WKNO TRANSCRIPT
CHRISTOPHER BLANK (Host) A handful of Memphis and Shelby County officials have signed on to a lawsuit in the hopes that the courts will find one aspect of the Memphis Safe Task Force unconstitutional: the National Guard deployment. 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, about 160 guardsmen are currently deployed here, which is a fairly small piece of the Memphis Safe Task Force. Many of the concerns we've heard from community leaders have been aimed at other agencies like ICE and the Border Patrol. So why is the National Guard such a focus for Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris and City Council member JB Smiley and the other plaintiffs in this lawsuit?
SANFORD: Well, I think for them and others, the National Guard just represents military occupation. And even though it's a very small number, certainly compared to what was in Washington, D.C., it's that military presence, and plus the fact that they never asked for this and it's getting shoved down the community's throat.
BLANK: There seems to be a new conversation happening over culture and politics that I want to ask you about. As urban residents, we've maybe grown accustomed to what I'll call everyday law breaking. You know, you're driving around and seeing drivers smoking marijuana or the sports car cars weaving through traffic. But it was just reported that about half of the current arrests are now being made by state troopers, and the bulk of their job is traffic stops. And on one hand, as a city, we do worry about racial profiling. On the other, there does seem to be some interest in having less tolerance for bad behavior in public, maybe creating a new normal. And I wonder if you think, Otis, politically, that folks are are kind of moving to the center on this. Or is it the opposite? Is the task force itself just too polarizing?
SANFORD: Well, Chris, I think you just raised the key issue around this entire thing. And that is the level of increased arrests for, you know, routine behavior that is also clogging the jail, clogging the court system. That is a concern for a lot of different people. I will say to your question about are we moving to the center with regard to less tolerance of some activity that we have sort of excused in the past: I think to a great degree we are. I certainly don't like weaving in and out of traffic with these sports cars because that presents a major health risk for law-abiding motorists. So you raised a really good question here. What is the level of intolerance that we are accepting here? And the fact that there are so many arrests that people are clogging up the court system and making it a real nightmare for people who have to process all of these suspects.
BLANK: Well, turning to a couple of other issues, Otis. You wrote a very informative column this week about the local Democratic nominees for Congress: Steve Cohen, the incumbent, and his challenger, Justin Pearson. But there was a little kerfuffle -- I guess, you could call it --this week stemming from the No King's protest. Pearson got to speak, Cohen didn't. It became a thing. Considering how alike they are politically, did this incident tell you anything about how this campaign may evolve?
SANFORD: Yeah, I think it did. What we're seeing here is for the first time a very clear dividing line between Baby Boomers in politics and millennials in politics. As far as the kerfuffle that you talk about, I do think that perhaps because he is the sitting congressman, he should have been allowed to at least speak for a few minutes. But, you know, both sides have their stories about this. But beyond that No King's rally, the issue here is going to be will Justin Pearson be able to mobilize and energize young voters enough to overtake a formidable opponent who has actually held elected office in one form or another since 1978.
BLANK: Finally, Otis, Shelby County Clerk Wanda Herbert has, once again, been in the news for not paying rent on a space occupied by the clerk's office. This time it's in Millington. Well, what's the reasoning this time and and does it make any sense to you?
SANFORD: I don't think anything that happens with Wanda Herbert has made sense for years. She claims that because she never agreed to this rent agreement that she doesn't owe any rent and she is refusing to pay. The fact is the county commission approved this rent agreement in Millington. They need a clerk's office in Millington. It serves a lot of people other than just people who live in Millington. Wanda is sort of holding to her guns here. It's just another example of the dysfunction and the disconnect between her and pretty much everybody else in county government and even in suburban government. And I'm going to be honest with you, Chris, I can't wait until next September when we do have a new clerk and hopefully we won't have this kind of rancor that has been going on now for almost four years.
