Special News Series: Rising Up For Justice! – Nashville advocates press for change after two police shootings

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March 18, 2021

Introduction To This Series:

This post is one installment in an ongoing news series: a “living history” of the current national and international uprising for justice.

Today’s movement descends directly from the many earlier civil rights struggles against repeated injustices and race-based violence, including the killing of unarmed Black people. The posts in this series serve as a timeline of the uprising that began on May 26, 2020, the day after a Minneapolis police officer killed an unarmed Black man, George Floyd, by kneeling on his neck. The viral video of Floyd’s torturous suffocation brought unprecedented national awareness to the ongoing demand to truly make Black Lives Matter in this country.

The posts in this series focus on stories of the particular killings that have spurred the current uprising and on the protests taking place around the USA and across the globe. Sadly, thousands of people have lost their lives to systemic racial, gender, sexuality, judicial, and economic injustice. The few whose names are listed here represent the countless others lost before and since. Likewise, we can report but a few of the countless demonstrations for justice now taking place in our major cities, small towns, and suburbs.

To view the entire series of Rising Up for Justice! posts, insert “rising up” in the search bar above.

Nashville advocates press for change after two police shootings

By Rachel Wegner, The Tennessean.

March 18, 2021

Shaveh Jackson talks during the press conference about how to change the narrative in the community, addressing the fatal Metro Nashville police shooting of Nika Holbert and nonfatal shooting of a 31-year-old woman, at the East Precinct of the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department in Nashville, Tenn., Thursday, March 18, 2021.

The Nashville Organized for Action and Hope’s criminal justice task force held a press conference on Thursday afternoon to address two police shootings in Nashville…

“NOAH thinks it is unacceptable for Metro police to shoot two women, one fatally,” the group said in a news release ahead of the conference. “These preventable shootings point to larger, systemic issues within the police force and their approach to providing public safety to the Nashville community.”

Member Shaveh Jackson raised questions about the policy and procedures around the traffic stop that escalated into a shootout between Davis and Holbert…

Former MNPD officer and Silent No Longer Tennessee founder Greta McClain also spoke and explained the de-escalation tactics she was taught on the force. She called for a renewed focus on mental health training and intervention tactics for officers…

NOAH said it is calling on MNPD and District Attorney General Glenn Funk to address questions about de-escalation techniques and the legality of Baker’s search of Holbert.

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