Month: October 2016

The Sierra Club is appealing two permits issued from the Shelby County Health Department to the Tennessee Valley Authority that will allow them to drill into crystalline sand aquifers in order to syphon cooling water for a power plant currently under construction in Southwest Memphis.

Justin Fox Burks

TVA has filed five permits for five wells, three of which are no longer eligible for appeal. According to Tennessee chapter coordinator Scott Banbury, the power plant will need a minimum of four functional wells to draw in 3.5 million gallons daily of would-be Memphis drinking water. Should the last two permits be denied, TVA may be forced to explore alternative options.

In a letter to the Shelby County Groundwater Quality Control Board, the Sierra Club cited the board’s own regulations that they feel the potential wells will violate, particularly section 11 of the Rules and Regulations of Wells in Shelby County which reads, “Water pumped by private and/or quasi-public water supplies for residential, commercial and industrial purposes shall be limited to reasonable use.”

It’s now up to the health department to evaluate whether or not 3.5 million gallons of drinking
water a day is a “reasonable use”.

Official Black Lives Matter Memphis

A candlelight vigil honoring women of color who have lost their lives during encounters with law enforcement will be held by members of the Official Black Lives Matter Memphis chapter and grassroots organization Memphis Feminist Collective, this Thursday, October 6.

The vigil will be held at 6:00 p.m. in front the Planned Parenthood health center at 2430 Poplar
Ave.

It will be the latest example of a visible action in Memphis that is organized by two or more
social justice organizations, and according to members of both, combining
efforts is key to amplifying awareness across lines.

“We have to stand together to raise visibility,” said Briana Perry, an organizer with
BLM Memphis. “The Memphis Feminist Collective has an intersectional
approach, and so do we.”

Perry notes that the vigil is necessary because stories of women of color losing their lives in
police encounters are often left out of the media spotlight amid the coverage
of unarmed black men being killed by police.

Also integral to Thursday’s vigil is the inclusion of transgender women.

“We support women, and transgender women are women,” said Sarah Rose Cullen, an
organizer with MFC.  “They’re statistically more likely to be killed in encounters with police as compared to a cisgender white male.”

Thursday’s vigil will also call attention to the case of Bresha Meadows, the Ohio teen who
killed her allegedly abusive father and is awaiting trial where she may be
tried as an adult.

The Memphis City Council lowered the city’s charges on simple possession of marijuana Tuesday, the second city in Tennessee to do so.

Last month, council member Berlin Boyd proposed an ordinance that would give Memphis Police Department (MPD) officers a choice on charging those caught with possessing a half ounce (or less) of marijuana. Under the proposal, MPD officers could write the offender a $50 ticket from the city or they could enforce existing state rules on possession, a misdemeanor charge that comes with the possibility of up to a year in jail and a maximum $2,500 fine.

A weeks-long debate preceded Tuesday’s final vote in the Memphis City Council chamber (which was preceded by an hour-long debate there) on the measure.

Votes for the ordinance seemed to be lined up given statements from several council members, like Janis Fullilove who said “when this ordinance is, in fact, passed tonight.” Also, council member Frank Colvett who said “I know where the vote is going tonight and I understand [why that is].”

Many of those voting for the ordinance said, in speeches before the vote, that marijuana was illegal and the new ordinance would not decriminalize it. Though, the move certainly deflated the penalty for possessing marijuana here. Fullilove thought the move was a “political kickball” that used African-American males.

“People believe there is a bigger, bigger program that is in play here, Coucnilman Boyd, like in Denver, or in state of Colorado, which is a great thing” Fullilove said.

She alluded to the fact that, perhaps, moves like these opened the doors for those in the marijuana industry, like dispensary owners, to make more money, “for the greedy to become even greedier and the powerful and the wealthy to become even more powerful.”

Boyd said he proud of the ordinance, noting it “was from the heart and there are no ulterior motives, no set up. It’s just a way to help address Memphis’ problems.”

Boyd said the ordinance was ahead of the Nashville ordinance, which came last month, because the Memphis law mandates a report be given to the council by police officials on the gender and racial breakdown of who has been issued a city citation for simple possession.

He also made a comparison of those high on weed to those drunk on alcohol.

“A person on marijuana is in a very chill mode,” Boyd said. “Drunk people, they talk all over you and they slobber all over you and that’s not cool.”

Council member Patrice Robinson said she supported the ordinance because “we know there is a disparity between African-American [males] and white males, especially with this issue.”

“We no longer can keep doing the same thing we’ve done in the past to create a new reality,” Robinson said. “That does not work.”

MPD director Michael Rallings said he had concerns about the ordinance, especially the amount of marijuana concerned. He said he and his staff were able to roll 37 joints with a half ounce of weed. Counterparts in Nashville, he said, were able to roll 100.

Memphis Police Department

A slide from Rallings’ presentation to council Tuesday showed what a half ounce of weed looks like.

He said if the ordinance was passed, he’d direct his officers to continue to enforce state rules, until city courts were ready to administer the new rules. He was not sure how long that would take.