WKNO TRANSCRIPT
CHRISTOPHER BLANK (Host): This week, the partial results of a forensic audit of Memphis-Shelby County Schools had state officials fuming over what they called "widespread operational failures," but Democrats and local leaders say, let's take a deep breath. With us again to look at the facts is political analyst Otis Sanford. Welcome back.
OTIS SANFORD: Thank you, Chris. Good to be with you.
BLANK: Otis, here's what Lt. Gov. Randy McNally had to say on Wednesday.
RANDY MCNALLY: I just want to say this is one of the worst audit reports that I've seen in my almost 50 years in state government.
BLANK: And that's one of the nicer comments we heard. But then later in the day, we got some second opinions. Sen. London Lamar, for example, pointed out that the $3 million of questionable spending out of a budget of more than $5 billion dollars is less than what it costs to do the audit. So, let me start there. Otis, what does this report really tell us about the school system, if we just ignore the politics?
SANFORD: It does seem that the amount of money that we're talking about here is really less than -- at this point-- 1% of this huge budget. That's not to the level that I believe Randy McNally and others should be getting all apoplectic about, but it does raise some concerns about sloppy record keeping within the school system.
BLANK: We know that our local lawmakers Rep. Mark White and Sen. Brent Taylor have been waiting for this audit to make the case for their legislative fix, which is to have a hand-picked group of people from Shelby County -- no idea who yet -- to essentially run the school system. Sen. Taylor calls it an intervention, others say takeover. Does this report make the case that new unelected management is needed?
SANFORD: Well, if you listen to Brent Taylor and Mark White and Cameron Sexton and Randy McNally, yes. Their minds are already made up. They were going to do this and they needed some ammunition. I'm not sure they got everything that they wanted out of this audit. But on the other hand, you have others including the current superintendent Rod Richmond who has said that there's a way to address these issues — working with state lawmakers — that would be short of legislation that would essentially take over the schools. So it all depends on who you're talking to here. I do believe that the Republicans in the state legislature are really sort of overstating what the problems are here, and they're doing it for political reasons.
BLANK: Well, let's turn for a minute to one other issue. Maybe you're aware of the No Kings Rally last weekend downtown?
SANFORD: Yeah, yes I do. I was there early on as an observer. So yes, I am very familiar with the No Kings Rally.
BLANK: Well, right on the last leg of a march around the entertainment district, Memphis police showed up and got physical with some parade marshals. They pepper-sprayed them, arrested three of them. Police say one thing, organizers say another. But how would you rate the response from city leaders?
SANFORD: I give them a mixed response here. The day after it happened, the police department issued a statement, and I'm presuming that it was okayed by Police Chief C.J. Davis, that seemed to imply that the police acted responsibly and that the protesters did violate the law by blocking the street. And then, of course, the next day you have the mayor saying that they're going to investigate it and that the officers involved in the pepper spray incident were put on administrative leave. I'm just not sure that they handled it promptly and responsibly at this point, but we'll see what happens. I will say this Chris: based on everything that I know about this incident, yes, the march was not permitted in terms of getting a permit to do it. But three of the streets involved here were already closed. I was down there. I just believe that there should have been a way to de-escalate and defuse the situation and not let it get out of hand with pepper spray and roughing up people, and even arresting people. I don't think that was necessary because of the small amount of street space that we're talking about here.
BLANK: Videos, of course, can be interpreted differently, but to me, MPD looked rudderless on that day. As if nobody knew there was a major event planned. Even if police were legally obliged to clear the streets, I wonder if there might have been a more nuanced way to do that in a city where right around the corner from the protest, there's an entire museum about peaceful protesting.
SANFORD: Chris, I go back to another protest, I think it was 2015 or 2016 where protesters walked up on the I-40 bridge and shut down traffic there. And the then Police Director, Michael Rollins went up on the bridge, talked to the people and walked them down. There was no pepper spraying, as far as I remember. Nobody got arrested. And that's the way you de-escalate things. That was not done here in a much less dangerous environment, and I just think that the police here over-reacted, even though there was no permit for the march, and maybe if they wanted to march, maybe they should have applied for that. But again, it was an overreaction.
