WKNO TRANSCRIPT
CHRISTOPHER BLANK (Host): The new session of the Tennessee General Assembly kicks off next week. Memphis government, especially the school district and justice system is, once again, in the crosshairs of local Republicans. With us to talk about those and other issues is political analyst Otis Sanford. Hey there!
OTIS SANFORD: Hi Chris, my pleasure to be with you.
BLANK: Otis, before we get to law making, let's start with some law breaking by so-called law enforcers. This last week marked the third anniversary of the death of Tyre Nichols, the man beaten to death by five Memphis police officers. That same day, the country watched a new video of an ICE officer in Minnesota shoot and kill a woman during a traffic stop. Is there a message here for our local leaders who have been dealing with ICE in Memphis?
SANFORD: Well, I think the primary message is for local leaders to first put aside the partisan bickering about any of this. We're talking about human lives here. Show some leadership in making sure that the community is treated fairly. And that includes immigrants. Let's make sure that they are not mistreated in the ways that it appears that they are.
BLANK: And we learned this week that 90% of the immigration arrests that have been made in Shelby County since the Memphis Safe Task Force began were from random traffic stops, like the one in Minnesota. These are agents who are cursing at people, grabbing them in their cars -- numerous allegations here in Memphis of racial profiling. Only about 10% of these arrests were from warrants, that is, going after specific people. What does this data say about the kind of law enforcement taking place on our streets?
SANFORD: Well, I think you just said it. There's pretextual traffic stops going on. There's racial profiling going on, and it's going on with impunity here, because even if local police are not in favor of and certainly not involved in a lot of this, their hands are tied here. But I support monitoring what these officers, these agents, what the Task Force is doing, even if they like it or don't like it.
BLANK: In the wake of this shooting in Minneapolis, the president and his supporters have been defending this killing. And for anyone interested in a deeper dive on this question, I do want to mention some stories by WKNO and the Institute for Public Service Reporting -- I'll put a link to it on our website -- But there is a Supreme Court decision that bars law enforcement from shooting fleeing suspects. And that decision stems from a police killing that took place in Memphis in the 1970s. So, however this case moves forward, our city's civil rights legacy is connected to it. Otis, what are our local leaders facing if or when something like this happens here?
SANFORD: It is important for our local leaders to speak out and say that we will not tolerate that. Certainly, the local police department is on notice with that Supreme Court case from the 70s that you are not allowed to shoot people who are fleeing. So, I just hope that that message is spread around. And I just hope that we all can stay safe as a result of it.
BLANK: So there are several Memphis-related issues on the General Assembly's agenda. State Sen. Brent Taylor has proposed a bill called the Memphis Safe Task Force Accountability Act which requires our local DA to report directly to state leaders whenever prosecutors decide, essentially, not to throw the book at someone arrested by the Task Force. What is the point of this bill?
SANFORD: The point of this bill, Chris, is to institute a takeover of the local district attorney's office, and trying to micromanage and undermine the discretion that district attorneys have to decide cases on their merit. But now they are trying to make sure that our DA is under the thumb of the legislature -- the Republican controlled legislature -- to do what they want him to do rather than look at cases on a case-by-case basis, and make the decisions that are proper.
BLANK: And speaking of takeovers, Otis, it looks like lawmakers will be pushing for a proposed state oversight board for Memphis-Shelby County Schools. They promised to do this last year. Do you think a takeover will have a better chance this year?
SANFORD: Oh, I absolutely do, especially when you look at the people pushing it. Rep. Mark White, State Sen. Brent Taylor: they now seem to be be on the same page about how to get this done. The current Speaker of the House, Cameron Sexton, is in favor of it. This is an election year. So, the appetite to flex their muscles in Nashville at the expense of our Memphis-Shelby County School system is ripe for the taking here. Yes, I think this has a great chance of passing, even though the locals have tried to address this issue by putting the seats of the school board on the ballot. Now, of course, that's in litigation itself, so we don't know how that's going to turn out. But yes, this has a great chance of passing, just because the Republican controlled legislature wants it.
