Jocques Clemmons' Death Continues to Fuel Quest for Police Accountability

Justice for Jocques demonstrators are entering their eighth week outside the MNPD's East PrecinctPhoto: Daniel Meigs

The Metro Nashville Police Department’s broken relationship with at least some of Nashville’s citizens was illustrated by an absurd drama that played out over the course of four hours last week at the department’s temporary headquarters off Lebanon Pike. 

After seven weeks of sitting outside MNPD’s East Precinct with signs calling for the firing of Officer Joshua Lippert, Sheila Clemmons Lee — whose 31-year-old son Jocques was fatally shot by Lippert in February — had come to MNPD headquarters on the afternoon of Nov. 9 with a group of eight or so accompanying her in solidarity. Frustrated by a lack of responsiveness by the department, they’d come to insist on a meeting with Metro Police Chief Steve Anderson. A letter sent to the chief in late September — outlining the family’s concerns and requesting a meeting so they could be updated on Lippert’s status with the department — had been ignored, they said.

“You have it within your power to give us some peace,” Lee wrote in her letter. 

MNPD officials say the chief responded to the letter, albeit nearly a month after she’d sent it. In a letter dated Oct. 23 — and sent Oct. 24, according to a Certified Mail receipt provided by MNPD — Anderson writes, “I very much understand your grief and I am very sorry for your loss.”

An internal police department panel looking into the incident has presented its findings, the chief writes, adding that he has asked for additional investigation before a complete report is issued. 

“I completely understand your request that Officer Lippert’s employment be immediately terminated,” Anderson concludes. “However, that is not a matter that can be concluded summarily. There are procedures that must be followed and there are, frankly, limitations on the authority of the chief of police to impose any disciplinary action.”

As of Nov. 9, Lee said she’d only just received the letter, weeks after the MNPD apparently sent it. And anyway, she wasn’t satisfied — she wanted to speak to Anderson face to face. So the group planned to stay at Metro police headquarters until the chief either met with them, agreed to meet with them soon, or had them forcibly removed from the building. 

If not for the horribly serious subject they were there to discuss, what happened next would have been sufficient material for an episode of Parks and Rec. Speaking through an intercom, an MNPD staffer on the other side of a locked door told the group that the chief was away and could not meet with them. When they asked if they could meet with someone else, they were given a phone number — one they said they’d tried many times, to no avail. Soon representatives for the property owner told the group they needed to leave. The MNPD wouldn’t open their door, and thus Lee and her supporters were in a private building where they were not welcome. Eventually the building owner himself, Floyd Shechter, told the group to leave and eventually called the police from the hallway outside the department’s headquarters. Theeda Murphy, a member of the Justice for Jocques Coalition, leaned toward the intercom to speak to the MNPD front desk staff once more. 

“Excuse me, ma’am, the property owners that y’all lease from are about to call you to come arrest us,” she said. “Can we meet with you?”

Eventually, Lee and Murphy were indeed invited upstairs to meet with Deputy Chief Damian Huggins — a meeting Murphy says was congenial if ultimately unproductive, as they were unable to schedule a meeting with the chief. Meanwhile, downstairs, dozens of officers had arrived, and the threat of arrest lingered. Shechter ultimately ejected two reporters, including myself, from the property, bellowing about criminal trespassing. 

Lee had gone outside at the urging of the rest of her group, who told her that supporting her meant they were willing to be arrested in her place. They were willing to take it that far because of a broader grievance — a lack of democratic accountability for the police department. 

“You can’t have public hearings at council, you can’t have public hearings at planning commission, you can’t have all the institutions in Nashville have some level of democratic engagement, but [have this be the] only institution which at the point of grievance is the least accountable,” said Sekou Franklin, who was at MNPD headquarters. Franklin is an MTSU professor and one of the leaders of a coalition of activists pushing for a community oversight board for the police. 

Two days before the standoff at MNPD headquarters, legislation establishing such a board passed the Metro Council on first reading — and was deferred until January. That development comes after seven months of concerted effort by a coalition of activists in the face of the MNPD and Mayor Megan Barry, who has now said she is open to discussing the idea. 

But clear lines of communication are still far off. Following the council’s vote, the president of Nashville’s Fraternal Order of Police, James Smallwood, called the effort to create a community oversight board “extremely disturbing.”

Update (Nov. 15): After this story went to press, Metro Police Chief Steve Anderson agreed to meet with Sheila Clemmons Lee. The meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 21.

Update II: The meeting is off, per the Justice for Jocques Coalition. According to an email exchange between the coalition and the police department, the coalition declined the invitation to meet with the chief after the police department denied the coalition's request to have Theeda Murphy sit in on the meeting along with Lee and her husband.

A previous version of this story incorrectly included Sheila Clemmons Lee's name as Sheila Lee Clemmons. We regret the error.