Black Lives Matter demands police oversight board in Friday night rally

Natalie Allison and Souichi Terada | Nashville Tennessean

Two years — to the week — after Black Lives Matter Nashville shut down Lower Broadway during a march, local activists returned to the streets Friday night.

Around 150 people marched through downtown, beginning at Metro City Hall in Public Square, exactly where they gathered two years earlier.

The march began with speakers before embarking. They held up traffic traveling down 2nd Avenue North and blocking Broadway for spurts. Chants ranged from "Black Lives Matter" and "Shut it down" to breaking out in songs.

March heading south on 2nd Avenue North currently. @Tennessean pic.twitter.com/4m1FQtCPOF — Souichi D. Terada (@SouichiTerada26) July 14, 2018

While marching, the protesters were met with mixed reactions. Some bystanders cheered as they walked down the middle of the streets. Others spouted profanities at them and questioned why the police officers didn't arrest them all.

While the objective in July 2016 was to protest police brutality and the killing by officers of two black men, Alton Sterling in Louisiana and Philando Castile in Minnesota, the goal on Friday was even more closely tied to Nashville.

After the group's large 2016 rally, a Metro Nashville police officer in February 2017 fatally shot 31-year-old Jocques Clemmons, a black man, following a traffic stop, chase and confrontation at James A. Cayce Homes in East Nashville.

Protestors line the streets after Nashville Black Lives Matter vigil Black Lives Matter protesters march during a protest Friday, July 8, 2016, in Nashville.

In the aftermath of District Attorney Glenn Funk deciding in May 2017 not to press charges against Officer Joshua Lippert, the officer involved in the killing of Clemmons, concerned citizens in Nashville began calling for a police oversight board — a demand they haven't abandoned.

Clemmons' parents both attended the event. His mother, Sheila Clemmons Lee, gave a speech before the march began.

"MNPD needs to be held accountable," Clemmons Lee said. "MNPD wouldn't even have the guts to meet with us, to talk at all about the situation."

The organization was joined by other Nashville activist groups, including Community Oversight Now, which is leading the charge to place a referendum on the ballot in Davidson County this November.

"I'm excited about the progress this legislation is making," protester and Nashville resident Justin Lang said. "I think people should sign to get it on the ballot for this November and also to vote for it to put it into legislation."

Showing Up for Racial Justice Nashville, the Tennessee Anti-Racist Network, Women's March Tennessee and Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Organization are also participated in the evening rally.

More: Group wants to let Nashville voters decide on police oversight board

Nashville police oversight board has been decades in the making

Dozens of cities around the country, including Memphis, Atlanta, Charlotte, Austin and Denver, have created some form of police review commission. Grayce Gadson and other organizers in Nashville point to the creation of the boards as a Civil Rights-era development championed by Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s.

She got her start in the effort in Davidson County in the early 1970s after her uncle, Alphonso Washington Sr., was fatally shot in the back by police officers in Goodlettsville.

Washington was fleeing from police in June 1972 after allegedly attempting to steal a newspaper stand containing $27, The Tennessean reported at the time.

Afterward, Gadson, around 19 at the time, began going to meetings in Nashville with other family members and first heard of the concept of a community oversight board.

"I began to lend my support then, and wherever I've lived, I've always tried to lend my support," said Gadson, who returned to Nashville four years ago after living away. "I'm back here in Nashville and I had to work on it. I just had to work on it."

In January, Metro Council voted down legislation to create the board, prompting Community Oversight Now to move forward with its plans for a referendum.

More: Nashville Black Lives Matter vigil turns into march that shuts down Broadway

Deadline looms for signatures to place police oversight board on referendum

Community Oversight Now has until Aug. 2, Gadson said, to secure the signatures of at least 6,000 registered Davidson County voters in order for the referendum to qualify to be placed on the November ballot.

The charter referendum describes the board as an 11-member entity consisting of Davidson County residents who will serve three-year terms. It requires that seven members — four of whom must live in economically distressed neighborhoods — be nominated by community organizations, two nominated by the council and two by the mayor.

All members would then be approved by Metro Council.

The board would have authority to investigate allegations of misconduct against Nashville police officers and recommend discipline, including forwarding findings of criminal misconduct and civil rights violations to the district attorney, grand jury or U.S. attorney.

Gadson said with just under three weeks to go, the referendum petition has about half the amount of signatures it needs to meet its first deadline with the Davidson County Election Commission.

Black Lives Matter Nashville and Community Oversight Now are hoping Friday's rally helped raise awareness of the groups' efforts and the need for a citizen's review board.

After the rally ended, organizers encouraged everyone who attended to gather at least two signatures each. Some even offered to drive and pick up the signatures for the cause.

Reach Natalie Allison at nallison@tennessean.com. Follow her on Twitter at @natalie_allison. Reach Souichi Terada at sterada@tennessean.com. Follow him on Twitter at @SouichiTerada26.