Memphis Part 2

…yesterday in DaveintheShack.blogspot.com

“I used to play Chicago back in the day.  You been to Rosa’s Lounge?”

“Yes, not long ago.  My daughter and her family live close to there.”

“Well, if you get back there tell them Princess Baker wants to play their stage again.”

“I’ll do that.”

I know I’ll be back at Rosa’s Lounge, but not at all sure I’ll remember her name.  I put a tip in the bucket, and she went on her way.

 

The guy on the next barstool, an African American man about my age, turned towards me.

“Excuse me, I heard you talking to Princess there.  I lived in Chicago, in Austin, for four years after I got out of the service.  Went to city college there but came back to Memphis.   What part of the city your kids living in?”

“One’s in a bungalow in Hermosa, and the other in a condo in Pilsen.”

“Things getting’ better in Chicago?”

“Well, I’m afraid Austin hasn’t improved much, but Pilsen and Hermosa are doing good.”

He stuck out his hand.

“My name’s Walter.”

“Dave.  Nice to meet you.”

“What brings you to Memphis, Dave?”

“I’m driving to Florida to meet my wife who flew down.  I’ve been here before.  I stopped this time to learn more about Tyre Nichols being beaten to death by cops.”

“Oh God, it’s awful.  My wife passed at the beginning of the pandemic.  I’m glad she’s not here to see this.  Our kids are all in Memphis.  So are the grandkids.  She’d be so angry about what’s happened.  And scared for the kids of course.”

“Sorry about your wife.”

“Thanks.  I’m close with my kids and they help me a lot.”

He took a pull on his bottle of Bud, and I sipped my bourbon.

“What do you do for a living Walter?”

“Did.  I’m retired.  I’d guess you are too.  I was an accountant.  I made a living helping small businesses, churches, not-for-profits and the like.  Tried to help black-run organizations as much as possible.  How about you?”

“You’re kidding.  I ran a not-for-profit for over thirty years.  I probably could have used your help, especially in the beginning.”

“What kind of not-for-profit?”

“Social work with kids and families.  Foster care, counseling, therapy, community work.  Tried to bring more help into a rural area.  Did a lot of collaboration.  A little lobbying without calling it that.  I liked it.” 

“That work with kids and families is the toughest.  State contracts.  Never enough money.”

“I think that work with spreadsheets, numbers, and auditors is even tougher.  Just as important, that’s for sure.  You can’t do social work without taking care of the money.  I’m sure people like me in Memphis appreciated your help.”

“It was good work, but I have to say I’m glad it’s over.  Nothing’s getting easier.”

“I hear you.” 

We drank again.

“So, what do you know about know about Tyre Nichols?” I asked.

“Nothing I should repeat.  Except for what’s in the press, it’s all rumor.  But in this case,  what happened is all there to see on video.  I didn’t know the man or his family.  He is an out-of-town brother.  Grew up in Sacramento.  Came here to work at FedEx in 2020.  Lived with his mom and stepdad, who moved here not long before he came.  Wasn’t healthy I hear. Frail.  6’3” and had Crohn’s disease.  Didn‘t weigh but a hundred and forty-five pounds or so.”

“What we in Memphis can’t figure out is what he did to piss off the cops so bad.  There was a rumor he’d been involved with a woman known by one of the cops. That was disproved quickly.  I think that rumor got legs because it’s something people might understand for a beating getting out of hand.  But we’re all pretty much baffled.  And now we’re not going to know anything till the trial starts.“

“But black cops beating a fellow black man to death with their hands and a baton?”

“I know.  The story went quiet when everyone found out the cops were black, didn’t it?  I know it did for the black community here.  I don’t know why.  Black-on-black crime happens all the time.  It’s not complicated.  I think this case is about power and the culture of the Memphis police.  Probably lots of police departments.  Ferguson, Missouri for one, not so far away.  Chicago has had its troubles too.  And if we didn’t know before, we should all know now abuse of power is just as deadly as racial violence, and just as important to solve.  It’s so shameful.”

It got quiet.

Where did you grow up Dave?“

“On a small dairy farm in Central Illinois.  Went to school in an all-white town of 800 people.  Graduated in a class of 27 kids.  That little town had one part-time cop.  He drove around odd hours in a used Bel Air Chevy with a six-cylinder engine.  Not much crime in Danvers Illinois.”

“Crime grew a lot here in Memphis during the pandemic.  It’s a big local political issue.  Our police chief, black woman they brought in from Atlanta, started that Scorpion unit to combat the increase.  And look what happened.”

“I think crime is up in every American big city.  Chicago’s facing a mayoral election.  Reducing crime and reforming the police are at the top of the list.   But reforming the Chicago P.D. is proving to be damned hard to do.  Being a cop has gotten to be a very tough job.  They’re short on cops in Chicago.  Recruiting is a problem all over.”

“I keep track of this stuff,” Walter said.  “Memphis has around 630,000 people and 2,000 cops.  Over time, the demographics of the people have flipped. Fifty years ago, Memphis was 60% white, 38% black, and not much else.  Now it’s like 63% black, 30% white, and the rest Hispanic and whatnot.  We lost white people to the suburbs and black folks from outside the city moved in.”

“I’m not sure how Chicago breaks down.”

“You’re a lot more balanced.  You still have a white majority, about 36%, but the African Americans and Hispanic folks together make up almost 60%, about a third each.”

“Hey, you really do keep track.”

“It’s kind of a hobby.  The saving grace for Chicago is they have Illinois, a blue state still willing to help them.  I live in the South, and here in Tennessee, we got a hostile gerrymandered Republican supermajority in the statehouse doing everything they can to work against Nashville and Memphis.  Could be Chattanooga and Knoxville soon.  But Tennessee politics is a different story.”

He went on.

“Here’s why I think this change in demographics is important.  Fifteen years ago, give or take, Memphis put on a big push to hire more black police.  As they should.  We need those jobs as much as anyone else.  And we deserve those jobs.  So now Memphis has like 58% black cops.  Getting close to matching the city’s demographics.  Do you think all those almost twelve hundred black police we’ve worked so hard to recruit are good guys?  I don’t.  In fact, I know they’re not.  We’ve got to face the fact that Americans are violent people.  White and black alike.  I know brothers been hired as police that scare me to death. You know anybody like that?”

“As a matter of fact, I do. Or did anyway.  Fifteen miles away from where I lived in Illinois, are two towns, Bloomington and Normal, with something like 130,000 people combined.  Bloomington’s where they had the McLean County 4-H fair.  In 1967 I saw a white kid, from a wealthy farm family, get into a fight one night during the fair. Beat up another farm kid in the beef barn just for something he said.  Knocked him silly early on, got him down on the ground, then wouldn’t stop punching.  Took a bunch of guys to pull him off.  When they got him to his feet, he was still crazy mad.  Pretty easy to see he had issues.”

“I never really knew what 4-H was but go on.”

“I lost track of that guy.  I went to college, was gone for a while traveling overseas, and when I came home, mid 70’s, I found out he’d been hired as a cop for one of those big towns near us.  I thought right away they’d hired the wrong guy.  And sure enough, later on he got in trouble, hurt some guy pretty bad, but got off as I recall.  Anyway, I’ve seen that same thing in other places and professions.  Bad people seem to be drawn to jobs with authority because they get off on it.  And the people doing the hiring put them there.”

Our conversation sobered us up.  We paused to take a drink at the same time.  I broke the ice.

“You know, Tyre Nichols didn’t die but two months ago.  Since then, so many more awful things have happened in this country, I’m afraid by the time the trial starts people won’t hardly remember his name, let alone take any measures to fix what killed him.”  

“I know.  What kind of country do we live in that this keeps happening? Where’s all our anger coming from?”

“I got ideas, but I can’t tell you anything for sure. Wish I knew.”

My new friend excused himself and went to the bathroom.  He returned as the band was starting their next set. 

“I’m going now.  Nice talking to you Walter.  Thanks for acquainting me with Memphis by the numbers.”

“My pleasure Dave.  Have a good rest of your trip.”

We shook hands and I walked outside.  It had stopped raining.  The streetlights and neon bar signs were reflecting on a still-wet Beale Street. 

I hoped to learn more about what happened to Tyre Nichols on other Memphis streets the next day.