Black Lives Matter Rallies for Community Oversight Board

Members of Black Lives Matter Nashville shut down lower Broadway Friday night, marching to rally support for a civilian board that would oversee complaints against police. The demonstration began in Legislative Plaza, and moved toward the entertainment district as around 150 activists marched down 3rd Avenue to Broadway and stopped traffic for approximately 30 minutes.

Community Oversight Now, the main group lobbying for a civilian review board, began circulating a petition in April to gain support for a charter amendment. According to the amendment, the board would have independent authority to investigate allegations of misconduct by Metro police officers. It would also implement solutions for police accountability and issue reports about their findings.

The activists need 6,000 signatures from registered voters by Aug. 2 to get the measure on the November ballot.

Grayce Gadson, acting as a spokesperson for Black Lives Matter Nashville and Community Oversight Now, says they are halfway to their goal.

“I think the central message is that this is for all Nashvillians,”  Gadson said. “If something happened with your interaction with law enforcement here and you were not able to file a grievance because of the inability to have it accepted and seriously looked at, that’s a problem."

According to the amendment, the board would consist of seven Davidson County residents who are nominated by community organizations, four of whom live in economically distressed areas; two people who are nominated by council representatives; and two who are nominated by the mayor. All members would be approved by majority vote in the council.

Said Gadson: “If you have a problem, you should have a safe, sane place to address that problem. We can’t say that every problem will meet with the complainant’s expectations, but at least they’ll get a fair view. Someone will listen. And so with that, yes, I do think Nashvillians will vote for it. It’s time. Over 200 other cities have civilian review boards.”

There were several tense interactions at Friday’s march as spectators lambasted the protesters. In one case, a man followed a protester and demanded that police arrest him. Protesters were accompanied by an all-white volunteer team that  formed physical barriers between protesters and spectators to deescalate conflicts. One security team member who has provided the service during numerous Black Lives Matter Nashville protests said that this one was unusually fraught.

Although groups have attempted to implement police accountability procedures in the past — Gadson says she lobbied for a proposal in 1972 after her uncle was shot and killed by police — momentum grew after the February 2017 death of Jocques Clemmons, who was shot and killed by Metro police officer Joshua Lippert at the James A. Cayce Homes in East Nashville. A proposal to create such a civilian review board failed in January 2018 when the Metro Council voted it down 25-5.

Gicola Lane, an activist who spoke at the rally and lost her own uncle to a police shooting in 2000, says that a civilian oversight board could have prevented Clemmons’s death. Prior to the Clemmons incident, Lippert had been suspended for a total of 20 days as a result of disciplinary action, including for use of excessive force. “Why would we have someone like this patrolling Cayce Homes?” asked Lane.

Also at the rally Friday, Sheila Clemmons Lee, who is Jocques Clemmons’s mother, spoke to the crowd.

“MNPD wouldn’t even have the guts to meet with us to talk at all about the situation,” said Lee. “[Metro Nashville Police Chief Steve Anderson], he’s a coward. Joshua Lippert is a coward. I’m not saying all police officers are bad, but they know the ones who are, and those are the ones that they put in Cayce homes to gun down these black and brown people. I encourage you all to support Community Oversight Now.”

Lee continued, “Nashville needs this board so the next family that is encountered with the police don’t have to work as hard as I’ve had to work to try and get justice for their family. I pray that none of you have to endure the pain that my family has endured.”