WKNO TRANSCRIPT
CHRISTOPHER BLANK (Host): This week, Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris offered some of the strongest criticisms yet of the Memphis Safe Task Force by a public official. He said the county could take legal action over a growing number of reports of racial profiling. With us to talk about that is political analyst Otis Sanford. Welcome back.
OTIS SANFORD: Thank you, Chris. Good to be with you.
BLANK: Otis, Gov. Bill Lee says there's been at least 850 arrests of "violent criminals and known gang members" so far. In reality, many of those were administrative warrants, or immigration arrests. Mayor Harris said he's "uncomfortable" with the reports of Latinos being pulled over and ID'd. Do you think some initial supporters of the task force here might have felt a little differently if they knew ICE was going to be such a major part of this operation?
SANFORD: I'm not sure that I do think that, Chris. The ones who are highly supportive of this, they are supportive of it no matter what. And they really don't care that ICE is a part of it, or whether they knew ICE was a part of it, they are actually happy because they want to see a crackdown no matter how much harm that it may be doing to people who are not violent criminals. And you're absolutely right. Gov. Lee said pretty much the number one focus here is on violent crime, but that's not the case. And while some people say, "who cares as long as you're getting catching people and putting them away?" That's not really going to be helpful with this whole operation.
BLANK: Local leaders like to use this word "collaboration," but one interesting facet, I think, is that each law enforcement agency is bringing their own rules to Memphis streets. For example, MPD has limitations on what can instigate a high-speed chase. State troopers do not have that policy. And so far, there've been upwards of 30 chases in the past couple of weeks and at least six crashes that we know of. And I think this kind of gets to the heart of why a lot of Memphians might be torn. You know, there's this question: is it better for public safety to limit unnecessary high-speed chases or is it better to catch the bad guys? So, what do you think are some factors playing into local public opinion for and against the task force?
SANFORD: I understand the local police's positions on this. Is it really worth chasing somebody on a misdemeanor? But at the same time, if somebody is willing to run at high speeds away from police, you probably can figure out that they are wanted for something much more serious than what they are being stopped for. And so that is a mixed bag there, in terms of the sentiment. I tend lean on the side of not putting the public in danger if it's really just a misdemeanor or something like a tinted license plate. We need to think twice about whether we want to be chasing people all over our roadways for that.
BLANK: Well, let's talk for a second about Law & Order. Do you know this show?
SANFORD: I know it quite well. I've watched it for years and actually my daughter is a huge fan. She's an attorney by the way.
BLANK: Well, then you know that the format always starts with catching a criminal and then the second half is the justice side. But if there were a Memphis version of the show, we might have some plot holes in the second half. And I wonder if you might offer some spoilers for our viewers at home.
SANFORD: Absolutely. First of all, on the show, nobody ever talks about, "Well, we got a problem here keeping that person in jail because of overcrowding." That is the issue here. And the spoiler alert here is going to be nobody has figured out a way to deal with the overcrowding at the Shelby County Jail, how to adjudicate these cases in a speedy way. You don't have enough prosecutors to handle these cases going through the courts. And so what you're going to find here on the order side of this... is disorder. And people having their cases dismissed because of the failure of law enforcement and the judicial system to handle these cases in a timely way.
BLANK: It seems like this could fulfill some of the prophecies from critics of the DA's office who've already been saying they're going to open the jails, they're going to free these people and let them go.
SANFORD: You're already hearing that! I'm hearing it from entrenched Republicans who will find anything to criticize DA Steve Mulroy for. But look at the position that he's in. We've seen well over 50% increase in arrests since the surge started. And there was already a backlog. So, I really feel for him, and it's going to fulfill the I- told-you-so's about DA Mulroy who is getting attacked both locally, statewide, and now at the federal government. They're calling him a George Soros DA ,and he just can't win in this situation.
BLANK: Well, I think it would make for some compelling television, but instead we're just going to have to settle for our conversations about it in the future!
SANFORD: I think we will, Chris.
