If what happened Tuesday night at the Metro Council has ever happened before, it was beyond the recent memory of anyone in the chamber.
Calling for justice for Jocques Clemmons, the black man shot and killed by a white Metro police officer, Josh Lippert, almost two weeks ago, demonstrators marched to the Metro Courthouse, seized control of the meeting and got results. Ultimately, they were granted 20 minutes, uninterrupted, to air their views on the shooting and make clear their demands about how the city should respond.
It all began with a resolution exempting East Nashville vegetarian restaurant Wild Cow from the minimum distance requirements for obtaining a beer permit — a common item on the council's agenda but one that requires a public hearing. When the time came for opponents of the bill to speak, Rhiana Anthony came to the podium but Vice Mayor David Briley attempted to move on, explaining that he hadn't seen her raise her hand to identify herself as someone who wanted to speak against the bill. By then, though, Anthony had a microphone.
Over Briley's objections, she explained calmly but bluntly that the group of around two dozen people had come to demand justice for Clemmons and that they would disrupt the meeting until they were heard. With Briley having ceded the floor, she listed their demands, detailed in a document members of the group would later hand out to some council members:
%{[ data-embed-type="oembed" data-embed-id="https://twitter.com/freddieoconnell/status/834207806861488128" data-embed-element="aside">Among their demands is the immediate placement of body cameras on Metro police officers. Mayor Megan Barry has committed to funding body cameras in her upcoming budget proposal and has said recently she'll be convening "a Community Advisory Group of criminal justice experts, community leaders and police to develop policy and procedure recommendations" for the cameras.
Briley would eventually cut Anthony off and attempt to respond.
“This group of people is very respectful of your opinion," he said. "We come every two weeks and we have public hearings and listen to all kinds of opinions about lots of different things. We have already had one hearing on Driving While Black. We have another one scheduled in March. We are listening. I stood with the district attorney last week and asked that the investigation be moved to the TBI. So to come here and treat us all like no one is paying attention is disrespectful.”
He was quickly overtaken by the crowd again, his attempts to move on with the council's regular agenda drowned out by chants of "justice for Jocques" and "amend the agenda." Soon, Briley adjourned the meeting for five minutes, allowing for an intermission during which some council members — including Councilwoman Karen Johnson and Councilman Sam Coleman — addressed the group and, in Johnson's case, ultimately acted as a liaison of sorts between them and Briley, negotiating a 20 minute public hearing to take place after the council finished its agenda. All this occurred after security had threatened to have the group removed from the building and as — unknown to many in the chamber at the time — police officers were gathering outside in preparation to do just that.
Later after the agenda was completed, Briley addressed the group once more.
“We may have struggled a little tonight to get you a chance to be heard, we do appreciate your passion," he said. "We hope that you understand that we are working hard for all of Nashville. If you feel like you’re not being heard by us, we’re here the first and third Tuesday every month, come talk to us. We’re ready to listen and to take action to address the problems of our community.”
He called for a moment of silence “to acknowledge the death of Mr. Clemmons under very unfortunate circumstances" and with that kicked off what he described as "an extraordinary moment in the history of the Metro Council, which acknowledges the importance" of the events the demonstrators had come to discuss. What followed was a raw and at times shocking airing of grievances, demands and testimony.
Anthony thanked the council for allowing the group to speak, saying "we took some harsh measures but they had to be taken." She introduced Clemmons' sister who held back tears as she addressed the council.
“First thing I want y’all to know is I can’t sleep at night," she said. "I cry myself to sleep every night. I can’t even walk around my kitchen because my kitchen is the first place my brother would come to when he came into my home.”
Later she referenced the recent decommissioning and resignation of an officer accused of stealing whiskey from a DUI suspect's car.
“Another thing I can’t understand is how an officer can be fired for pulling over somebody and stealing a Jack Daniels bottle out of the car, all right, for theft, but y’all can’t fire a man for cold-blooded murder in broad daylight. I do not understand that."
Clemmie Greenlee, a longtime community activist, reiterated the group's demand for a civilian review board with subpoena power.
“We don’t want to tear nothing down, we don’t want to burn nothing down," she said. "We just want justice to come down.”
Another man urged the council to hear the group's words and act on them.
“It is only so many times that we are willing to come and talk to you and ask you for the guidance, knowledge, wisdom and understanding that we need," he said. "It’s not only a people, but a culture. If you cannot help us, let us know and get out of our way. We are asking this time. But we cannot continue to ask because we are tired.”
A shocking moment came when a man, wearing a clerical collar, took aim at Councilman DeCosta Hastings.
“I want to be clear, because I was going to be nice and a nice church boy, but it’s really unfortunate that we have a house nigger like Councilman Hastings who would sell out his own black community just for a spot on somebody’s news channel," he said. "This is your doing Councilman Hastings. This is your anti-blackness at work. This is what it means to be a house nigger and an Uncle Tom. This is what you have created.”
Although the stunned faces of many in the chamber were visible, Briley did not intervene in the moment. However, he did address the comments later saying that "whatever his faults are, [Hastings] did not deserve to be insulted like he was tonight and I hope that on behalf of the city of Nashville he will accept my apology.”
Anthony closed the impromptu public comment on behalf of the group.
“Thank you for allowing us time to come and speak with you. I hope something penetrated your heart and is turning wheels in your head about what can be done," she said. "We are here saying that we are committed to making sure that this happens. So we are not going to sleep, we are not going to stop coming back. We do want to respect your process but at the end of the day we are wanting to make sure that this is a collaboration so we thank you for your time.”
Asked if he had any response to the 20 minutes of comments from the demonstrators, Metro Police Chief Steve Anderson said no, only that he had "heard what was said and took it to heart."
Afterward, Anthony stood near the podium from which she had initially demanded the council's attention and spoke to one council member after another, as others walked up and slid their business cards with contact information into her hand. Outside, the rest of the group gathered in a huddle and, after a few words, let out a cheer that echoed off the courthouse walls.
