Killing of Black Suspect Leaves 35 Memphis Cops Injured During Uprising

Close to three-dozen Memphis, Tennessee, police officers were injured Wednesday night in mob violence that erupted after a black Memphis man wanted on an outstanding federal warrant was shot by federal deputy marshals.

Protesters threw rocks at police and smashed the windows of police cars and a nearby fire station during the hours-long violence perpetrated by black residents angered by the actions of the U.S. Marshals Service, the agency that usually enforces arrest warrants or hunts for wanted felons.

Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland said Thursday morning that in addition to  officers and deputies injured, two journalists were also injured during the melee, according to the National Association of Chiefs of Police. Six of the injured cops were transported to an area hospital.

“Let me be clear — the aggression shown toward our officers and deputies tonight was unwarranted,” the Democratic mayor said. He also praised the conduct of Memphis police supervisors and officers for “a job well done.”

“I was proud of our first responders. I’m impressed by their professionalism and incredible restraint as they endured concrete rocks being thrown at them and people spitting at them,” the mayor said.

The incident began in the Frayser community of Memphis on Wednesday evening at about 7 p.m. when a man wanted on a felony warrant tried to ram vehicles of the regional U.S. Marshal’s Service fugitive task force after authorities tried to arrest him, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Keli McAlister said during a press briefing.

McAlister said the suspect exited the vehicle with a weapon. “The [deputy marshals] fired, striking and killing the individual,” McAlister said, adding no officers were injured during the interaction between law enforcement and the armed suspect.

Shelby County Commissioner Tami Sawyer told reporters that the slain suspect’s name is Brandon Webber and said she went to the neighborhood “because I stand with my people. People are hurting.”

“Don’t judge our neighborhoods without asking a community how it feels to mourn their youth over and over again,” she tweeted. However, she stopped short of describing any incidents in which an innocent black was killed by police in her county.

Meanwhile, the suspect’s relative, Demetrick Skinner, who is identified as Webber’s cousin, claims as many as 20 shots were fired at Webber.

Originally, Memphis police officers were on the scene as back-up for the U.S. deputy marshals, but eventually they became the target of a crowd that had gathered and threw projectiles such as rocks, empty bottles and cans at them.

Three people were arrested in the chaos that followed. Police said what they called “a chemical agent” was used to disperse the crowd.

Memphis police on their Twitter page denied they were not involved in the killing of Webber. “I need [residents] to stay calm,” Memphis Police Director Mike Rallings said. “If your home was vandalized or you were harmed, we need you to call police.”

Rallings said his department supports the right to protest but draws the line at violence. “When this happens in a neighborhood, the neighborhood is victimized,” Rallings said during a news appearance.  “The officers did a tremendous job tonight showing restraint in a very volatile situation.”

However, some officers have anonymously voiced their anger over such violence aimed at them. “It’s a real bring down to hear politicians and news people praise cops for showing restraint in the face of angry mobs and injuries suffered during what we once called disturbing the peace,” said G.H. Wilcox, a police officer “use of force” expert and trainer. “The Memphis riot left 25 cops injured and they weren’t even involved in Webber’s death.

Although political leaders praised the police, some county officials demanded a full and thorough internal investigation.

“The community wants answers into tonight’s incident. We are asking for calm and restraint by all and complete transparency in the investigation of tonight’s officer involved shooting,” Democratic state Rep. Antonio Parkinson wrote on Instagram.

Democratic Party’s Anti-Cop Agenda 

During the turbulent years of the Obama White House, it appeared to many law enforcement officers that not a day went by without Attorney General Eric Holder or the Department of Justice announcing that they were probing local law enforcement agencies in different parts of the country over allegations of a “pattern of discrimination against African Americans and Latinos in violation of the U.S. Constitution.” At the forefront of this anti-cop sentiment was Obama’s “Wingman” Attorney General Eric Holder.

According to a well-respected blog for a Washington, D.C. watchdog group, this appeared to be part of a much bigger Democratic Party plan to crackdown on local governments that try to curb illegal immigration. The DOJ has challenged immigration control laws in Arizona and Alabama and the administration has made it clear that it’s keeping a close eye on law enforcement agencies that may be viewed as targeting illegal aliens, according to the blogger at Judicial Watch, a non-profit, public interest group that investigates government corruption.

For example, the DOJ released their findings involving the police department in the tiny Connecticut town of East Haven, with a population of about 29,000. According to a lengthy federal probe the East Haven Police Department allegedly engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination against Latinos by intentionally and disproportionately targeting them for traffic enforcement and treating them “more harshly than non-Latino drivers after a traffic stop,” according to the DOJ.

Furthermore, the East Haven Police Department had failed to remedy a history of discrimination and deliberate indifference to the rights of minorities, the Holder’s DOJ investigators said. The department also fails to collect and report traffic stop data in accordance with state racial profiling laws, claim the feds.

While all of this investigating of local police and sheriffs’ departments was conducted by the Obama “wingman” Attorney General Holder, federal agencies — DOJ, FBI, ATF, Secret Service, etc. — were running amok with their agenda.

Some of their corruption problems such as spying on law-abiding citizens, cooperating with a political party to help it win elections, and setting up “perjury traps” in order to criminalize political campaign strategies was used by the Deep State Democrats.