Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Allie Bice. Send tips | Subscribe here| Email Eli | Email Lauren MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Nearly two weeks after the Rev. J. LAWRENCE TURNER led the service for TYRE NICHOLS, tributes to the 29-year-old killed at the hands of police here remained stacked around his office. There’s a poster-size photo of Nichols holding his newborn baby. Homemade signs honor his life. National TV cameras no longer stand watch outside Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church, where Vice President KAMALA HARRIS visited to offer her condolences. The country is paying less attention to his death each day, leaving many Memphians to confront uncomfortable questions. What will justice for Nichols look like? Will President JOE BIDEN help us get there? “This is where it becomes very important to continue pressing the issue [of police reform],” Turner said. “Once this is no longer in the national news, it becomes our responsibility to continue raising the profile of this issue to the federal level.” For Turner and other Memphians, justice for Nichols would, in part, mean passing federal legislation overhauling the American police system, such as the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. But in order to make that happen, Turner said that it is on Biden to make police reform a bigger legislative priority. Biden ran his presidential campaign promising to put an end to the type of police brutality that killed GEORGE FLOYD, but nearly three years later, the nation is faced with similar crises. As the president contemplates whether to seek re-election, progress (or lack thereof) on these matters is putting his standing among Black voters on the line. “There's not a lot of faith in [Biden] and his ability to do what’s necessary,” said LJ ABRAHAM, a Memphis activist who is close to Nichols’ family. “He keeps making all these empty promises and he's not pulling through for people that voted for him.” Turner acknowledged frustration over the lack of movement Biden has made on police reform, but said the president’s State of the Union address provided hope. A year ago, Biden used the annual address to Congress to celebrate billions of dollars in federal funding to hire more police officers around the country. But in last week’s speech, he spoke about the importance of police accountability, telling lawmakers: “We need to rise to this moment. We can’t turn away. Let’s do what we know in our hearts, what we need to do.” Turner said he was especially moved when Biden addressed the fact that, unlike every Black parent, he never had to have “the talk” with his children about how to minimize their risk if they were stopped by law enforcement. “I felt seen,” he said. “And maybe this will spark people to begin to ask — who don't know what ‘the talk’ is — What is it? What is he talking about?” But outside of Turner’s church pews, other Memphians lack the same hope about progress. Since Biden took office, more than 2,100 people have been shot and killed by police, according to a Washington Post database. Nichols, who died on Jan. 10, three days after he was brutally beaten by a group of police officers, is not counted in the database, which does not include killings from beatings or other forms of police violence. “People here are angry right now. And righteously angry because this is not something that just happened out of nowhere,” said CHELSEA GLASS, an organizer with Decarcerate Memphis, which advocates for criminal justice reform.“[Biden] has not done anything to change the material conditions for Black and brown people in America.” On Saturday afternoon, Turner sat in his office beneath a painting of the “I Am a Man” sign used during the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike, after which MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. was assassinated. With a determined look on his face, he said “justice is a destination” that requires a “sustained effort over a number of years.” Biden, he explained, needs to follow through on his State of the Union push for Congress to “come together and finish the job on police reform,” especially as other issues like student debt cancellation (which is currently being held up in the courts) have left some Black voters feeling let down by the administration. “They’ve got to put this at the top of their list when it comes to legislative priorities if, as he campaigns for re-election, he’s going to have some credibility with African American voters,” Turner said. “You don’t want this cloud hanging over your re-election.” MESSAGE US — Are you RYAN HARPER, special assistant to the president and National Security Council deputy chief of staff? We want to hear from you. And we’ll keep you anonymous! Email us at westwingtips@politico.com. Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe here!
| 
