The 901: Did Monday night's curfew work in Memphis?

Good Tuesday morning from Memphis! If you picked up a free mask from the Shelby County Health Department, you should probably stop wearing it and instead use it to line your flowerbeds. More on the reasons for that shortly, but first...

By the time Memphis hit its 10 p.m. curfew last night, the crowds of peaceful protesters had mostly dispersed, leaving Downtown streets eerily calm after five nights of unrest.

No journalists were shoved or protesters tackled by officers.

No tear gas was fired into unsuspecting crowds.

No evildoers used the protests as cover to break windows and loot stores.

By those measures, the city's curfew — issued Monday by Mayor Jim Strickland after 31 protesters were arrested during Sunday night's protests — was a success. And the worries that curfews across the country could escalate conflicts between law enforcement and protesters weren't sustained— at least, not in Memphis, not last night.

Instead, people protested police brutality and the recent killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd by marching in Downtown ahead of the curfew, with one group appropriately ending the evening at I AM A MAN Plaza, a tribute to the 1968 Memphis sanitation strike, when city workers protested their poor working conditions.

Before they got there, protesters stopped for a prayer at Beale and B.B. King:

“We’re out here right now … thanking you for Memphis right now, thanking you for the state of Tennessee right now, all these marches that are going on all over this country, black and white have come together like never before,” prayed the Rev. Charles Johnson, a Memphis pastor. “We thank you, God, for bringing us together.”

There was also a "rolling protest" that slowed traffic on the Interstate 40 bridge, which protesters had tried to march onto the night before only to be repelled by officers:

What comes after Memphis protests?

The lull in action made space for a deeper discussion about what protesters hope to accomplish through the protests. The Coalition of Concerned Citizens, one of two major organizers of the protests (and a consistent thorn in Strickland's side), yesterday asked for Memphis police to make two structural changes, per our Micaela Watts.

The requests: give officers better mental health resources (to put them in a better frame of mind for dealing with crises) and more training in de-escalation and intervention. 

The coalition's two requests are eminently reasonable, especially now. The militaristic mindset that pervades police departments across the country isn't sustainable or helpful — and Black Lives Matter has shown it never really was, not for everybody. The Humpty Dumpty of modern, military-style policing seems to be plummeting downward.

And good riddance.

When policing a community becomes a "war," something is wrong, something broken. And usually what is broken is the community itself — like Memphis, which is groaning and travailing in so many heart-rending ways. Memphis' war on crime is a war on itself.

Memphis is playing Whack-a-Mole with crime while feeding the machine more tokens in the form of poverty, lack of education, and lack of moral structure, to name a few of the city's many issues. The trick isn't to get a bigger, deadlier hammer; it's to stop putting tokens in the machine, to address those deeper problems, both personal and systemic.

The coalition's requests are a good place to start.

Speaking of curfews: Despite not having any protests, Germantown also ordered a curfew last night — y'know, just to be on the safe side — our Ted Evanoff reports.

Mayor calls for another investigation

Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland is calling once again for an investigation, this time after video showed police officers forcefully tackling a woman at a protest early Sunday.

Here's the video, taken by our Desiree Stennett, who also wrote the follow-up story:

The woman arrested was 29-year-old Victoria Jones, the founder of The Collective, a nonprofit in Orange Mound featuring the work of black artists. Van Turner, Shelby County commissioner and president of the Memphis branch of the NAACP, said Jones will have legal representation through the NAACP and the Black Lives Matter Bail Fund, our Katherine Burgess reports. Here's Turner on that decision:

“We can’t just allow this moment to go past us and nothing occur," Turner said. "We have to embrace the protest.”

Earlier, Strickland had similarly called for an investigation after a video emerged of a woman who was violently shoved by an officer in riot gear.

Got a mask from SCHD? Don't use it

For a while now, the Shelby County Health Department has been distributing black re-usable face masks the state commissioned from sock-maker Renfro Corp.

But if you've picked up a mask, you should probably stop wearing it for now.

That's because the masks have been treated with a chemical called Silvadur, an "anti-microbial agent applied to fabrics to reduce the growth of odor-causing bacteria," per the Health Department. But Silvadur is also registered as a pesticide, according to a report from Nashville's WTVF NewsChannel 5, which quoted an environmental toxicology professor as saying, "I wouldn't wear one."

Since the report, Tennessee and health departments across the state, including Shelby County's, have stopped distributing the masks and warned others not to, our Micaela Watts reports. 

The masks were already controversial — partly because the state signed a contract with Renfro without shopping around, but also because the efficacy of the masks has been questioned by some Democrats (although the masks seem to work just fine).

What else is happening in the 901

• COVID-19 by the numbers: Yesterday, Shelby County reported 121 additional novel coronavirus cases and no new deaths, per our daily COVID-19 updates blog.
• In his latest piece, our Mark Giannotto argues that the racial reconciliation sparked by Memphis basketball legends Larry Finch and Ronnie Robinson should be the start — not the end — of a conversation that leads to more racial equity in sports. Also, our Jason Munz writes about how the Memphis Grizzlies plan to enhance existing initiatives in the wake of the national outcry against injustice and racism.
• Columnist Tonyaa Weathersbee sees the 1968 Memphis sanitation strike as parallel to the protests going on in Memphis today.
• The Mid-South COVID-19 Regional Response Fund has raised $3.5 million and awarded $2 million in grants, the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis announced yesterday. Read up on the latest grands and find how to donate here.
• Want to know which Memphis restaurants are opening and when? Our Jennifer Chandler has a list for that. Also, Jennifer reports that the 2020 Memphis Food & Wine Festival has been canceled for the year but is expected to return in 2021.
• Famed Memphis photographer William Eggleston is selling a poster to benefit OUTMemphis and Memphis Rox, our Bob Mehr reports.
• RIP, Helen Bowman: At 82, the Memphis actress has died, our John Beifuss reports.
• Horn Lake High School football is experiencing a coaching change, our Khari Thompson reports.

The Fadeout: Dirty Streets' latest

Memphis' Dirty Streets just released an old song, "Can't Go Back," as a new single. Fading us out, here's the band performing it live last year for Memphis-based DittyTV:

Like The Fadeout? Check out The 901's Spotify playlist

Columnist Ryan Poe writes The 901, a running commentary on all things Memphis. Reach him at poe@commercialappeal.com and on Twitter @ryanpoe.

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