What is that smell? 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 from speaking up because of a police reign of terror, and the routine nature of violent death. There is no justice, there is in short a lynch law legal and social environment, where neither Blacks or the poor have any rights that the local government is bound to respect. Thus there are literally dead bodies buried everywhere!



In just the last two years, 23 people have been killed by Memphis police officers. These include two teens, aged 15 and 18, a blind man beaten to death, two men murdered for sleeping in their cars, and a number of citizens just victimized by the police, who routinely use deadly force. These cops routinely think and will say directly to you: "Nigger, we'll kill you, and we'll get away with it!”





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, Tenn.!



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(at)riseup(dot)net