Petition: Stop Memphis Police Violence

The announcement below lists only the deaths from 2012 and 2013. Please also remember many victims before then, including the "WRONGFUL DEATH OF LARRY NEAL." Larry was a lifelong mentally ill heart patient and a 2003 victim of secret arrest and murder in Memphis, Tennessee. His murder was covered-up by "The Cochran Firm fraud" (Google it). Visit
http://WrongfulDeathofLarryNeal.com

Ida B. Wells was a woman who wrote a revolutionary article exposing and protesting the lynchings of her friends in Memphis, then escaped before she could be lynched herself. The Ida B. Wells Coalition Against Racism and Police Brutality requests your support for the following petition to stop police violence in Memphis, which continues over a hundred years later. See and please share the petition below. Learn more about Wells fight against lynchings in Memphis at the last paragraph in this article.

PETITION: There is something stinking in Memphis, TN. It is the stench of political corruption and cover-up, murder/rape/ and robbery by cops, fear and intimidation of the populace. People fear the police reign of terror and the routine nature of violent death. There is no justice, there is a lynch law legal and social environment where neither Blacks nor the poor of any race have any rights that the local government is bound to respect. Please sign the petition to STOP MEMPHIS POLICE VIOLENCE at Change.org 
http://www.change.org/petitions/us-department-of-justice-and-a-c-wharton-mayor-of-memphis-tenn-stop-police-murder-prosecute-the-cops

In just the last two years, 23 people have been killed by Memphis police officers. These include two teens, ages 15 and 18, a blind man was beaten to death, two men were murdered for sleeping in their cars, and a number of citizens were victimized by the police who routinely use deadly force. Memphis police know they can kill citizens and get away with the murders, because that has always been the case.

The Body Count:
Victims of Police Terror In Memphis, Tennessee
2012 and 2013
Compiled by the Memphis Black Autonomy Federation
P.O. Box 16382 – Memphis, TN 38186-0382
(901)674-8430 – organize.the.hood(at)gmail(dot)com

2012

(1) Jeremy McCraven, 20, shot to death in the back by police on February 10, 2012, while allegedly driving a stolen car.

(2) William Howlett, 41, died on March 10, 2012, after becoming “unresponsive” after police chased and arrested him for allegedly attacking his girlfriend.

(3) Randy Green died in March, 2012. A family friend said that Green, who was blind, was pepper-sprayed to death by Memphis police officers on the campus of the University of Memphis, where Green was trying to use the library.

(4) Dewayne Bailey, 38, shot to death on May 8, 2012, after falling asleep in his car in a store parking lot. Witnesses disputed the claim by police that when they woke Bailey up, he got out of his car and fought with them, then got back in his car and started driving it.

(5) Christian Freeman, 19, shot to death on June 12, 2012, downtown on Beale Street. Police alleged that Freeman threatened them with a knife. Family members said Freeman had mental health problems and that police knew this because they had arrested him in April for disorderly conduct.

(6) Hernandez Dowdy, 36, shot to death on June 27, 2012. Police say Dowdy, who was black, was a carjacking suspect whom they chased, and that they killed him because they mistakenly thought he had a gun. The owner of the car, a white woman, had filed a false report.

(7) Lorenzo Davis, 28, died on July 3, 2012, after police chased and arrested him for allegedly selling drugs. He collapsed after he was in custody. Doctors told his mother that he had severe head injuries, internal bleeding, and a broken leg.

(8) Delois Epps, 54, died on August 26, 2012, in a car crash caused by a Memphis police officer. Witnesses said the officer was speeding at the time of the crash and did not use the flashing lights and the siren on his car as required by police regulations.

(9) Makayla Ross, 13, died in a car crash with her mother, Delois Epps ,on August 26, 2012. (See above.) Officer Alex Beard, who caused the crash, was later fired, and in May, 2013, was charged with two counts of vehicular homicide.

(10) Justin Thompson, 15, shot to death on September 24, 2012, by off-duty police officer Terrance Shaw, who claimed Thompson tried to rob him. Shaw, who admitted that he knew Thompson prior to killing him, resigned when questioned about his relationship with the boy.

(11) Charles Livingston, 32, shot to death on December 27, 2012. Police claimed they killed Livingston while he was fleeing from a McDonald's restaurant, which he allegedly robbed, and that he pointed a gun at them while he was escaping. For over30 years, the MPD has been under a U.S. Supreme Court decision forbidding them from shooting "fleeing felons." like Livingston  in the back.

2013 

(12) Donald Moore, 67, shot to death on January 11, 2013. Police claim that when they came to Moore's home to serve him with a warrant for animal cruelty, he pointed a gun at them. However, when the cops came busting into the house, they broke down the door in the middle of the night and never announced they were police officers. Then Moore was fatally shot when he went for his firearm on a night stand. 

(13) Steven Askew, 24, shot to death on January 17, 2013, after falling asleep in his car waiting for his girlfriend to come home from work. Two police officers, who were called to the area on another matter, claimed that when they approached Askew’s car, he pointed a gun at them, and they killed him. Askew was licensed to carry a gun. A video of the incident disputes the police version of events.

(14) Horace Whiting, 63, shot to death on March 10, 2013. Police claim Whiting had a shotgun when they confronted him in front of his house and that he fired at them when they told him to put the gun down. A neighbor of Whiting said Whiting never pointed the gun at anyone, and never menaced officers and that he was on his own porch.

(15) George Golden, 42, died on April 5, 2013, from injuries he sustained on March 27 after he was shot, kicked, and beaten by two police officers in the parking lot of a Walmart store, where police claim Golden was shoplifting. A cell phone video taken by a bystander shows that one cop beat and kicked Golden while was lying on the ground after being shot by another cop. Police made no reference to the fatal shooting in their final incident report, covering up the cause of death.

(16) Daniel Brock, 47, shot to death on April 10, 2013. Police claim that when they stopped Brock for an alleged incident of “road rage,” they shot him because they thought he had a gun as he was approaching them. Brock’s son said his father had a mental illness and was taking medication for it.

(17) Amjustine Hunter, 28, shot to death in his car on April 23, 2013, at a gas filling station. At least one witness disputed the police story that after they stopped Hunter for “suspicious” activity, that police shot him when he tried to run them over with his car. 

(18) John Walker died on May 18, 2013, when an off-duty police officer hit the motorcycle Walker was riding while working as a traffic escort for a funeral.

(19) Police claim an unidentified man shot himself to death on May 24, 2013, after he allegedly shot at police officers at an apartment complex. To date, no public report has been found verifying the story of the police.

(20) Byron Kelley, 32, shot to death on June 4, 2013, in Olive Branch, Miss., by Memphis police and DEA agents.

(21) Johnny Taylor, 33, shot to death on July 1, 2013. Police said they killed Taylor after he fired at them outside his home.

(22) Marvin Amerson allegedly committed suicide on July 23, 2013, according to MPD, after a standoff with officers following a bank robbery.

(23) Aaron Dumas, 32, killed on October 15, 2013, when tactical officers of the Memphis police department threw tear gas chemicals into the house where they had chased Dumas, causing the house to catch on fire, and burning him alive. Several neighbors had their house damaged by the flames.

What can you do about it?

(a). Sign the petition to Stop Police Murder! Prosecute the Cops!

(b). Write to the U.S. Department of Justice in support of our demand that they open a civil rights investigation and prosecute the killer cops.  Make a phone call to the Civil Rights Division, and demand that they stop ignoring the reign of police terror in Memphis. (202)514-4609 (Ask for Jocelyn Samuels, Acting Asst. Atty General). You can also send email to : AskDoj@usdoj.gov, and they will transfer it to the Civil Rights Division.

(c). Join our "Million E-Mail March" and send letters of complaint to A.C. Wharton, Mayor of Memphis, Tenn. (mayor@memphistn.gov). Tell him that he has blood on his hands by his repeated failures to rein in his cops, covering up the causes of police murders of civilians, and allowing police brutality a free hand. 

(d). Join the Ida B. Wells Coalition Against Racism and Police Brutality, the only group in the city which has held mass protests against KKK racism and MPD police brutality over the last two years, and is working on a online international boycott, petition drive, national demonstration, and other campaigns to obtain justice for the victims of this police terror.

(e). Please spread the message about police brutality and murder in Memphis, by contacting news services, human rights organizations, anti-police brutality groups, citizen journalist websites, and many others that you are in contact with. We must break through the cover-up by the cops, local media, and political power structure in Memphis, and expose the awful truth.  

We cannot win this battle alone. Join with us in this fight back against police terror in Memphis, TN.

Contact us at the:
Ida B. Wells Coalition Against Racism and Police Brutality
(in care of the Memphis Black Autonomy Federation)
P.O. Box 16382 – Memphis, TN. 16386-0382
(901) 674-8430 – email: organize.the.hood(at)gmail(dot)com
STOP POLICE MURDER, PROSECUTE THE COPS!
idabwells@riseup.net
idabwells(at)riseup(dot)net

The announcement above lists only the murders from 2012 and 2013. Please also remember many victims before then, including the "WRONGFUL DEATH OF LARRY NEAL." Larry was a lifelong mentally ill heart patient and a 2003 victim of secret arrest and murder in Memphis. His murder was then covered-up by "The Cochran Firm fraud" (Google it). Visit 

http://WrongfulDeathofLarryNeal.com

In March of 1892, Ida B. Wells, a journalist and former Memphis school teacher, started a crusade against lynching after three friends of hers were brutally murdered by a Memphis mob. Tom Moss and two of his friends, Calvin McDowell and Henry Stewart, were arrested for defending themselves against an attack on Moss' store. Moss was a highly respected figure in the black community, a postman as well as the owner of a grocery store. A white competitor, enraged that Moss had drawn away his black customers, hired some off-duty deputy sheriffs to destroy the store. The black store owner and friends shot at the white men, not knowing they were police officers. The blacks were arrested and lynched. Ida B. Wells wrote a scathing article about the lynchings, then left Memphis and never dared to return. (These events are covered more fully at "The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow" link below.)

The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_wells.html

Stop Memphis Police Terrorism and Murders

Help Request: Campaign to Stop Police Murders in Memphis

by

Ida B. Wells Coalition Against Racism and Police Brutality

Dear Friend:

You may have seen the recent news reports about the police murders in Albuquerque, N.M. and how the U.S. Dept. of Justice has criticized the Albuquerque Police Dept. for a reign of terror, and forced the department into a series of measures to restrict police deadly force. Yet, as bad as the Albuquerque police are (killing 23 people between 2010 and 2014), the Memphis Police Department (MPD) is much worse, killing the same number of people in half the time (a total of 23 people in 2012 and 2013).

But why is there no equal fervor by federal authorities in the case of Memphis? There is a police and government cover-up in the city of Memphis, and this includes the local media and civil rights organizations. There is also massive fear of and intimidation of the local population by the MPD. There is the additional fact that Memphis is a black city and that most of the police murder victims were black and poor, and that most of Albuquerque's victims were white and Hispanic.

The feds must be forced to explain why there is no racism in their decision not to investigate the deaths of Memphis citizens. We are also convinced there is some political calculation about an investigation in Memphis because the U.S. attorney for Western Tennessee is so close to city politicians and police department administrators that he covers for their almost routine use of excessive and deadly force by police officers, and has never prosecuted any officer for taking the lives of civilians.

We are asking you to help us bring attention to these police crimes in Memphis and get these cops put in jail. We ask that you help expose the crimes and break the media blockade. We want more than reforms. We want all the cops who have outright murdered civilians to be prosecuted; the demilitarization of the police; and community control over the police and power in the hands of the people.

Memphis Black Autonomy Federation’s Police Brutality and Racial Profiling Committee

The Police Brutality and Racial Profiling Committee of the Memphis Black Autonomy Federation was created at the First Memphis Black Power Conference on June 9, 2012. Its purpose is to educate, organize and mobilize the black community and its allies to oppose police brutality, unjustified deadly force, and violations of the civil and human rights of African/black residents of Memphis and beyond and bring and end to this terror. Using a combination of litigation, street protests, educational seminars, and other grassroots actions and events, this committee is active in working to bring a halt to police crimes and their cover-up by the local media.

Demands:

An end to police murder(s) by police officers, and the cover-up by Memphis-Shelby County/federal government officials of these police crimes. The automatic investigation and prosecution of any officer who violated the civil rights of civilians, instead of cover-up by cops to protect officers. No Memphis officer has ever been prosecuted for murder or civil rights violations for beating or killing a civilian, even where it was plainly obvious that they were guilty.

An automatic public inquest into the death of any person who died in police custody. An inquest would require the police to testify under oath as to how a person died, force the medical examiner to testify under oath as to autopsy findings, and allow the family, activists, and the public to obtain records and testimony kept from them. Mainly, it is a way to expose the crimes of the police and not accept the cops' stories that are repeated in the media.

Community control of police and the creation of an elected police control board to restrict the use of deadly force and to monitor the police. As long as the cops can use a government-appointed body to cover up crimes by the cops, or force us to trust their “word,”every single murder will continue to be swept under the rug.

Stop the racial profiling of the African-American community, especially in the Beale Street entertainment district, where many have been arrested and beaten up by overzealous MPD officers, who want to discourage lack Memphis residents from patronizing white businesses in that area. Full investigation of the June, 2012, death of Christian Freeman killed by cops in the Beale Street area.

Total transparency in all police investigations and the public disclosure of all arrests and autopsy reports. All documents should be released to the public pursuant to state law, the Tennessee Open Records Act. As it is now, these documents are kept secret except to the mainstream media or other law enforcement agencies.

Proposal for a “Stop Police Murder: Prosecute The Cops” Campaign By the Memphis Black Autonomy Federation

Memphis police officers have killed 23 people since February, 2012, eleven people in 2013 alone. Yet, to this point, the opposition black human rights movement has not been able to assemble a strong enough mass protest movement to pressure the city government to change its deadly force policies or pressure the federal authorities to abandon their policy of deliberate indifference.

Since the summer of 2012, when the Memphis BAF started organizing against police brutality, we have held a number of marches and street demonstrations, rallies at the MPD police headquarters downtown, tribunals at public spaces, and other events. There are two key things we must do now:

Key Initiatives

1. Put together a mass local effort to enlist people into a Black Autonomy-IBWC Copwatch campaign in Memphis to report and monitor the cops on a daily basis. (Copwatch is already an international movement, and has been around for the last 20 years). We need to unite all those in Memphis and our allies in other cities who will stand up and demand justice in police murders that have taken place here.

2. During the 2015 IBWC conference, work toward a mass protest in Memphis, to involve anti-police brutality, anti-racist and civil rights activists from all over the city and Mid-South region. There are groups all over the USA and 19 countries involved in anti-police brutality work, who have been having demonstrations against police brutality on the “International Day of Action Against Police Brutality (IDAPB),” every year on March 15 since 1997. In 2013, we had a IDAPB demonstration in Memphis for the first time, and groups came from 10 other cities to stand with us. Now, we need to contact and inspire people in this city and get them to speak up against police brutality in Memphis. We must break through the silence and demand, “Stop Police Murder, Prosecute the Cops!”

In addition, protests at Memphis Police Department headquarters at 201 Poplar Avenue should continue, and we should try to get more people to participate locally. This summer, we should also hold a mass meeting and a community hearing about the problem of police murder, brutality and corruption in Memphis.

Finally, although we seek the prosecution of police officers who commit murders of black people, this campaign is not just about the federal authorities taking over the Memphis Police Department or an FBI investigation into an individual case. Our campaign is meant to build a new anti-racist movement for community control of the police. This is what the original Black Panther Party called for, and this is what we should fight for as well.

How You Can Help:

(a) Write to the U.S. Department of Justice in support of our demand that they open a civil rights investigation and prosecute the killer cops. Memphis is worse than Albuquerque, and needs to be investigated Make a phone call to the Civil Rights Division, and demand that they stop ignoring the reign of police terror in Memphis.(202) 514-4609 (Ask for Jocelyn Samuels, Acting Asst. Atty General). You can also contact them by email: AskDoj@usdoj.gov and give them the message.

(b) Join our "Million E-Mail March" and send letters of complaint to A.C. Wharton, Mayor of Memphis, TN. (mayor@memphistn.gov). Tell him that he has blood on his hands by his repeated failures to rein in his cops, covering up the causes of police murders of civilians and allowing police brutality to have a free hand.

(c) Join the Ida B. Wells Coalition Against Racism and Police Brutality, founded by the Memphis Black Autonomy Federation in 2013. In addition to Memphis and the Kansas City metropolitan area, IBWC chapters are now being organized in several other cities. The IBWC is the only group in Memphis which has held mass protests against KKK racism and MPD police brutality over the last two years, and is working on a online international boycott, petition drive, national demonstration, and other campaigns to obtain justice for the victims of this police terror.

(d) Please spread the message about police brutality and murder in Memphis by contacting news services, human rights organizations, anti-police brutality groups, citizen journalist websites, and many others that you are in contact with. We must break through the cover-up by the cops, local media, and political power structure in Memphis, and expose the awful truth.

(e) We need to use the Internet and especially online social media networks to the maximum extent possible, since it is inexpensive and reaches millions. In doing this, we can involve large numbers of poor and low-income black people and anti-police brutality activists and families of police murder victims. We need to create a blog of Memphis Police activities to expose their crimes, educate the masses of people in Memphis and beyond, and rally people into protests.

We cannot win this battle alone. Join with us in this fightback campaign against police terror.

Peace and love,
JoNina M. Ervin, Acting Co-Chair
Ida B. Wells Coalition Against Racism and Police Brutality
(in care of) Memphis Black Autonomy Federation
P.O. Box 16382
Memphis, TN. 38186-0382
(901) 674-8430
email: organize.the.hood@gmail.com

Memphis Police Brutality

Duanna Johnson refused to answer to, "Hey, he/she, come here." The transgender person was savagely beaten in 2008 and sprayed with toxins in the intake area of Memphis Shelby County Jail. Her abuser threatened to sue over his bruised hand, where he claimed receiving an on-the-job injury "subduing" Duanna. A few months later, Duanna was murdered execution style right before the time expired to file her police brutality lawsuit. That is the jail where mentally challenged Larry Neal was secretly arrested for 18 days until his secret death. Police seemingly have low tolerance for anyone "different" in Memphis. Police Beating A TG Who Was Murdered

For people who read my articles and wonder how it was possible for Memphis police officers to kidnap a lifelong mentally ill heart patient named Larry Neal in 2003, hold him in jail for 18 days while denying to his family that he was in custody, then kill him without accountability, please observe the attitude of the police officers who watched Duanna's abuse. If the cops had decided to kill her right then (rather than later?), would any of the other officers have cared or intervened? See Wrongful Death of Larry Neal.com for the website about my brother.

Below is an email from JoNina Ervin, acting chairperson of the Memphis Black Autonomy Federation, a police oversight organization. She writes regarding recent police killings in Memphis, including a man who was fatally shot while sleeping in his car.

Hello,

The two white Memphis cops who shot a 24-year-old black man to death on Jan. 17 of this year after he had fallen asleep in his car will not be prosecuted and have returned to active duty.

The autopsy report on Steven Askew and the Memphis Police Dept.'s internal affairs report of his death were released last week to the news media--seven months after Askew was killed while sleeping in his car waiting for his girlfriend to come home from work. In a blatant effort to discredit a lawsuit that the Askew family is expected to file against the MPD, the medical examiner claims that at the time of his death, Askew was legally drunk, had marijuana in his system, and pointed a gun at MPD officers Ned Aufdenkamp and Matthew Dyess, who shot Askew to death. Askew had a permit to carry a gun.

It is important to know that Aufdenkamp and Dyess were called to the apartment complex where Askew's girlfriend lived to investigate a disturbance. The cops admit Askew was asleep, so it's unlikely he was the cause of the disturbance. Why then did the cops bother him?

What exists in Memphis is a clear-cut pattern of conspiracy between the MPD and the medical examiner's office to discredit the character of people shot to death by the police in order to cover up the true circumstances of their deaths and to discourage the families of the victims from suing the police.

The cover-up of Steven Askew's death is at least the third time in a year that the MPD and the medical examiner's office have engaged in this kind of conspiracy and cover-up. Lorenzo Davis, 28, was beaten to death by MPD officers on July 3, 2012. After family members of Davis questioned the circumstances of his death, the medical examiner released an autopsy report claiming that Davis died of a cocaine overdose, which caused him to resist arrest and sustain injuries from the police.

On April 5, of this year, George Golden, 42, died from injuries he sustained on March 27 after he was shot, kicked and beaten by two Memphis police officers who claimed he was shoplifting from a Walmart store. After Golden's family hired a lawyer and threatened to sue the cops, the medical examiner released an autopsy report which alleged cocaine "intoxication" was a major cause of Golden's death.

The only way to get at the truth of the deaths of Steven Askew, Lorenzo Davis and George Golden is for coroner's inquests to be held in each of the three cases. At an inquest, the police who killed these three men can be required to testify under oath. In Tennessee, two people who believe a person died under suspicious or questionable circumstances may ask for a coroner's inquest. The people requesting an inquest can be, but do not have to be related to the deceased. You do not have to be a lawyer to ask for an inquest.

Anyone who is interested in getting coroner's inquests into the deaths of any of the 21 people killed by Memphis police since February 2012, may contact the Memphis Black Autonomy Federation at (901)674-8430 or email
organize.the.hood@gmail.com.

Peace and love,
JoNina Ervin, Acting Chair
Memphis Black Autonomy Federation

Four (4) References:

http://WrongfulDeathofLarryNeal.com

http://youtu.be/-IAPTk69XPo

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2013/aug/12/internal-affairs-report-details-fatal-shooting/

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2013/aug/09/district-attorney-will-not-prosecute-memphis-in/

If JoNina Ervin and others really think inquests and a federal investigation would curb police violence in Memphis, they apparently have not been reading my articles. Larry Neal was secretly arrested and killed AFTER the jail was already investigated by the feds, found wanting, and put under the United States Department of Justice's direct oversight. Rather than rendering justice, the applied solution has been to censor and terrorize my family and me - for ten years and counting.

Int'l Day Against Police Brutality (Videos)

Video footage from International Day of Action Against Police Brutality, March 15, 2013

Brooklyn, NY

The NYPD Declares Martial Law in Brooklyn, Mainstream Media Silent (VIDEO)

http://theanti-media.org/2013/03/15/the-nypd-declares-martial-law-in-brooklyn-mainstream-media-silent-video/

Memphis, TN

Below are seven(7) links to video coverage of Friday's march and rally.

City Hall Demonstration International Day of Action Against Police Brutality in Memphis 3-15-13

JoNina Ervin outside court house during the International Day Against Police Brutality in MemphisFodali Mboge of the Black Autonomy Federation International Day Against Police Brutality
Operation Help President Wendol Lee speaks at Memphis International Days Against Police Brutality
Mike Siviwe Elliott speaks in Memphis, TN at the International Day Against Police Brutality 3-15-13

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zflFUwnr7P0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fqisHtoIFM

More anti-police brutality news:

Citizens air concerns about police brutality

San Francisco Chronicle

(AP) — More than 60 Macon residents expressed concern over alleged police brutality and racial profiling at a community meeting with Mayor Robert Reichert. The event Saturday was prompted by the death of Sammie Davis Jr. who was shot by Macon ...

See all stories on this topic »

Ramlet Boulaq residents reject police violence and government attempts to ...
Daily News Egypt
Ramlet Boulaq residents say they reject government proposals to relocate them for the development of the area and called for an end to what they say is an ongoing campaign of arbitrary arrests andpolice brutality. (Photo by: Hassan ibrahim). Ramlet ...
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Activists take to the streets in Seattle to protest police brutality (Photos)

Examiner.com - Seattle, Washington

On Friday, dozens marched through the streets of downtown Seattle as part of the International Day Against Police Brutality. The march was organized by Anonymous Seattle and drew a diverse turnout from people of various ages and ethnicities, as well as ...  See all stories on this topic »

SAPS: A history of violence

Johannesburg Sunday World

RECENT acts of police brutality have put the SAPS in the international media spotlight. The shooting of 34 miners in Marikana on August 16 2012 and the events leading to the death, in custody, of Mozambican taxi driver Mido Macia have highlighted the ...

See all stories on this topic »

People throughout the world unite against overuse of force by police. Honest police officers also oppose police violence. It could happen to you or someone you love. YOU stand up!

Complaint Against Memphis Medical Examiner

The following is a Complaint by Memphis Black Autonomy Federation against the Shelby County, Tennessee Medical Examiner's Office, mailed December 13, 2012.

Dr. John J. Dreyzener, Commissioner

Tennessee Department of Health

Board of Medical Examiners

227 French Landing, Suite 300

Nashville, TN. 37243

12-13-2012

COMPLAINT AGAINST UNETHICAL AND UNPROFESSIONAL MISCONDUCT BY THE SHELBY COUNTRY MEDICAL EXAMINER’S OFFICE.

Dear Dr. Dreyzehner and members of the Board:

My name is JoNina M. Ervin, and I am the Acting President of the Memphis Black Autonomy Federation, an African-American human rights organization, which has a focus on monitoring law enforcement issues in Memphis-Shelby County,TN. This complaint is brought against Dr. Karen Chancellor and her staff for:

(1). Colluding with the Memphis Police Department to tailor reports of deaths in custody in order to justify or cover up police use of unjustified deadly force against unarmed civilians. The ME’s Office is supposed to be an impartial arbiter of the truth, able to conduct medical-legal investigations, however Dr. Chancellor routinely sits down with the police “Shooting Team” and at their behest alters the actual findings of homicide to “accident” or “unknown”, or otherwise manipulates the true findings of police misconduct or excessive use of force to a result palatable to police authorities. She is colluding with police authorities to alter her reports, and this is gross misconduct and corrupt practice.

a. She apparently faked the form of death in the case of Hernandez Dowdy, 36, shot to death on June 27, 2012 to an “accident” or “unknown”. Police say Dowdy was a carjacking suspect whom they chased, and that they killed him because they mistakenly thought he had a gun, when he sought to flee. No weapon was ever produced, and he was shot in the back. However, it was later learned that the white female who owned the car he had been driving, had filed a false report that the car was ever stolen, and that the police knew this before they even confronted him. When relatives of the dead man went to the police department to press the issue and seek answers, even police officials admitted to family members that the case was “probably going to be investigated as a murder” or taken before an Inquest, yet they have taken no action to file the case in court, and the ME’s office refuses to release the autopsy records. This is clearly obstruction of justice by both the police and the ME’s office.

b. Dewayne Bailey, 38, shot to death on May 8, 2012 is another case of excessive use of force by officers.  According to police, Bailey was asleep in his car in a store parking lot in South Memphis. When police officers woke him up, they said Bailey got out of his car and fought with the police. Then, police said Bailey got back in his car and started driving it, dragging a police officer, and it was then that they shot him. An online petition of Bailey’s family says he was shot 32 times. The details of his killing have not yet been released by police, and the Medical Examiner’s office refuses to release the autopsy and ME report for fear that it might hurt the police department if the family brings a lawsuit. The events as police have recited them a fraudulent and designed to shield them from civil liability or a criminal case against officers.

NOTE:  These are just some of the cases of deaths of custody this year, there are others that may need to be examined as well, we do not claim that every case is the result of misconduct, but since the documents are being withheld, it is not possible to make an independent judgment beyond what we have stated here.

c.  William Howlett, 41, died on March 10, 2012, after being chased and arrested by police. According to police, they chased Howlett after his girlfriend said he attacked her. Police admit to a struggle with Howlett, and said he then became “unresponsive” after he was in custody. Howlett was pronounced dead at the Regional Medical Center shortly thereafter, and this case was supposed to have been referred to the County ME’s office. To date, the official cause of his death has not been released by the Medical Examiner’s office.

d. Randy Green died in March, 2012 as a result of a confrontation with MPD and campus police. According to a family friend, Green, who was legally blind, was pepper-sprayed to death by Memphis police officers on the campus of the University of Memphis, where he was attempting to use the library. It is not known if his case was even properly referred to the Medical Examiner’s office, or if they examined the crime scene, and whether this is  yet another case of ME-police cover-up.

e.  Justin Thompson, a 15 year old school child, was shot four times by a Memphis police officer on September 24, 2012, and the motive was presented as “robbery”. No weapon was ever produced or other evidence of “robbery” ever presented. His brother whom they claim was a participant was never attested, and indeed was not even on the scene. The entire story was a scam. The ME’s office is purportedly investigating the body, but has issued no findings of any sort, or have decided to keep such finding a secret at the behest of the police. This appears to be yet another cover-up of police misconduct and excessive use of force by the County Medical Examiner’s Office, working in collusion with the police and local political authorities to protect their interests rather than impartially presenting the facts to the public or a grand jury, if need be.

(2). Although she certifies them as such, Dr. Chancellor’s autopsy reports are not a true and exact copy of the ME’s actual report; the charts are reduced to 60% of size, and have no histology tissues samples and other exhibits and data. This gives her an advantage when she later testifies for the state and produces a full size chart and complete data.

(3). The Medical Examiner’s Office routinely hinders independent autopsies by forensic pathologists hired as consultants by Defense attorneys or families who contest the Shelby County Medical Examiner’s findings. She will not afford free access to evidence, histology slides, crime scene photos or autopsy photos, or other needed materials to those parties.

(4). The County ME’s office does not properly comply with the State Open Records Act. On August 29, 2012, I requested a copy of the autopsies and attended ME and toxicological reports from eight persons who had then died in the custody of the Memphis Police Department. On August 31^, 2012, Stephanie Dowell, Office Manager of the ME’s office, replied stating that we would have to pay upwards of $25 per case report, and that we must pay in advance before being allowed to even view any such report.  On September 1, 2012, I wrote back to MS. Dowell, explaining that by law we could not be charged more than $.15 per page for an Open Records Act request, and that the ME could not prevent us from viewing the documents by demanding that we first pay for the documents.  Finally, on November 17, 2012 I filed a complaint letter to the Shelby County Mayor’s office, and asked them to intervene, but they upheld her position. The ME’s office and Shelby County government officials are clearly just putting up roadblocks to deter members of the public from obtaining access to documents which may counter the police version of events, or open their office up to outside scrunity.

(5). Refusing to communicate with families of persons whose loved ones died as a result of police action. Dr. Chancellor has refused to properly communicate with family members of the ten persons who died in police custody in 2012, including two persons who died as a result of a deadly wreck in August 2012 due to a police officer not following proper MPD protocol for speeding in a non-emergency situation, without flashing lights or siren. Family member have had to resort to media appeals for documents and facts from her office and the police, because she arrogantly and unprofessionally refuses to reply and/or tells them they must pay for autopsy documents “the same as everyone else”. Although presumably conducting autopsies in all such cases, Dr. Chancellor refuses to make the results public, unless it suits her office or protects the police.  She almost never delivers them to the families of anyone whose family members had died in police custody. This is done strictly to protect the police department and cover up the true causes of death. It is however an extreme force of disrespect to the families who have lost loved ones, and an example of the misconduct of her office.

(6). Improper public release of documents. Due to the number of persons killed by the Memphis Police Department, on September 8, 2012, the Memphis Black Autonomy Federation held a march and rally at City Hall in downtown Memphis. This demonstration was reported in the news media, and especially   the participation of the family of Lorenzo Davis, a young man whose death was vehemently contested by his family and friends who made a large part of the contingent, and who publicly accused the police of murder. Although the Medical Examiner’s office would not release the autopsy reports and other reports to the family, they did release the autopsy results to the local media on September 15, 2012, which stated the cause of death as “cocaine toxicity”, strictly to protect the police and sway the public that the death was accidental or self-induced. As is her usual practice, she refuses to communicate with the family, but saw fit to conduct a public relations campaign on behalf of the Memphis Police Department, to protect them from charges of excessive use of force.

                                                                CONCLUSION

The Shelby County Medical Examiner’s office routinely engages in unethical and unprofessional misconduct. Rather than being a neutral medical-legal examiner in suspicious cases involving persons who die in custody, she engages in collusion with political and police authorities of the city of Memphis to alter her reports for their benefit. She is further engaged in an improper campaign of hindering access to public documents, and conducting a media campaign to improperly release documents to shape public opinion in favor of the police. She refuses to communicate with families seeking to know the cause of death of their loved ones, and to receive autopsy reports, forcing them to pay $25.00 for such documents.

The public has lost faith in the Shelby County Medical Examiner’s Office, they believe generally that they are just hand-maidens of the police department, and that none of their autopsies are impartial or professional. We are asking for a full investigation of the Shelby County Medical Examiner’s Office for these and undisclosed past and current actions, in violation of the rules of this regulatory body and the laws of this state. If our complaint is substantiated, we would expect full disciplinary penalties to be applied to the Shelby County Medical Examiner’s Office. Thank you.

Sincerely,

JoNina M. Ervin

Acting President

Memphis Black Autonomy Federation

P.O. Box 16382

Memphis, TN. 38186-0382