Appeals court rules against Beale sweeps

An appeals court has sided with a federal judge who ruled last year that the city could no longer conduct sweeps to clear people off Beale Street unless public safety requires it.

U.S. District Judge Jon McCalla issued his ruling in June 2015, ostensibly ending a police practice that has existed for years in which officers “sweep” the street to clear people off or push them into clubs, usually in the early morning hours of weekends.

After McCalla's decision, the city appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. The three-member body handed down its ruling Monday upholding McCalla's decision.

"The jury found that the city implemented its street-sweeping policy without consideration of whether conditions throughout the Beale Street area posed an existing, imminent or immediate threat to public safety. Based on the jury’s findings, the district court found the policy unconstitutional under strict scrutiny, entered an injunction and ordered other equitable relief on behalf of the class," the ruling read. "For the reasons set forth below, we affirm the district court."

A primary reason the court cited was that a citizen has the right to "travel locally through public spaces and roadways." The city argued that the sweeps have only a minimal affect, if any, on that right. The appeals court disagreed.

"By contrast, the primary purpose of the Beale Street Sweep was to impede travel, and it resulted in the broad denial of access to a popular, two-block area of a public roadway and sidewalk. This is much more than an incidental or negligible inconvenience; it clearly implicates the right to travel and should be subject to heightened scrutiny," the ruling read.

This lawsuit began when two men who said they’d been caught up in two such sweeps sued. Lakendus Cole, a Memphis police officer, was arrested after he failed to leave the street during a sweep. He was also injured during the arrest, he said. A jury awarded Cole $35,000 but ruled against Leon Edmond.

City officials released this statement: "The city legal team is weighing its options including petitioning a hearing before the full court."