The video showing five Memphis Police officers brutally beating Tyre Nichols following a traffic stop appears to be the latest example of a law enforcement agency known for police misconduct and corruption.
While the Mississippi River city has been working to clean up its dirty reputation, Memphis has long struggled with issues of police brutality and criminal cops.
Memphis Police Officers Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith were fired on Jan. 20 after an administrative investigation found they had violated department policy on the use of force. The officers have been charged with one count each of second-degree murder, a count of aggravated assault-acting in concert, two counts of aggravated kidnapping, two counts of official misconduct and one of count of official oppression in Nichols’ death.
They were part of the specialized Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods, (SCORPION) unit created to deal with violence plaguing the community.
Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis told CNN the unit was created “basically out of an outcry from the community” following a record number of homicides in 2021. Homicides dipped slightly last year, but remained well above pre-pandemic levels. Critics say the unit, which recently was de-activated, was overly aggressive, with previous allegations of police brutality.
That’s been a problem for MPD, long before Nichols’ shocking death.
In 2020, 13 of the 25 law enforcement officials on the Brady List, or the Giglio List, were from the Memphis Police Department, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported, The Brady List is the definitive database of information about police misconduct, public complaints, use-of-force reports, and other law enforcement malfeasance. Memphis Police that made the list included officers charged with crimes, cops accused of lying or breaking departmental rules, and those who either worked for, or still work for, the MPD, according to Commercial Appeal columnist Tonyaa Weathersbee in a 2020 piece.
She wrote at the time:
At the top of that list is Lt. Eric Kelly, a former MPD homicide investigator, who is accused of having a sexual relationship with a murder suspect he was investigating.
Kelly has since left the force — even sealing his departure with a smug sign off “It’s been a blast.”
But according to other news reports, the woman who Kelly was involved with is apparently a high-ranking member of the Gangster Disciples — a gang that is known for trafficking in drugs and weapons.
Kelly had the charge expunged from his record after completing terms of his judicial diversion.
Long-time Memphis cop Sam Blue was sentenced in September to 12 years in a federal prison for civil rights violations. He was charged with conspiring with others to rob drug dealers of drugs and money.
As Weathersbee noted, one man was kidnapped and tortured because he wouldn’t say where he’d stashed money and drugs.
“Undercover officers did catch Terrion Bryson and Kevin Coleman as they tried to help transport 2.5 kilograms of heroin to a storage facility in Memphis. Coleman also robbed an undercover officer who he thought was a drug dealer,” she wrote.
“But along with Blue, the MPD didn’t catch Jeffrey Jones, an MPD lieutenant indicted on charges of raping a 15-year-old girl, Bradley Henthorne, an MPD officer criminally charged with attempted rape and sexual battery, and MPD officers Carrous Davis and Leo Whitmore, who are accused of making fraudulent arrests to pad their statistical reports.”
Last year, there were at least 89 reported “Excessive/Unnecessary Force violations, according to Reimagine Policing in Memphis, a police reform advisory council. The year before there were 63 such incidents, and 97 in 2020.
In the same report in 2022, the Memphis police department recorded 1,383 incidents of “Response to Resistance,” or use of force.
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation Crime Data, Memphis experienced 15,785 reports of violent crimes in 2021. Memphis also had the most fatal shootings by police officers (4) that year compared to other cities with similar demographics, according to the Reimagine Policing report.
In January of 2021, Memphis Police officer Patric Ferguson was accused of kidnapping and killing a man while duty.
Ferguson is accused of forcing 30-year-old Robert Howard into a squad car, driving him to another place, shooting and killing him, dumping the body, then recruiting a friend to help move the body and try to dispose of it, the Commercial Appeal reported.
Demetrius Haley, one of the five officers charged in the killing of Nichols, was accused of beating an inmate in the Shelby County Division of Corrections while working as a prison guard. Cordarlrius Sledge filed a lawsuit in 2016, alleging Haley and another officer punched him in the face during a search for a cellphone, according to court records. He accused a third guard of slamming him face-first into a sink, The New York Post reported.
The lawsuit was dismissed after Sledge failed to file requested information.
“I had some contraband on me and I was trying to flush it down the toilet but they didn’t follow protocol. Haley was the most vicious,” he told the Post.
“That could have been me,” he said, referring to Nichols death.
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
