Statement on the Acquittals of Former Memphis Officers
Last week, a jury drawn from a county hundreds of miles from Memphis acquitted three former Memphis Police (“MPD”) Officers of all state charges in the case of the 2023 fatal police beating of Tyre Nichols. For many, the apparent discordance between what they saw in the video of Mr. Nichols’ beating and the jury’s verdict was more than an isolated failure of the justice system: it was a manifestation of a systemic failure to protect civil rights that unmistakably links Tyre Nichols to George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Alton Sterling, and hundreds of Americans who have died violently at the hands of law enforcement officers acting outside of their public safety mandates.
Beyond the gut-wrenching pain experienced by Mr. Nichols’ family and friends, the verdict inflicts a loss of trust with the people of Memphis that their police department will keep them safe and uphold the law. When police lose the trust of the people they serve, policing—an already difficult and emotionally taxing job—becomes a daily moral hazard for officers who seek to fulfill their oath. The victims’ families hurt, the community hurts, their officers hurt, and nobody is safer for it.
Today, the people of Memphis yearn for change with new urgency and resolve. But that change cannot and need not always originate in a court ruling or judicial mandate. Communities can lead change, because the police work for them. The foundation for any law enforcement agency’s mandate to protect and serve is the trust of its citizens. When the government fails to act to uphold and guard that trust, it is the community itself that must assume the responsibility to lead and to act. This is possible; it has worked, and there are methods for communities and law enforcement agencies to collaborate to rebuild trust that has been lost and to create trust where it has not existed. This is the mission of Effective Law Enforcement for All, to help communities partner with their municipal and law enforcement leaders to achieve real, measurable, lasting change necessary to deliver safe and effective police services “so that everyone makes it home safe.” If you are interested in the work that we do or would like to inquire about how we might help you lead change in your community, please visit our website at elefa.org.
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