Civil rights attorney Ben Crump reportedly urged Memphis Mayor Paul Young to embrace the police reforms passed through city ordinances following the death of Tyre Nichols last year, even after former Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland claimed the ordinances were illegal.
Crump, who represents family members of Nichols, said in a statement issued on the anniversary of Nichols’ death that the family and legal team “are deeply disturbed by the recent revelation by former Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland that he actively avoided signing and enforcing the Driving Equality Act in honor of Tyre Nichols that the Memphis City Council passed in Spring 2023.”
The “Driving Equality Act in Honor of Tyre Nichols” was approved by the Memphis City Council as part of a package of ordinances named in Nichols’ honor, and would prohibit police from pulling over drivers for minor infractions, including loose bumpers and broken taillights.
Crump referenced a recently published letter by Strickland to the Memphis City Council and Young, in which Strickland explained why he declined to sign the ordinances passed following Nichols’ death.
Strickland explained his stance that the Memphis City Council attempted to circumvent the power delegated to the Memphis Mayor by the city’s charter, effectively making the ordinances illegal. “I did not veto the ordinances because a veto would have been futile given the Charter provision allowing a simple majority vote of the Council to override a mayor’s veto,” he first acknowledged.
He wrote that the ordinances, “regardless of their statutory goals, illegally interfere with the authority given to the Mayor under the Charter,” and warned that the action proposed by the ordinances “is not within the legislative authority,” and confirmed his administration did not operate “in accordance with the ordinance.”
The Memphis City Council passed six ordinances in 2023 which attempted to modify policy of the Memphis Police Department (MPD) and to empower the Civilian Law Enforcement Review Board (CLERB) to investigate use-of-force complaints.
Crump’s statement, made with attorney Antonio Romanucci, connected Nichols’ death to the death of George Floyd, and said the former may still be alive had the ordinances been passed sooner.
“We will hold Mayor Paul Young accountable to his pledge to enact these reforms,” Crump and Romanucci said. They asserted that changes to “police policies and practices” contained within the ordinances “are essential to establishing trust within communities and police.”
Noting their high-profile work on police reform since the death of George Floyd, the attorneys claimed, “Had changes to law enforcement policies been enacted in 2020, we strongly believe Tyre Nichols would be alive today.”
The call for Young to embrace the police reform ordinances comes after Memphis had the highest homicide rate in the United States in 2023, surpassing cities with well-known problems with violence, including Chicago and Detroit.
Before his inauguration, following the death of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital employee Alexander Bulakhov, Young promised to launch “a hard-hitting crime plan” within his first 100 days in office. He promised “a multi-pronged, hard-hitting, and focused effort” to “combat this lawlessness.”
Memphis recorded its first murder of 2024 on January 1, as Young was slated to be inaugurated.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and the Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Ben Crump” by Lorie Shaull. CC BY-SA 2.0.
