Tiffany Michelle Simmons has her hands full. With all the running around, she’s had to trade her six-inch heels for Nike Air Jordans. The attorney and media personality has been on a relentless pursuit advocating for clients who have been on the receiving end of police injustice. She’s approaching her seventh anniversary as an attorney. A proverbial voice for the voiceless, she’s never lost a case that has gone to trial.
“We have a major problem when there is no compassion and no empathy for a human life,” offers the criminal and civil defense lawyer and owner of Simmons Law. Simmons admits she’s experienced anxiety attacks following the deaths of Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, and the five Dallas officers (Lorne Ahrens, Michael Krol, Michael J. Smith, Brent Thompson and Patrick Zamarripa), who were murdered at the hands of the sniper Micah Xavier Johnson.
Simmons’ client, 68-year-old Kevin Moran, was arrested for obstructing traffic near Atlanta’s Lenox Square Mall on Monday evening, July 11, 2016. Moran was one of the thousands of citizens who came out on the fifth night of protest to shed light on growing police brutality against Black people. Moran suffered a dislocated shoulder when his hands were handcuffed behind his back. Atlanta Police confirm Moran was arrested and claimed to be suffering from a pre-existing injury. Adding insult to injury, Moran was placed in a hot, unmarked van with the windows rolled up for what felt to him 30 minutes.
“The police are not being held accountable. The federal government nor the state nor the local government are being held accountable for the police brutality against men and women of color in this country,” Moran said from his hospital bed at Grady Memorial Hospital on Tuesday when he met with 11ALIVE.
Moran was handcuffed to his hospital bed and later released on a signature bond and is recovering at home. He was prescribed morphine for the pain. Atlanta Police Department’s Office of Professional Standards is reviewing this matter.
“It was sickening for me to witness the videos and know a child witnessed the murder of her father and others see it on the internet. Something has to change in the police culture. There is no more that we can do as minorities. How much more can we comply? We comply and still get murdered,” Simmons points out. “It takes a lot more White people to take a stand versus us standing by ourselves. A gorilla at a zoo gets more attention and support than a man who was murdered in front of his toddler daughter. Simmons Law … we are the legal voice of this generation. We are switching things up. Hopefully, we will make an impact.”
Simmons then listed tips she believes will lead to change: “We need to support each other. We need to invest in our community. Buy from minority-owned businesses. Support your kid at their PTA. Get to know each other so we can know, love and respect each other. Men and women – respect each other. Protest at police training facilities. Methods and training haven’t changed in 20 years. An officer shared during a recent speaking engagement that officers don’t have a lot of training. Training simulations use Hispanic and Black characters for traffic stops but for drunken/DUI stops, they use White characters — profiling begins in training.”
“My client is not just a number on a piece of paper. My client is a student. My client has family … has a job,” she offers. To drive this point home, Simmons goes the extra mile for her clients and crafts a narrative by producing their social biography videos, showing them interacting with family, friends, going to work and as contributing members to society. “I equip the DA and judge with what is needed to help my clients. It helps with sentencing, and getting charges dropped and reduced to get them out of the system. Once you get into the system, you get blackballed for life. As soon as you get a record, you are essentially screwed.”
The Grand Rapids, Michigan native closes, “My hope is that we will come together. We will unite and start to support each other more than what we do.”
Simmons is a graduate of Florida A&M University’s business school and Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School.
Visit Simmons Law at www.slfirmllc.com, email [email protected] or call 1 (888) 917-8387.
