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I'll be starting my new job in Orlando in a couple day but before that I want to talk about the story I finished on my last day of work in Memphis. The night I watched Victoria Jones disappear behind a sea of police in riot gear changed me. https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/local/2020/08/26/memphis-protester-victoria-jones-speaks-out-after-beale-street-arrest/5617433002/
Standing feet away from Victoria, all I could think was that no matter what happens, I can't stop recording. This needed to be on the record. Hearing my own voice say "We're just trying to cover the news" still make me cry. https://twitter.com/Desi_Stennett/status/1266996885824380929
When I said that, I was talking to a police officer dressed in riot gear. I bumped into him as I was trying to back away in all the chaos. I try not to think about what could have happened to me if I was not a member of the media.
According to the Memphis PD, they did nothing wrong. Victoria "tripped" on her own. Memphis officials attempted to get me to report that the same day it was announced that it would be investigated internally. They pointed me to my own video as reference.
I knew that day how this investigation would end: Just as it did, with no punishment.
Since that night, I had been trying to get an interview with Victoria. Every time I reached out, she declined. I wasn't even going to reach out again but two days before I was supposed to leave the Commercial Appeal, I reached out one last time and she said yes.
We talked for nearly 90 minutes about how she felt embarrassed. How she knew that by attended protests, arrest was possible. But she never expected to the experience to be so dehumanizing and humiliating.
She told me she was first tripped by an officer than pushed to the ground by others. She said she was repeatedly called a bitch.
This isn't in the story but MPD spokesperson Lt. Rudolph said she watched bodycam footage and never heard anyone call Victoria a bitch but heard several refer to her as "ma'am."
I don't know what the takeaway was supposed to be here...
I don't know what the takeaway was supposed to be here...
Victoria talked about being led away in handcuffs with her body exposed after the zipper on her hoodies broke. She was weeping and begging MPD officers to cover her since she could not do it herself.
She told me about officers making jokes about her size when they finally gave her a new shirt. She talked about having to give up all of her belongings and having to change again into scrubs and Crocs in jail. She talked about feeling small.
She also talked about how the first few days after her release were spent defiantly trying to convince everyone she was fine before finally being able to admit that the experience broke her with the help and support of family and friends and a therapist.
After all that, MPD conducted an investigation, reviewed videos and determined that everything that happened to Victoria that night was perfectly in line with policy. It is police policy to treat people this way. THIS is the system working as it should. https://twitter.com/Desi_Stennett/status/1266996885824380929
In the 48 hours after I witnessed that, I slept for a total of 30 minutes and couldn't eat at all. But again, MPD found that the officers did nothing wrong. No one will be disciplined.
I am grateful for Victoria's willingness to talk and to come back to Beale Street with us. I am glad that this was the last story I did for the Commercial Appeal. I'll never forget her or the "Home of the Blues."
Subscribe to read her story: https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/local/2020/08/26/memphis-protester-victoria-jones-speaks-out-after-beale-street-arrest/5617433002/
Subscribe to read her story: https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/local/2020/08/26/memphis-protester-victoria-jones-speaks-out-after-beale-street-arrest/5617433002/
