Tyre Nichols’ Death Set Off Raw Emotions and a Change at MPD

 MEMPHIS, TN – The savage beatdown that five Black police officers inflicted upon Tyre Nichols during a purported traffic stop, set off a powder keg of raw emotions and a call for change at the Memphis Police Department.

When the city of Memphis released the video on Jan. 27, Bianca Baker said she wept. Then anger welled up in her and intensified. 

“You wouldn’t treat a dog the way they treated this man,” she said. “I have sons. What got me was when he called out for his mother.”

For Baker, the video was quite excruciating to watch. For Jacqueline Jordan, it dredged up painful memories of her own son, Brandon K. Jordan, who was killed in Nashville five years ago. 

Brandon, then 22, was a student at Tennessee State University during the day and worked at FedEx at night. He didn’t know the killer and his two accomplices. They didn’t know him either.

He never saw them coming on the night he was gunned down or knew their intentions. The killer just fired two rounds and snuffed out Brandon’s life and ended his dream of becoming a sports commentator.

Now Jordan wonders if Brandon had called for her like Nichols had called for his mother, RowVaughn Wells, who along with her husband, Rodney Wells, shared their pain with the media. 

Nichols’s desperate cry for his mother was ignored by the five officers who pummeled him to death less than a hundred yards from his home, ironically, in the same subdivision where Jordan once lived.

Wells said she felt pain in her stomach around the time when Desmond Mills, Demetrius Haley, Justin Smith, Emmitt Martin, and Tadarrius Bean roughhoused her 29-year-old son on Jan. 7. He died on Jan. 10. 

“Innocent people are always getting hurt,” said Jordan. “I know how Tyre’s mother feels. I am a mother too. Every day I think about my baby.”

MPD Police Director Cerelyn “CJ” Davis terminated all five officers on Jan. 18. Each one faces second-degree murder; aggravated assault, acting in concert; two counts of aggravated kidnapping; two counts of official misconduct; and official oppression.

Baker is calling for a charge of first-degree murder for each ex-officer. “They beat him and kicked him like he was a roach,” she said. “I think they intentionally tried to kill him.”  

On Saturday, Jan. 28, Davis disbanded MPD’s Scorpion unit after calls for its disbandment rose to a feverish pitch. The ex-officers posted bail; they’re scheduled to be arraigned in mid-February.

Bennie Cobb, a retired captain with the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office who has 37 years in law enforcement, said Davis had done the right thing. He, too, had called for MPD’s Scorpion unit to be disbanded.

“What you have is these guys under the color of law running and gunning and stopping people, trying to develop probable cause,” Cobb opined. “The stop itself was a pretext stop.”

Cobb explained that a pretext stop in law enforcement is not unusual. “You make the stop and then develop a probable cause afterward,” he said. “That’s what they were doing.” 

He didn’t want to see the video initially. But when he was called upon by the media to give his expert analysis on Nichols’s fatal beating, he looked carefully at the video and analyzed it.

The charges are warranted, said Cobb, owner of Eagle Eye Security Consultant and Training, where he trains police officers, security personnel, or interested citizens. 

He also teaches self-defense classes, handgun safety, and de-escalation techniques, which the ex-officers didn’t employ, he said, adding, “Not one time did I see any real resistance. I didn’t see him fighting back.”

 

Cobb equates Nichols’s beatdown to a gang initiation when new members allow themselves to be “jumped in” as a sign of strength and courage. In her opinion, Jordan believes the ex-officers behaved like a pack of wolves.

Memphis set a record in 2021 with 346 murders, according to FBI data. Cobb said an enforcement unit is needed in such cases and believes the Scorpion unit will return most likely under another name.

“You have to have an enforcement unit with a clear mission statement, a strong supervisor, and address complaints as they come in,” he said, and added that Nichols’s death was a result of excessive force.

Young jeweler sets ambitious goal to become a millionaire by 16

Kalen Johnson is 12 years old and has the gumption to believe he will become a millionaire by the time he reaches the ripe age of 16. Could it be that this preteen prognosticator knows something that we don’t know?

He’s already begun working to make real his audacious prediction. In September 2018, he grossed more than $1,200 in a single day selling exquisite wire and beaded jewelry at the Cooper-Young Festival in Midtown Memphis. 

Kalen Johnson is an up-and-coming jeweler
who sees a bright future for himself.
(Photos by Kayla Johnson)

“I believe in myself. And my mother, granny, brother and sister believe in me too,” said Kalen, who is unabashedly frank about his ambition to become financially secure by 16 and beyond via Kalen’s Exquisite Pieces, a home-based jewelry business he started in 2018.

Although Kalen is young, he is rather mature, thoughtful, confident, and fully grasps what it will take to reach his goal. He also counts every opportunity as a move forward in that direction. 

“When I was thinking about careers, I wanted to do something that’s fun,” said Kalen, a seventh-grade student at Germantown Middle School. “I didn’t want to work for someone where I would be sad and miserable.

Kalen abounds in contentment over patrons like Jacqueline Jordan, who became acquainted with him and his “exquisite” jewelry in February at Golden Gate Cathedral, the church where she and Kalen’s family are members. 

One Sunday she noticed a black clustered necklace coiled around the neck of his mother, Tomeka Johnson, employed at Regions Bank, and was smitten with its beauty and intricate design.

Jordan asked Johnson where she’d gotten the necklace. “She said, ‘My son made this.’ I asked her his name. The little boy was standing near her and said, ‘It’s me. Here I am.’ Then I asked him if he could make one for me.”

An intricately designed purple necklace,
earrings and bracelet.

A week or so later, Jordan paid Kalen $100 for a hefty necklace that he had made of elegant glass and crystal on a thick silver chain. He threw in matching earrings and a bracelet for good measure. 

Jordan was happy, to say the least, and boasted openly after receiving the necklace that Kalen had presented in a dainty box. “It’s beautiful! Simply beautiful!” she said excitedly.

Since the launch of Kalen’s Exquisite Pieces, this dedicated kidpreneur has made his rounds at various marketplaces such as workshops, bazaars, and a children’s business fair at Germantown Presbyterian Church.

Tamika Heard, manager of the locally owned and family operated Makeda’s Cookies, recognized Kalen’s business in 2018 in an online marketplace called 901 Kidpreneur that she started on Facebook in 2016. The concept is to inspire and empower young entrepreneurs. 

Kalen is humbled by Heard and other entrepreneurs who have paved the way for him. His mother, however, has been his support and pillar of strength since he first started tinkering with her jewelry at five years old. 

An exquisite pearl and beaded necklace
with matching earrings.

“I’ll always love my mom,” he said. “She has been here for me for the whole journey.” 

So has Kaleb, Kalen’s 12-year-old identical twin; Kayla, his 17-year-old sister; and his maternal “granny,” Mary Perry, whom he treasures. It was Perry who didn’t need to be convinced that Kalen’s refashioning of his mother’s old jewelry “will pay off some day.”

“He would take my jewelry, take it apart, and make new jewelry,” said Johnson, alluding to Kalen’s inquisitive nature and his creative mind. “Me and my mother asked him what he wanted to do in life.” 

It was a foregone conclusion that Johnson’s young millionaire in waiting wanted to be a master jeweler and knew this before she had an inkling that he was teeming with talent. While he was polishing his skills, she undergirded him along the way.

Johnson recalls Kalen taking a briefcase to W.E.B. DuBois Elementary School of Entrepreneurship for Career Day when he was nine and in 5^th-grade. “He had all his creations in it to show the class. Then he explained to them that he wanted to be a master jeweler,” she said. 

“He’s so talented. He will not make two pieces alike. I’m so blessed to be his mom,” said Johnson, a single parent who likewise embraces the skill set of Kaleb, a computer gamer, and Kayla, a budding artist and future OBGYN.

So, who or what inspires Kalen? “I don’t know what inspires me,” he said matter-of-factly. “I’ve just been fascinated with gemstones, beads and natural pearls.”

Then it dawned on him that he is actually enamored with Peter Marco, an influential Beverly Hills (Calif.) jeweler who has a high-profile clientele. Like Kalen, Marco knew what he wanted to do in life at an early age. 

An interesting parallel, to say the least.