Elected official Tami Sawyer has retained civil rights attorney Ben Crump after Memphis Police arrested her and several others following an incident at a local restaurant.
Sawyer, the Shelby County General Sessions Court Clerk, was arrested on Feb. 4 outside of Global Cafe, WREG reports.
It all started when Rachael Goodwin Spriggs, a customer the restaurant, tried ordering a drink. Shen then claimed a male employee refused to serve her after she gestured her hands to order a drink.
“When he came, he said I was signing to him, and he didn’t know sign language (very condescendingly),” she wrote on Facebook. “I told him I was trying to let him know that I wanted to order something to drink, but he wouldn’t come from the back. He literally was just staring at me from the kitchen.”
She claims the employee ultimately refused to serve her and called her rude for doing sign language.
“I packed my things, and on my way out with my stuff in my hands, I decided that was the last straw,” she says. “I told him I would not be back and wanted to bring attention to how he was treating me.”
Goodwin Spriggs captured the entire incident on Facebook Live. At one point, officers responded to the cafe before Goodwin Spriggs’ phone dropped. Toward the end of the video, officers from the department arrested her for trespassing.
Following Goodwin Spriggs’ Facebook Live, concerned community members traveled to the cafe’s parking lot, where she was detained. Spriggs said officers told her she was not under arrest but detained to “complete paperwork to not come back to Crosstown.”
“I questioned, ‘Why not just keep me from Global Cafe?’ I shared we have a home within walking distance of Crosstown Concourse,” says Goodwin Spriggs. “They did not want to hear me at all.”
As her video got around, concerned community members arrived on the scene and questioned police about why officers were detaining Goodwin Spriggs.
“They would not respond, and police escalated the situation very violently, attacking people,” Amber Nicole, a policy organizer, said on Instagram.
Police arrested four local organizers, including Sawyer.
The Memphis Police Department did not immediately respond to BLACK ENTERPRISE‘s request for comment. The owner of Global Cafe declined to comment.
“I am focused on healing from my injuries and have retained Attorney Ben Crump as legal counsel,” Sawyer said in a statement. “I remain committed to serving the people of Shelby County and will continue executing my duties as General Sessions Court Clerk with the same dedication I have shown since my first day in office.”
In 2024, a Department of Justice investigation found the Memphis Police Department and the City of Memphis have a pattern of violating the rights of the city’s Black residents.
The report was filed months after a jury found three MPD officers guilty of witness tampering during a federal trial regarding the fatal 2023 beating of Tyre Nichols. According to the DOJ report, MPD used excessive force and conducted unlawful stops, searches, and arrests of Black residents.
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