seen a response of fear and condemnation.  But we have also seen a lack of comprehensive intervention and holistic alternatives.  We feel there is a better way.

One of MSPJC’s core principles is that no amount of education or empathy can equal the experiences of those who have lived under a problem – and that those who are most affected by the problem are the solutions to the problem.  These people are the experts.  So, in order to address the issue of youth violence and crime, we must engage with those most affected by the issue: our young people.

MSPJC has supported the efforts of Shelby County Juvenile Court to better engage the community with court-ordered community service.  Further, we seek to build on these efforts with a two-pronged Juvenile Justice Project.

I. Neighborhood-Based Community Service

At any given point in time there are scores of young people who have up to 16 hours of court ordered community service who are unable to complete this in the allotted time, as a result of many issues. Part of the challenge is finding willing partners who want to create meaningful service projects and not simply free labor. One of the other chief barriers is that Juvenile court lacks adequate resources to perform outreach to recruit new partners and the practice of assigning community service by ZIP CODE as opposed to a more neighborhood based approach, means sometimes the available service opportunities are far away from where the young person lives. As a result the process is alienating, lacks parental and community buy in, creates hardships, and adds both needless court appearances and administrative costs.

Memphis youth with court-ordered community service, Winter 2015

Part of our process has been partnering with SCJC to pilot using GIS (Geographic Information System) software to locate and match up young people with court ordered community service opportunities as close to, if not within, their own neighborhoods as possible. We want to thank the office of Court Ordered Community Service for providing a snap shot of this information and you can see the map we made from such data above.

As we continue to work with the courts to analyze this data we will be looking to identify three neighborhoods with the highest concentrations of young people who have unserved court ordered community service. Then performing door-to-door outreach to inform and recruit local churches, neighborhood and civic organizations, and grassroots leaders within these communities into becoming partners to create service opportunities within these neighborhoods.

MSPJC would then work with these local leaders and shareholders in convening semi-regular meetings with representatives from each partnering organization that is moderated by the youth from within these communities to discuss and plan more community based solutions around the issue of juvenile offenders. Through engaging directly with the youth, we feel this program could go beyond simply increased compliance with ordered community service, but also remove transportation barriers, secure more community support, and become a vehicle for long-term engagement with a grassroots organizing capacity as well.

The ultimate result would be the development of a community led approach to addressing crime that is developed, enacted, and led by youth and adult leaders from the community and for that community.

II. Know Your Rights Theatre

Memphis United, part of the Mid-South Peace & Justice Center is providing free Community Arts programming over the Summer for area youth with interactive theatre workshops that, with the assistance of trained facilitators and experienced local attorneys or former police officers, educate young people about their rights and how to better communicate with law enforcement.

This unique presentation style has already allowed over 250 participants to become actors, role-playing in scenarios that engage our young people in meaningful dialogue to strengthen youth and police relationships. After a review of the information covered, and a time for Q&A, facilitators distribute “Know Your Rights Handbooks,” and participant surveys to help guide the development of this important work.

Just last weekend at LeMoyne Owen College, members of of the Memphis United team conducted a KNOW YOUR RIGHTS THEATRE workshop for the event BEING BLACK IN COLLEGE hosted by OUR GRASS, OUR ROOTS. You can watch video of this training here!

We have done these workshops at Soulsville Charter School, Bridges USA, and the 2015 Gandhi King Youth Conference, ranging from elementary to high school students. Additionally, here is a link to more information and a printable pdf of our “Know Your Rights Handbooks” that we’ll be providing.

We again want to thank Happy Jones for her generous donation and we hope that we can count on your support to help us reach our goal.