More than 100 local nonprofits are calling for an investigation of how local law enforcement has handled recent protests over the death of George Floyd and a public reporting of the findings of the investigation.

“Most recently, the law enforcement response to peaceful protests has been egregious,” reads the statement issued as an open letter Monday, June 15, and sent to the city and county mayors as well as law enforcement leaders by the leaders of 116 nonprofits in the Memphis area.

Memphis Branch NAACP coordinating legal assistance for arrested protesters

“A fellow nonprofit executive director, Victoria Jones, was targeted and attacked with zero accountability for those actions by police,” it adds.

Jones was among eight people arrested by police at Main Street and Beale Street the night of May 31 several hours after a peaceful march through Downtown had ended. Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland has called on police to investigate complaints of excessive force by police.

The call is one of 13 points for change — eight addressing police brutality and increasing police accountability and five on dealing with the city’s historically high rate of poverty.

“For too long, nonprofits has been a stopgap solution to systemic issues,” the letter reads. “Our city is set up for many of our residents to be oppressed. … We call for a new day and new way of doing business in our city, Expecting nonprofits and public goodwill to solve these challenges is not enough.”

The coalition describes itself as “black-led.” It includes the leaders of community development corporations, charter school leaders, those working in affordable housing and the leaders of the Shelby Farms Park and Overton Park Conservancies.

Strickland: MPD funding should not be cut

Performing arts groups including the Orpheum and Arts Memphis are also part of the effort as well as 100 Black Men of Memphis, Just City, Neighborhood Preservation Inc. and BRIDGES.

“Joined by our non-black colleagues in leadership, we demand more of our city’s leadership,” the statement reads.

The police reforms also include a “reallocation” of police funding to “fund alternatives rooted in community health and crisis response”; a ban on police use of chokeholds; and requiring “de-escalation” as a first response by Memphis Police and Shelby County Sheriff’s Deputies.

Introduction of police reforms encounters little resistance

An intervention requirement that requires law enforcement officers to try to stop the actions of an officer who is violating excessive force policies; required reporting of any response by police that includes an officer pointing their firearm at a citizen; more power for the city’s Civilian Law Enforcement Review Board; and including “grassroots black and brown leaders and activists” in the search for a new police director when current director Michael Rallings retires in about 10 months.

Rallings added a new intervention policy last week and has said chokeholds are already banned except when an officer fears for his or her life and there is no alternative.

Some of the same reforms listed by the nonprofit leaders are being proposed by Memphis City Council members and are to be discussed Tuesday, June 16, during council committee sessions.

The anti-poverty platform calls for tracking companies paying a living wage and a living wage pledge by employers; better funding for public education; ending money bail and “predatory, ballooning penalties” for traffic tickets and court costs; “citizen participatory budgeting” by the city and county “that prioritizes neighborhood-level investments”; and a “clear plan” to fund a more effective city bus system by August.