WKNO TRANSCRIPT
CHRISTOPHER BLANK (Host): As the Tennessee General Assembly heads into its home stretch, a number of Memphis specific bills are finally hitting the floor. With us to talk about their potential impact is political analyst Otis Sanford. Welcome back!
OTIS SANFORD: Thank you, Chris, my pleasure.
BLANK: Well, let's start with the two lawmakers whose names are attached to a number of these bills: State Sen. Brent Taylor and Rep. John Gillespie. Why do they have so much power in a county where their views do not reflect a vast majority of voters?
SANFORD: Because their views reflect a vast majority, if not all, of the Republicans in the state legislature, and that's all that matters. They feel no reason, really, to try to represent the majority of Shelby County residents.
BLANK: Let's start with one bill, the Memphis Safe Task Force Accountability Act. These lawmakers argue that all it does is say, "Look, if the DA's office refuses to prosecute a suspect here to the fullest extent of the law, a report has to be sent to state political leaders. Does this look like a fair kind of accountability to you?
SANFORD: It's an onerous attempt to micro-manage what the district attorney's office here is doing, Chris. And this is just one of many oppressive bills. I call what the legislature is doing now -- engaging in a smorgasbord of silliness. But this is just one of them. I mean, you're just putting a burden on the DA's office, which is political in nature and unnecessary.
BLANK: Another of Taylor's proposals passed in the House and is going to soon be taken up by the Senate allows Republicans to remove the Shelby County DA from office if they don't like his decisions. And that's one reason Taylor wants these reports. Is he right about this: that Shelby County voters can't be trusted to elect our own public officials?
SANFORD: That's an easy answer. No, he's not right about that. DAs should have the leeway to decide what they can effectively prosecute in court.
BLANK: And this would only apply to Shelby County, which is why many Democrats are criticizing this bill. No other county in the entire state could the government come in and, say, erase a position that is elected by the voters of that county.
SANFORD: Absolutely. And that's unconstitutional. It violates the home rule that we have in the state. It's going to wind up probably being a court fight if this passes, Chris.
BLANK: Taylor also wants Republican state lawmakers to take control of the Memphis-Shelby County Schools system. And this week a Senate Conference Committee was created to hash out the final details of his takeover bill. This is a slightly unusual way of getting this pushed through. What's his strategy here?
SANFORD: Well, his strategy is to have this decision made with a very small group of lawmakers so that it would limit or even remove any public debate or floor debate by others who would be opposed to it. This is designed primarily, in my view, to ramrod this through without vehement opposition.
BLANK: Finally, Republicans also have their sites on transgender people and immigrants, specifically trying to root out where they might be hiding in the state. One bill sponsored by Taylor wants to track clinics where transgender people get medical care. Another, which is not by Taylor, would track where undocumented children attend school, so that ICE can catch and deport them. Taylor says, you know, these are part of making Memphis better. How would they do that?
SANFORD: You see a pattern here, I assume by now, don't you, Chris?
BLANK: I feel you see my pattern.
SANFORD: I see the pattern. First of all, Taylor is a busy bee, notching as many bills as he possibly can and getting as much publicity around them as he possibly can. But these are just more examples of invading privacy, unfairly punishing immigrant children who should not be part of a political crusade. So, the pattern here is invasion of privacy, violating HIPPA laws, and just needlessly going after people for political gain.
BLANK: Is this position that you have, Otis, kind of a liberal position, or is this a Shelby County resident position?
SANFORD: It is a position of fairness, equity, common decency. My views are based on what's fair. And what's just and what's right. And what I see happening is the height of unfairness, pushing people around just because you can and you don't want to have any debate about it. Now, I did see that Sen.Taylor said he had a discussion with protesters outside the capital and as a result of that, they changed some of the language that would have identified transgender people, especially in small counties and would certainly subject them to problems. But overall, Republicans are unwilling to listen to anything related to fairness. That's just not their DNA.
