Statement by the Memphis Black
Autonomy Federation
July 5, 2013
Fatal Police Shooting in George
Golden Case
Shows Why
Death Inquests
Should Be Standard in Shootings
by Memphis Police Officers and
Deaths in Police Custody
The March 27, 2013, shooting and brutal beating of shoplifting
suspect George Golden shows why there should be automatic court inquests into
the use of deadly force against civilians by Memphis Police Department
officers. It took the police and the Shelby County medical examiner's office
almost three months to come up with an official cause of death in the case of
Mr. Golden, who died April 5, 2013.
In the forensic autopsy report, the cops and the medical
examiner's office claimed that “cocaine intoxication” was a major contributing
factor in Mr. Golden's death, and that the gunshot wound to his head was not
the primary cause of death. This conclusion was reached despite the fact that
police officers beat and kicked Golden after shooting him. The allegation of
the use of cocaine was put in the autopsy report in favor of the cops, strictly
to prejudice the case against Mr. Golden and to provide consistency with the
police department's story that Mr. Golden was “out of control” and “resisting
arrest.” This is an almost constant theme by MPD officers when they have used
deadly force, the idea that they were being attacked and had “no choice” but to
use deadly force, even against an unarmed person like Mr. Golden.
Mr. Golden's autopsy report and so many other dubious pro-police
reports in cases of civilians fatally shot by MPD officers show that the ME's
office cannot be trusted to make truthful and impartial rulings in any forensic
case involving police deadly force. The families of the victims and citizens'
groups will have to fight to have a court inquest into Mr. Golden's case, and
ultimately, in the case of teenager Justin Thompson and many others killed by
MPD officers, in which the facts have been covered up and the cops are being
allowed to get away with murder. Twenty-one people have died at the hands of
Memphis police officers since February 10, 2012, including eight who have died
so far in 2013. Not one officer has been prosecuted for using deadly force.
The Memphis Black Autonomy Federation has been advised that on a
routine basis, Dr. Karen Chancellor, the current Shelby County medical
examiner, meets with the Memphis Police Department's “shooting team” to
re-enact police shootings and to help the police concoct their stories. On the
basis of these meetings, it is then decided which cases of deadly police force
are justified. If it is true that the ME routinely confers with the MPD's
“shooting team,” the ME apparently considers herself to be an advocate for the
police and government authorities, not an impartial medical-legal professional
with the duty to determine the truth no matter where it leads concerning
culpability. It is the ME who falsely and routinely gives a final report to the
Shelby County district attorney general as to whether excessive police force
has been committed or whether a “clean bill of health” is issued to the MPD. If
Chancellor is having tea with the very police officials whom she should and
must investigate under her oath of office, then she is merely part of the
cover-up, and she alters her reports to suit the facts of cases in order to
exonerate the police.
Final decisions in cases involving the use of deadly force by the
police should be taken out of the hands of the Shelby County medical examiner,
who is currently conspiring with Memphis police officers and government
officials. There should be independent community control and civilian oversight
of the MPD by an elected Police-Community Control Board. Otherwise, there will
be more questionable acts of deadly police force while city and county
authorities continue to show deliberate indifference to the loss of lives of
civilians killed by Memphis police officers.
Memphis Black Autonomy Federation
P.O. Box 16382, Memphis, TN
38186-0382
Phone: (901)674-8430
Email: organize.the.hood@gmail.com