Two years after being sentenced to prison for breaking federal campaign finance laws, former Tennessee state Sen. Brian Kelsey (R-Germantown) is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse his conviction on a technicality.
Kelsey, who served in the state House and Senate, filed a request Dec. 2 for the nation’s highest court to review a decision by the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, which refused to reverse his guilty plea and grant a trial after U.S. District Court Judge Waverly Crenshaw sentenced him to serve 21 months in prison.
Kelsey’s filing says federal prosecutors violated his plea agreement at the sentencing hearing two years ago, in part by advocating for a harsher punishment, even though he received less time than he could have under federal law after Crenshaw took character witnesses into account.
Kelsey pleaded guilty in November 2022 to funneling more than $100,000 from his state campaign account through two political action committees to the American Conservative Union, which bought digital and radio advertising to bolster his failed bid for a congressional seat in 2016.
Represented by Nashville attorney Joy Boyd Longnecker of Barnes & Thornburg, the fourth change of legal counsel in the case, Kelsey says the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals applied the wrong type of review when it denied his request to renege on the guilty plea and go to trial.
Kelsey says federal prosecutors agreed not to seek a harsher penalty for perjury or obstruction of justice — after Kelsey backed away from his guilty plea — but then contradicted themselves at the sentencing hearing when questioned by the judge.
Initially, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the 21-month prison sentence and ordered Kelsey to report Oct. 1 to a federal facility in Ashland, Kentucky. But then it gave him a 90-day reprieve allowing him to file a petition for a writ of certiorari with the Supreme Court. He is to report to prison if the high court refuses to hear the case.
Kelsey, who has been living in Lexington, Kentucky, conspired with Josh Smith, owner of The Standard dinner club in downtown Nashville, former state Rep. Jeremy Durham and Republican supporter Andy Miller to run the money from his state account through The Standard political action committee and Citizens 4 Ethics in Government to cover up the movement of funds. The American Conservative Union then received the money and used it to buy radio and digital ads to back Kelsey’s campaign.
Federal campaign finance regulations prohibit state campaign money from being used for federal races, mainly because it is raised under different rules.
Smith pleaded guilty in connection with the case and was fined $250,000 and sentenced to five years of probation after agreeing to cooperate with federal prosecutors.
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com.
This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters
An effort to oust Memphis-Shelby County Schools Superintendent Marie Feagins was put on hold Tuesday night when a divided school board voted to push the debate to next month.
In a 5-4 vote, the board referred a resolution to oust Feagins over allegations of “professional misconduct” to a committee meeting in January.
Feagins forcefully denied the allegations near the end of a heated board meeting that was repeatedly disrupted, describing what she had heard as “meritless and baseless.”
The resolution to terminate Feagins’ contract — brought by board Chair Joyce Dorse-Coleman — claims she violated the terms and must be removed immediately. The resolution alleges that Feagins:
• Misled the board and did not present evidence of her statement, made in a work session, that district employees were paid $1 million in overtime for time not worked.
• Accepted a more than $45,000 donation without board approval, then misrepresented what happened in violation of board policy.
• Was dishonest with the board and public about a federal grant and a missed deadline.
Board members dissatisfied with Feagins’ performance have aired those concerns previously, a clear signal that the relationship between the superintendent and board had eroded. But the effort to oust her Tuesday fell short after a meeting in which Feagins supporters voiced their anger at the prospect of her being terminated less than nine months after she took the job.
When given the microphone, Feagins said she had yet to see the resolution and heard about the effort to end her contract from the media after the meeting was announced Monday.
“I’ve said time and time again, if I’m ever the barrier I will leave,” Feagins said. “What I’ve heard is meritless and baseless. I have been transparent about it and can refute everything that’s been stated.”
She added: “My desire to be transparent has been weaponized against me.” She also referenced working with an attorney depending on how things proceeded.
Dorse-Coleman said in introducing the resolution: “The board believes that Dr. Feagins has engaged in conduct detrimental to the district and the families it serves.”
Board members Michelle McKissack, Amber Huett-Garcia, and Tamarques Porter spoke out against the resolution and fought efforts to push through a vote on it Tuesday night.
“Let’s not get distracted. This is a distraction,” McKissack said.
“This is foolish,” Huett-Garcia said. “We’re not perfect here, but if we do this tonight, we are saying to the public we are not willing to do the hard work.”
Other board members, however, were resolute in wanting to end Feagins’ tenure. Board member Sable Otey said there have been complaints about how MSCS is run since August.
Board members McKissack, Huett-Garcia, Porter, Dorse-Coleman, and Keith Williams voted to move the discussion to committee in January.
Dorse-Coleman was the deciding vote and said to reporters after the meeting she wanted to “keep it fair” by giving the district time to look over the facts.
“There’s a disconnect and it’s a very strong disconnect that our superintendent has created,” she said.
When asked if any of these concerns were brought to Feagins during an evaluation, Dorse-Coleman said the evaluation was not completed because “when people were trying to talk to her, they didn’t get a chance to.”
More than a hundred Memphians attended Tuesday’s meeting, many of them cheering Feagins as she walked into the auditorium and booing board members.
Dorse-Coleman said at the meeting that 57 people were signed up for the public comment portion; the board reduced the time limit from three minutes for each speaker to one minute. Nearly all public comments were in support of the superintendent. Some speakers asked the board to postpone the vote.
The drama around Feagins comes as the district faces serious academic and financial challenges — and just as it was seeking to restore community trust after previous leadership turnover and a protracted 18-month process to find a replacement.
The board hired Feagins in February and agreed to a four-year contract that paid her $325,000 a year, starting April 1. If the board fired her without cause, she’d be due a severance payment of about $500,000.
Feagins previously held a leadership position at the Detroit Public Schools Community District. She was chosen from a field of three finalists to be the first outside leader of Memphis-Shelby County Schools since the district was created through a merger a decade ago.
During the interview process, Feagins explained how she used data to help get more Detroit students on track to graduate, spoke of empowering teachers, and described efforts to increase parent engagement by translating education jargon into understandable terms.
The board and Feagins clashed early, however, over her elimination of about 1,100 positions over the summer, her allegations of overtime abuse by district employees, her response to school air conditioning problems, and her plans to close or consolidate schools under a broader facilities overhaul.
While Feagins gave board members detailed, data-heavy reports during their meetings, several suggested she was not transparent or collaborative enough about the big decisions and shifts she made.
At the same time, many community members were glad to see Feagins taking steps to shake up a district they viewed as top-heavy and in need of significant reforms. Speakers on Tuesday night praised Feagins as a visionary and connector, while threatening to recall board members.
Earlier Tuesday, McKissack released a statement asking her colleagues to delay the vote, citing community support for Feagins.
“I believe we should give Dr. Feagins the opportunity to address any concerns directly and collaboratively,” McKissack said in the statement. “This moment calls for patience and dialogue in the best interest of our students and families.”
Dorse-Coleman said after the meeting that community support for Feagins did not influence her tie-breaking vote.
“What I brought tonight, I still feel that way,” Dorse-Coleman said, referring to the resolution. “She has not properly communicated a lot of things with us.”
The district has been beset by leadership turmoil going back to at least August 2022, when then-Superintendent Joris Ray resigned amid an investigation into allegations that he abused his power and violated district policies. The board agreed to pay him a severance of nearly $500,000 and ended the investigation.
District administrator Toni Williams took over as interim superintendent, pledged she wouldn’t seek the job on a permanent basis, changed her mind and applied for the role, then backed out of the process. The district restarted its national search in June 2023, after the board agreed on a fresh set of job qualifications and criteria.
The school board has a different look than it did when Feagins was hired: November’s election resulted in four of its nine members being replaced.
The latest turmoil could reignite efforts by state leaders and lawmakers to seize some control of the Memphis district. Earlier this year, a Memphis lawmaker floated a proposal to expand the school board with additional members appointed by state officials.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): If you worked eight hours per day, seven days a week, it would take you 300 years to count to the number one billion. I don’t recommend you try that. I also discourage you from pursuing any other trivial tasks that have zero power to advance your long-term dreams. In a similar spirit, I will ask you to phase out minor longings that distract you from your major longings. Please, Aries, I also beg you to shed frivolous obsessions that waste energy you should instead devote to passionate fascinations. The counsel I’m offering here is always applicable, of course, but you especially need to heed it in the coming months.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): In 1951, minister and author Norman Vincent Peale was working on a new book. As he wrote, he would regularly read passages to his wife Ruth. She liked it a lot, but he was far less confident in its worth. After a while, he got so discouraged he threw the manuscript in the trash. Unbeknownst to him, Ruth retrieved it and stealthily showed it to her husband’s publisher, who loved it. The book went on to sell five million copies. Its title? The Power of Positive Thinking. I hope that in 2025, you will benefit from at least one equivalent to Ruth in your life, Taurus. Two or three would be even better. You need big boosters and fervent supporters. If you don’t have any, go round them up.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): I love how colorfully the creek next to my house expresses itself. As high tide approaches, it flows south. When low tide is on its way, it flows north. The variety of its colors is infinite, with every shade and blend of green, grey, blue, and brown. It’s never the same shape. Its curves and width are constantly shifting. Among the birds that enhance its beauty are mallards, sandpipers, herons, grebes, egrets, and cormorants. This magnificent body of water has been a fascinating and delightful teacher for me. One of my wishes for you in 2025, Gemini, is that you will commune regularly with equally inspiring phenomena. I also predict you will do just that. Extra beauty should be on your agenda!
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Just 81 billionaires have commandeered half of the world’s wealth. Even worse, those greedy hoarders are usually taxed the least. That’s hard to believe! How is it even possible that such a travesty has come to pass? I also wonder if many of us non-billionaires have milder versions of these proclivities. Are there a few parts of me that get most of the goodies that my life provides, while other parts of me get scant attention and nourishment? The answer is yes. For example, the part of me that loves to be a creative artist receives much of my enthusiasm, while the part of me that enjoys socializing gets little juice. How about you, Cancerian? I suggest you explore this theme in the coming weeks and months. Take steps to achieve greater parity between the parts of you that get all they need and the parts of you that don’t.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Anthropologist Robin Dunbar theorizes that most of us have limits to our social connections. Typically, our closest circle includes five loved ones. We may also have 15 good friends, 50 fond allies, 150 meaningful contacts, and 1,500 people we know. If you are interested in expanding any of these spheres, Leo, the coming months will be an excellent time to do so. In addition, or as an alternative, you might also choose to focus on deepening the relationships you have with existing companions and confederates.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Uncle Tom’s Cabin was the best-selling novel of the 19th century. It was written by a Virgo, Harriet Beecher Stowe. Her story about the enslavement of African Americans in the U.S. was not only popular. It awakened many people to the intimate horrors of the calamity — and ultimately played a key role in energizing the abolitionist movement. I believe you are potentially capable of achieving your own version of that dual success in the coming months. You could generate accomplishments that are personally gratifying even as they perform a good service for the world.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): According to my reading of the astrological omens, you will be teased with an abundance of invitations to grow in 2025. You will be encouraged to add to your current skills and expertise. You will be nudged to expand your understanding of what exactly you are doing here on planet Earth. That’s not all, Libra! You will be pushed to dissolve shrunken expectations, transcend limitations, and learn many new lessons. Here’s my question: Will you respond with full heart and open mind to all these possibilities? Or will you sometimes neglect and avoid them? I dare you to embrace every challenge that interests you.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Scorpio-born Rudolf Karel was a 20th-century Czech composer who created 17 major works, including symphonies and operas. His work was interrupted when Nazi Germany invaded and occupied his homeland. He joined the Czech resistance, but was eventually arrested and confined to Pankrác Prison. There he managed to compose a fairy-tale opera, Three Hairs of the Wise Old Man. No musical instruments were available in jail, of course, so he worked entirely in his imagination and wrote down the score using toilet paper and charcoal. I firmly believe you will not be incarcerated like Karel in the coming months, Scorpio. But you may have to be extra resourceful and resilient as you find ways to carry out your best work. I have faith that you can do it!
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): What is the perfect gift I could offer you this holiday season? I have decided on a large square black box with nothing inside. There would be a gold ribbon around it bearing the words, “The Fruitful Treasure of Pregnant Emptiness.” With this mysterious blessing, I would be fondly urging you to purge your soul of expectations and assumptions as you cruise into 2025. I would be giving you the message, “May you nurture a freewheeling voracity for novel adventures and fresh experiences.”
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): One of my paramount wishes for you in 2025 is this: You will deepen your devotion to taking good care of yourself. You will study and learn more about the sweet secrets to keeping yourself in prime mental and physical health. I’m not suggesting you have been remiss about this sacred work in the past. But I am saying that this will be a favorable time to boost your knowledge to new heights about what precisely keeps your body and emotions in top shape. The creative repertoire of self-care that you cultivate in the coming months will serve you well for the rest of your long life.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): To fulfill your life mission, to do what you came here to Earth to do, you must carry out many tasks. One of the most important is to offer your love with hearty ingenuity. What are the best ways to do that? Where should you direct your generous care and compassion? And which recipients of your blessings are likely to reciprocate in ways that are meaningful to you? While Jupiter is cruising through Gemini, as it is now and until June 2025, life will send you rich and useful answers to these questions. Be alert!
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Mysteries of the past will be extra responsive to your investigations in 2025. Persistent riddles from your life’s earlier years may be solvable. I encourage you to be aggressive in collecting previously inaccessible legacies. Track down missing heirlooms and family secrets. Just assume that ancestors and dead relatives have more to offer you than ever before. If you have been curious about your genealogy, the coming months will be a good time to explore it. I wish you happy hunting as you search for the blessings of yesteryear — and figure out how to use them in the present.
Jeffrey Dunham and wife Tracey (Photo: courtesy Jeffrey Dunham)
Jeffrey Dunham did a lot of construction when he was chef/owner of The Grove Grill. But he was using ingredients you could eat. Like meat and fish.
Now, he’s constructing things with ingredients you wouldn’t eat. Like wood and paint.
For the past six months, Dunham, who closed The Grove Grill in 2020, has been working on woodworking, plumbing, and painting jobs with his buddy Ben Homolka of Quality Painting. He’s also been looking for places to eat lunch under $10.
“Most of his business is out in the Cordova-Bartlett area,” Dunham says. “So, every day it’s lunchtime and he likes to sit down and eat, so we just started going out to eat.”
It wasn’t anything planned days in advance. “It was just, ‘Okay. Let’s go get lunch.’ And you take a break and get in the car. ‘Where do you want to go?’ ‘I don’t know. Where do you want to go?’ ‘I don’t know. Where do you want to go?’”
Dunham says, “Being an interested observer in the restaurant business and industry, I started evaluating these places. With inflation and all the cost pressures that restaurants have, it’s tough to keep your prices down. As a customer, it’s quite a lot to go out and eat a $20 lunch every day.”
Dunham began looking for lunches under $10. And he found them. “I don’t know if I consider it a challenge. It’s not necessarily a budgetary motivation, but it’s fun to find places like that. Especially independents.”
He was happily surprised to find a great deal at TJ Mulligan’s. “You get two fried pork chops, a couple of sides, and a couple of rolls. And it’s a well-prepared, quality product.”
Dunham said, “Wow. Look at this. I can’t believe this is such a reasonable price.”
The pork chops were a half to three-quarters of an inch thick. They were seasoned with flour and maybe a little cornstarch because “there was some crispness to it.”
Dunham changes up his sides, which include a spinach casserole. “Their rolls are very good, as well. But, yeah, it’s just a well-done meat-and-three kind of meal.”
Dunham discovered another lunch under $10 at My Favorite Place. “It’s a Hispanic restaurant,” says Dunham, who’s known the owner Dennis Zamora for a long time.”
Dunham ordered one chile relleno for $9.99. “I love my grandma’s. She used to make them for me.”
The ones at My Favorite Place also are great, Dunham says. “They are roasted poblano chilis stuffed with cheese and typically pan-fried in an egg white batter.”
It has a “rich chili tomato sauce” on top, he says.
Dunham also likes the chili seasoning on top of the chips. “Then just a simple fresh picante salsa, which is, again, great.
“Everything I had over there is always on point,” he adds.
Waldo’s Chicken & Beer is another lunch favorite. “You can get three chicken tenders for $9.99.”
The tenders come with fresh hand-cut fries and a drink. “They have several cases of potatoes in the dining room.”
And, he says, “Their fried chicken is solid.”
Dunham was pleasantly surprised when he discovered Abbay’s. He thought it was a chain until he learned it was locally owned. “They’ve been going at it for a long time.”
“You can have chicken-fried steak and a side for under 10 bucks,” he says. “Apparently, a lot of folks in the area come and get their sides for the holidays.”
Dunham can see where Abbay’s could have been designed as a chain restaurant. “It’s set up like that. You order and it’s ready in five minutes. Again, good side, good center of the plate, and great rolls. It’s a classic meat-and-three. Bookend meat-and-threes here with Abbay’s and TJ Mulligan’s.”
In addition to local eating spots, Dunham says they’ve tried “some chain places that are solid for $10.”
Chipotle Mexican Grill is one of them. “You can get three tacos that are enormous for $10. I generally eat just two of them and maybe have another one in the afternoon.”
Serving lunch under $10 isn’t difficult, Dunham says. “Lunches are not all that expensive. But it costs more money to do some things. They are trying to achieve a price point and selling that price point. At every one of the restaurants you go into, you can always get something more expensive: ‘Let me have the hamburger and onion rings.’ All of a sudden you spend $15. The ultimate objective is revenue. And sustainable revenue.”
Asked why he closed The Grove Grill, which he opened in 1997, Dunham says, “It shut down for Covid and we just never reopened.”
Dunham was one of the owners of Magnolia & May with his son Chip and daughter-in-law Amanda until Chip bought him out. Jeffrey also did a lot of the physical work on the restaurant before it opened, including knocking out a wall and putting in a bar. He and Chip built all the tables and chairs.
Construction isn’t something new to Jeffrey. “When I was a kid, I worked for a contractor. But that was a long time ago.”
He also worked on his grandfather’s ranch. “Whatever we needed to do.”
The only similarity between construction work and cooking is maybe the “prep work.” Like sanding the walls before painting, which is akin to cleaning a case of Brussels sprouts before cooking them.
Jeffrey still cooks elaborate meals from time to time. He and his wife Tracey recently drove to Jasper, Alabama, where he prepared a “Chamber of Commerce sit-down dinner for 30” for a good friend. “Tracey and I joked about how it wouldn’t be the Christmas season if we didn’t have at least one 40 top.”
By the way, customers could eat for under $10 at one point at The Grove Grill. “When we first opened, our hamburger was $9.13 But, as a rule, most of our stuff was over 10 bucks.”
The 2024 presidential election results by precinct (Photo: Courtesy Don Johnson)
The Shelby County Republican Party is scheduled to hold its biennial convention in January, and the party has a bona fide chairmanship race on its hands.
One candidate is Bangladesh-born Naser Fazlullah, manager of a food-and-beverages firm and the local party’s vice chair, who has been highly active in Republican outreach efforts over the years. Most unusually, he professes a desire to “bring both parties together” for the benefit of Shelby County and has numerous friends both inside and outside GOP ranks.
The other candidate is insurance executive Worth Morgan, the former city council member who in 2022 ran unsuccessfully for county mayor and had been rumored as a possible candidate for Memphis mayor the next year before deciding not to make the race.
Both candidates are running as the heads of slates for a variety of other party offices.
Morgan’s campaign in particular, run under the slogan “Revive,” is in the kind of high gear normally associated with expensive major public races and has employed a barrage of elaborate online endorsements from such well-known party figures as state Representative Mark White, state Senator Brent Taylor, and conservative media commentator Todd Starnes.
The GOP convention is scheduled for January 25th at The Venue at Bartlett Station.
• Morgan’s choice of the campaign motif “Revival” is interesting. Not too long ago, Republicans dominated county government, but demographics now heavily favor Democrats in countywide voting. As one indication of that, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris outdistanced the GOP’s Donald Trump in November by a margin of 201,759 to Trump’s 118,917.
In a series of post-election analyses, however, veteran Republican analyst Don Johnson, formerly of Memphis and now with the Stone River Group of Nashville, has demonstrated the GOP’s supremacy virtually everywhere else in Tennessee. He has published precinct-specific maps of statewide election results showing areas won by Trump in red. Patches of Democratic blue show up only sporadically in these graphics and are largely confined to Memphis, Nashville, and the inner urban cores of Knoxville and Chattanooga. Even Haywood County in the southwest corner of the state, virtually the last Democratic stronghold in rural Tennessee, shows high purple on Johnson’s cartography.
Post-election analysis shows something else — a shift of the Republican center of gravity eastward, toward the GOP’s ancestral homeland of East Tennessee. For the first time in recent presidential elections, Republican voting in Knox County outdid the party’s totals in Shelby County.
Looking ahead to the 2026 governor’s race, it is meaningful that a recent poll of likely Republican voters by the Tennessee Conservative News shows two Knoxvillians — Congressman Tim Burchett and Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs — leading all other potential candidates.
• The Shelby County Commission ended its year with a full agenda of 89 items, several of which were matters involving schools and school funding. The commissioners navigated that agenda with admirable focus and aplomb, considering that the bombshell news of Tuesday’s scheduled Memphis Shelby-County Schools board meeting regarding the potential voiding of superintendent Marie Feagins’ contract exploded midway through their discussions.
• One of the more inclusive political crowds in recent history showed up weekend before last at Otherlands on Cooper to honor David Upton on the occasion of his 60th birthday. Upton is the proverbial man-behind-the-scenes in Shelby County politics and has had a hand — sometimes openly, sometimes not — in more local elections and civic initiatives than almost anybody else you could name.
The Velsicol plant in North Memphis (Photo: Ashli Blow)
Velsicol, a legacy polluter that manufactured pesticides, is proposing to hand over its 83-acre defunct facility in North Memphis to Tennessee as an environmental response trust. Should the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) accept a settlement agreement from the company, the state will be left to determine what to do with wide-ranging contamination including a baseball diamond-shaped pile of hazardous waste and a fluctuating groundwater plume of chemicals beneath it.
The proposal comes after the company faced questions this fall from environmental regulators and bankruptcy attorneys about inappropriate management and potentially fraudulent activity.
These new allegations shocked environmental justice advocates and residents in the historically Black community neighboring Velsicol. They have long expressed frustration over the company’s slow efforts to clean up, now more than 20 years in the making.
The North Memphis plant’s closure in 2012 was already a staggering delay compared to the nationwide action prompted by Rachel Carson’s 1962 book Silent Spring, which exposed reckless pesticide production and application. As environmental policy changed and Velsicol plants shut down nationally in response, the Memphis facility continued creating these chemicals from a bygone era through the turn of the 21st century.
But even without a plant, the company has continued brokering chemicals in Memphis under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), a federal law designed to protect human health and the environment from hazardous waste disposal. Over the last few months, Velsicol has been undergoing its once-in-a-decade renewal process for its RCRA permit.
In September, the TDEC sent a “Notice of Deficiency” to the company that their RCRA application was incomplete, followed by 36 pages outlining missing data and unsatisfactory plans for soil contamination across its property. Now, Velsicol is proposing that it pay a $3 million settlement to TDEC over five years in exchange for a release of their permit obligations. TDEC estimates the company is still responsible for between $137 and $143 million in cleanup costs, according to claims it has filed as part of Velsicol’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy case. Velsicol did not respond to the Lookout’s request to comment, and TDEC declined citing pending litigation.
Velsicol disputes TDEC’s and other claims brought forth in its bankruptcy case, in which nearly 600 organizations allege that Velsicol owes them money. Among them is the District of Columbia, whose Office of the Attorney General sued Velsicol in 2022 for contaminating local waterways and wants them to be held financially responsible.
The District of Columbia’s legal counsel filed a motion to investigate Velsicol’s financial condition in October. They presented evidence that company leadership received $10.6 million in salaries, expense reimbursements, bonuses, and consulting fees from 2012 to 2023.
“Investigation is needed to review the excessive transfers made to the shareholders over the past five years,” the counsel wrote in the motion, signed by attorney Kevin Morse. “In addition to potential fraudulent transfers prior to the bankruptcy, the District is very concerned about the viability of [Velsicol] moving forward.”
Paying for contamination
Moving forward, Velsicol as a company will no longer be in Memphis, should things go according to its plan of reorganization as filed in bankruptcy court this November. But its toxic legacy will be long felt.
It’s still deep in the Wolf River, where fish absorb chlordane as they swim through waters contaminated with the chemical, which doesn’t break down easily. If people eat these tainted fish they could experience tremors, convulsions, or even death. Velsicol produced chlordane — a by-product of a WWII nerve gas used by the Army — for commercial use starting in 1945. Although the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) banned its use in the 1980s, the Memphis plant continued to manufacture it as the sole producer in the U.S. through the 1990s for international export.
By the time the EPA banned it, more than 30 million homes and commercial buildings had been treated with chlordane, with the chemical washing into streams and rivers throughout the country like in Memphis and Washington, D.C., as detailed in the District of Columbia’s first complaint against the company. The District anticipates spending over $35 million to address contamination throughout the city.
Looking for unique gifts this giving season? Here’re a few posted recently on Facebook Marketplace Memphis.
“Homemade Iron Throne chair. Made for a murder mystery party and used during that night. It is crafted from a plastic Adirondack chair, wood supports, and different types of foam. $100.
Posted by Charlie Barnett
One of two oil paintings on offer; $150 for both.
Posted by Sky Sirling
Banksy Keep It Real graffiti sign original, 2004. $3,000.
“A holy grail piece for any street art collector.”
Posted by David Comstock
Autographed photo of Dr. Phil with the quote: “Walking around with a stick up your butt will not make you a corndog!” $20.
Memphis Mayor Paul Young, flanked by chief legal officer Tamara Gibson and Police Chief C.J. Davis, responds to the DOJ MPD report at a press conference on December 5, 2024. (Photo: City of Memphis)
In the wake of the killing of Tyre Nichols by members of the Memphis Police Department’s SCORPION Unit in January 2023, the Department of Justice (DOJ) initiated an investigation of the MPD to determine if officers regularly violated citizens’ rights. After 18 months of reviewing case files and video, interviewing Memphians, riding along with officers, and observing the inner workings of the MPD, the DOJ released its findings on December 4th. The 70-page report concludes, “After an extensive investigation, the Department of Justice has reasonable cause to believe that the MPD and the city engage in a pattern or practice of conduct that deprives people of their rights under the Constitution and federal law.”
“Don’t Kill Me!”
The DOJ investigators highlighted four key findings: 1. MPD uses excessive force. 2. MPD conducts unlawful stops, searches, and arrests. 3. MPD unlawfully discriminates against Black people in its enforcement activities. 4. The city and MPD unlawfully discriminate in their response to people with behavioral health disabilities. To support these findings, investigators cited numerous instances of violence by MPD officers against the citizens of Memphis. “Excessive force is routine in MPD,” DOJ investigators write. “Officers use force as a first resort, demand unquestioning obedience, and exact punishment if they do not receive it.”
Nine police cars and 12 officers responded to a call where a mentally ill man stole a $2 soft drink from a convenience store. After he put his hands up to surrender, he was beaten. He screamed, “Don’t kill me!” and tried to run away. He was subdued and repeatedly tased while face-down on the ground, then served two days in jail for disorderly conduct and theft.
In another case, three officers tackled a man who had littered in a public park. “The man had done nothing wrong, but was ‘talking all this shit,’ according to one officer, and would not tell the officers his name. When the man dropped his drink while leaving the park, four officers surrounded him. … While handcuffed in the patrol car later, the man told a lieutenant that he was trying to follow the officers’ directions, but they had already decided to charge him: ‘I even offered to pick the can up.’”
The DOJ report finds fatal flaws in the MPD’s frontline strategy. “Memphis has relied on traffic stops to address violent crime. The police department has encouraged officers in specialized units, task forces, and patrol to prioritize street enforcement. Officers and community members have described this approach as ‘saturation,’ or flooding neighborhoods with traffic stops. This strategy involves frequent contact with the public and gives wide discretion to officers, which requires close supervision and clear rules to direct officers’ activity. But MPD does not ensure that officers conduct themselves in a lawful manner.”
In two instances cited in the report, officers followed drivers to their destinations and confronted them for traffic violations. One woman was standing on the porch of a relative’s house. After she didn’t produce ID and told the police they were “not welcome on the property,” officers cuffed her, roughed her up, and threatened to pepper spray her. The report states, “After locking her in a police car, one officer asked, ‘So what did we see her do?’ When an officer suggested the woman’s car had improperly tinted windows, another officer responded, ‘All this for a tint?’ The officer shook his head and gestured with his hand that the woman talked too much.”
In another incident, officers forced their way into the home of a woman accused of driving with expired tags and failing to stop at a stop sign. “No exigent circumstances demanded they enter the woman’s home, and the officers had no justification to use force to push their way inside for a nonviolent traffic infraction,” reads the report. After arresting the woman in front of her crying child, “… one officer reflected, ‘In the grand scheme of things, this does not seem like it was worth it.’”
Officers frequently use potentially deadly neck restraints, similar to the one Minneapolis Police Department members applied fatally to George Floyd when he was killed in 2020. In Memphis, an intoxicated man was repeatedly choked into submission until he urinated on himself. “He was not charged with any crime.”
After offering a ride home to a man suffering a mental health crisis, the police uncovered an outstanding warrant for theft. The officer pulled the man from the police car, saying, “You’re fixing to get your ass whupped.” When the man tried to flee, the officer beat him and put him in a neck restraint.
Officers were frequently observed beating, tasing, and pepper spraying people who were already restrained and posed no threat. “One officer hit a handcuffed man in the face and torso with a baton eight times.”
In addition, “Officers repeatedly permitted police dogs to bite or continue to bite people, including children, who were nonresistant and attempting to surrender.”
In one incident, an officer investigating a stolen vehicle report “fired at a car at least eight times at a fast food drive-thru in the middle of the day, jeopardizing other officers and bystanders. … MPD’s investigation improperly found that this use of deadly force was justified.”
In a sidebar titled “Sick of his fucking mouth,” the DOJ investigators write, “MPD officers escalate incidents involving minor offensives by responding to perceived insults, disrespect, or ‘verbal resistance’ with unconstitutional force. … Some MPD officers seem to believe that questioning their authority justifies force — as one supervisor told us, ‘If someone says, “I ain’t under arrest,” that’s resisting arrest right there.’”
Children were not spared the MPD’s methods. When one 16-year-old girl called police to report that she had been assaulted, she ended up in handcuffs. “After three hours, officers removed the handcuffs to reposition them. As she complained that her hands were hurt and swollen and tried to move her wrists, the officers grabbed her and pushed her face down onto the ground to handcuff her again. The girl was then arrested and charged with disorderly conduct.”
When officers were dispersing a crowd after a fight at a high school football game, one officer singled out a “relatively small-statured teen girl trying to leave the premises, yelling ‘Bye! Bye!’ at her. The officer’s taunts provoked the girl, who talked back. In response, the officer shoved the girl, yelling, ‘Get out this motherfuckin’ lot.’ The girl pushed back, and two other officers approached the girl from behind and threw her on the ground. The officers then lifted the girl in the air and slammed her face down into the pavement. The officer who started the altercation told her to ‘Get your dumb ass up,’ and called her a ‘stupid bitch’ as the girl was led away in handcuffs.”
When officers chased two Black boys, aged 15 and 16, who were suspected of a curfew violation, one officer, who had dropped his mobile phone in the chase, said, “I am fucking these little kids up, man. … I am fucking you all up. I just wanted to let y’all know that.”
In another incident, “One officer shot a teenager, and then another officer hit the teenager three times in the head with the butt of his handgun and at least 12 times with a closed fist. The teen was disarmed, seriously injured, and posed no threat at the time. Prosecutors later sent a letter to MPD stating that they ‘seriously considered recommending criminal charges’ against the officer because of the ‘more than one dozen closed fist punches to the face’ that the officer delivered. The prosecutors wrote, ‘We trust that you will handle this as an internal matter and leave it to your sound discretion.’ We saw no evidence that any further investigation took place or that any discipline was imposed. The officer remains employed at MPD.”
The report concludes, “Supervisors do not address these recurrent practices, and some at MPD defend these practices. As one field training officer told us, ‘We’re not excessive enough with these criminals. We baby them.’”
Officers use force as a first resort; MPD treats Black people more harshly. (Photo: Department of Justice)
Black People Bear the Brunt
On page 37 of the report, DOJ investigators write, “MPD’s own data show that across a range of different law enforcement actions, MPD treats Black people more harshly than white people when they engage in similar conduct.”
While 64 percent of Memphians are Black, 81 percent of the MPD’s traffic violations are issued to Black people. Officers issued 33.2 percent more moving violations in predominately Black neighborhoods than they did in predominately white neighborhoods. Black drivers were cited for equipment violations at 4.5 times the rate of white drivers; for improperly tinted windows, the rate was 9.8 times. Public health data indicates that both Black and white people use cannabis at the same rate, but MPD arrested Black people for marijuana possession at more than five times the rate of white people.
The report found that the MPD stopped and cited one Black man 30 times in three years. In another case, “MPD stopped a Black man outside a dollar store ‘due to multiple robberies of dollar stores in the area,’ according to the police report. The officers had no reason to suspect that this particular man took part in the robberies, and the man told them he was just waiting for a friend. When he didn’t leave or produce ID, police handcuffed him, beat him with a baton, and pepper sprayed him. The officers had no reason to believe that the man engaged in criminal activity and lacked reasonable suspicion to stop him. But they arrested him anyway, and he spent a night in jail. Prosecutors declined to pursue any charges stemming from the incident. After the incident, the man noted, ‘They had no reason to do this. And they’re out here doing this to people every day.’”
Mental Health Crisis
In 1988, after the MPD killed a mentally ill man who was cutting himself, the city founded the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT). Composed of officers who have specialized training in dealing with behavioral health issues, the CIT became a model other city’s police departments emulated. But the DOJ found “serious problems with the CIT program,” and that “officers often escalate behavioral encounters and use combative tactics almost immediately after arriving to behavioral health calls. … We observed CIT officers in Memphis belittle and mock people with behavioral health disabilities. In one incident, a CIT officer hit a man in the head and threatened him with a Taser while officers called him a ‘motherfucker,’ ‘bitch,’ and a ‘dumbass.’” One CIT officer earned the nickname “Taser Face.”
One 8-year-old Black boy with four behavioral health diagnoses encountered the MPD nine times between December 2021 and August 2023. He was threatened with tasing, handcuffed, and repeatedly thrown onto a couch. In one incident, when the boy stuck out his tongue, the CIT officer responded by bending his arm back and screaming, “I can break your arm with the snap of my wrist.”
The report says that while 75 percent of 911 calls involving people with mental illness are nonviolent, “MPD’s training on behavioral health primes officers to approach people with behavioral health disabilities with force and aggression, and our review revealed they often do. For instance, a training given to all new officers erroneously teaches that people with bipolar disorder do not feel pain.”
The City Responds
At a press conference on December 5, 2024, Mayor Paul Young responded to the DOJ’s findings — while repeatedly emphasizing that he had not read the report. “I believe that even one incident of mistreatment by the police is one too many. … The report the DOJ released last night is going to be difficult to read. Some of the incidents the DOJ report described are simply not acceptable, and our hearts go out to every person who has been impacted by those actions.”
In cities such as Seattle, New Orleans, and Chicago which have previously been the subject of DOJ investigations, city governments entered into consent decrees, negotiated with the DOJ, that outline the steps police departments must take to improve. At the press conference, Young ruled out signing such a decree. “We believe adjustments we’ve already begun making must continue, and that they must expand. It’s my job as mayor to fight for the best interests of our entire community. Every member. After carefully considering the information we received from DOJ, we didn’t believe that entering into any agreement in principle or consent decree right now, before even thoroughly reading the DOJ report, would be in the best interest of our community. It’s crucial that the city has the time to do a thorough review and respond to the findings before agreeing to anything that could become a long-term financial burden to our residents, and could, in fact, actually slow down our ongoing efforts to continuously improve our police department.”
Young cited recent statistics which show a 13 percent drop in crime overall, and a 19 percent drop in violent crimes. Police Chief C.J. Davis echoed the mayor’s position that the department is on the right track. “In some of the areas that have been outlined in the report, we have made significant changes aligned with the Department of Justice, getting their support with some of the training that has been ongoing, not just this year, but in previous years.”
In response to the sections of the report regarding the MPD’s treatment of children, Davis said, “We spend a lot of time with our children in our community. We graduated over a thousand children from our D.A.R.E./G.R.E.A.T. program, and work consistently to try to improve those relationships. We’re going to look through the report to ensure that we’re not missing anything.”
Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy has studied the full report. “I think it’s very concerning and shouldn’t be dismissed. I still think the vast majority of folks on the force are people of good faith. They have a hard job, having to make quick decisions in stressful, sometimes dangerous situations. But that doesn’t mean there can’t be systemic issues of culture, training, and supervision that cry out for reform.”
When Shahidah Jones of the Official Black Lives Matter Memphis Chapter read the report, she recalls thinking, “Not to be cynical, but it was just like, ‘Duh.’ We didn’t choose to target police because we didn’t have anything else to do or we were looking at these one-off instances. A very large part of organizing is for us to learn history and do our political study. … This is not something new. This is the way police have been taught to operate.”
Josh Spickler, executive director of criminal justice-reform nonprofit Just City, agrees. “I’m not particularly surprised by the report. I recognize some of these stories, some of the examples from media reports. Many of these things are well-documented and well-known incidents. And the findings are bad and awful, and as even Mayor Young said, hard to read, but they are not surprising.”
For Amber Sherman, who lobbied the city council for reform in the wake of the Tyre Nichols killing, the report felt like vindication. “My immediate action really was that it just corroborated everything that, you know, we as organizers here in Memphis have been saying for so long, especially with Decarcerate Memphis, where we’ve been really pressing the issue about pretextual stops and how dangerous they are.”
Decarcerate Memphis’ Alex Hensley, who drafted the reform ordinances which were passed by the city council in reduced forms after the Tyre Nichols killing, says she, too, feels vindicated by the report. “Activists and organizers have been saying all of these things for years on end, and then to have the DOJ — which is a policing entity, by the way — to say that, yeah, we need to not prioritize these low-level violations.”
DA Mulroy says, “We need to rethink about using specialized units for routine enforcement. And distinguish between traffic stops that actually affect safety or real crime, like moving violations and drive-out tag fraud violations, which make sense. But some of these minor equipment violations, the data shows the hit rate on those is very low — you’re talking like 2 to 3 percent of the time do you find weapons or drugs or somebody that’s wanted on a serious charge. But the data also show those are precisely the types of offenses that are associated with racial profiling. You really have to think about what kind of a bang you’re getting for your buck. You’re potentially alienating the community that you most want to cooperate with law enforcement because they’re the ones who see the crime.”
City council member Dr. Jeff Warren said he had not yet read the report. “If you remember, around the time that Black Lives Matter occurred after the George Floyd killing, the council began a process where we were involved with the police department, trying to initiate reforms. Some of the reforms that we actually initiated were negated by the state legislature. … I think we’ve been in the process of reform since this current police chief came on board; we’re doing that right now. That’s one of the reasons I don’t really think that the city needs to be entering into a consent decree that will cost taxpayers multiple millions of dollars, when it’s something we’re already trying to do.”
When asked about the DOJ’s finding that MPD recruits are taught that people with bipolar disorder cannot feel pain, Warren, a family physician, responded, “I don’t know where they got that from. Just because it’s written in a report doesn’t mean that’s the truth.”
The treatment of what the MPD calls “mental consumers” is one issue where there may be consensus on reform. The DOJ report cites multiple high-ranking MPD officers, as well as Memphis Fire Department officials and 911 call-takers, who believe that a new department specializing in mental health situations is needed to shift the burden from the MPD.
“We should listen to them on that,” says Hensley. “If this city is so pro-police, listen to them on this subject. Clearly, there are a lot of mental health calls and a lot of mental health issues within our community that I think tie back to these issues of poverty, lack of housing, lack of investments in basic necessities. We have to come up with something different.”
Spickler says, “There’s data that shows that most interactions with people in mental health crises are not violent. There are ways of responding that wouldn’t lead you to have to tell people falsely that people with bipolar don’t feel pain. One of the great suggestions of this report is that we don’t have to send an armed person to some of the things that we send them to, like a stranded motorist, traffic accidents, and mental health calls. These are all things that can be handled with someone who has safety and resolution as their mission and not what we have in this police department — and most police departments, frankly — and that is a warrior mentality. There’s an arrogance to it, and there’s an offensiveness to it.
“There’s nothing about policing that should be offensive. It’s ‘to protect and serve,’ right? Many police departments across America have tried to shift to a guardian model, which is how policing, I think, is most effective. But throughout that report, you see very clear evidence that that is not the case at the Memphis Police Department. There is no guardian mentality. It’s not taught; it’s not modeled. It’s really not expected. What is expected is that you get what you want by whatever means necessary.”
Will Anything Change?
The election of Donald Trump, who has promised a “brutal approach” to law enforcement, has brought the next steps into question. Whether a future DOJ would sue to impose a settlement with the city is an open question.
“I’m not gonna speculate about their motivations, but I think it’s obvious to anybody that there’s a very good chance that a lot of this will be dropped or, at a minimum, they’ll be less aggressive about enforcing it with the new administration,” says DA Mulroy. “We’ve seen that before with the prior Trump administration. That could be anyone’s calculus in dealing with the aftermath of November 5th.”
At his press conference, Mayor Young said, “We would have the same position regardless of the outcome of the presidential election.”
A consent decree with the DOJ would result in federal monitors being assigned to the MPD in order to ensure that they do not violate citizens’ constitutional rights. In his regular Friday email on December 6th, Young wrote, “Instead of a broad and potentially prolonged federal oversight via a consent decree — which could impose millions in costs on our residents — we believe by taking a holistic, community-focused approach we can move further and faster toward the change we need with less cost to our community.”
These costs must be weighed against the costs of not acting, says Hensley. “I think they’re going to pay for it one way or another. First of all, they’re bloating the costs. We’ve looked at other cities, some of them have been high, but it’s spread out over time. There are just all these other elements that are being left out to make it seem like we’re going to go bankrupt next year. That’s disingenuous. Tyre Nichols’ family is suing them for $500 million — and that’s just one person. I’m not their chief financial officer, but you can look at that clearly and see the costs are going to be far worse if they don’t sign the consent decree, or if they don’t do these reforms.”
Reba Russell reflects on her career (Photo: Jamie Harmon)
Last Saturday at Hernando’s Hide-A-Way, the Memphis Blues Society recognized nine artists for their regional and global impact with its Lifetime Achievement Awards. Among the awardees were Thomas Bingham, Charles Gage, Mike Glenn, Eric Hughes, Al Kapone, Memphis Gold, Andrew “Shine” Turner, and Jay Sieleman, a roster marked by its eclecticism and inclusiveness. Yet there was one more recipient who was especially notable: Reba Russell. As one of the few local women still regularly singing the blues in this town (also including Barbara Blue and the incomparable Joyce Cobb), the celebration of Russell’s decades-long career was significant beyond the music itself.
It was an appropriate award for the artist who only last year released the powerful single, “Women Rule.” As Russell says, “You know, I am a woman-lover. I believe in women, and I want women to do good, and I have even been ugly and kind of mean to men over my career and in life! It’s one of my favorite themes. But I’m really passionate about that. I really believe it. I just don’t think we get a good enough shake and that we’re still trying to overcome that.”
Saturday’s ceremony, then, meant a great deal to Russell. “Memphis doesn’t support the blues or the Memphis Blues Society like it could, you know,” she says. “I just wish there were more people that cared, but at the same time, it was just a big, warm hug. And for me personally, Wayne and James and Sally were there, and they were at the very first gig I ever played at RP Tracks.”
Memphis Blues Society president Angela Ghoreishi and Russell at last Saturday’s event (Photo: Mark Cardwell)
That would be Wayne Russell, her husband and bass player; drummer James Cunningham; and longtime friend Sally Raburn, who, Russell says, “has been a music fan her whole life.”
Speaking of that first RP Tracks show back at the dawn of the ’80s, accompanied by her husband-to-be and Cunningham, Russell says today, “I told the dude who was giving me a ride there, my friend Bill Turner, ‘Take me home. I don’t want to do this. I’m scared!’” Luckily for the club-goers that night, Turner stayed the course.
But it was still nerve-racking for the young singer. “I pretty much sang with my back to the audience,” she laughs, and that was not lost on Raburn. “She was the one who, at the end of that night, came up and said, ‘You are an amazing singer, but you know, it’d be nice if we could see your face. You should turn around while you’re singing!’”
It may be hard for today’s fans to reconcile that stage fright with the bold, bawdy blues (and soul and rock) singer they know. That’s summed up by longtime Memphis multi-instrumentalist and erstwhile guitarist for the Reba Russell band, Paul Taylor, now living in Wisconsin. “You could ask anybody about Reba,” he says, “and they would say that she’s one of the most electrifying vocalists you’ll ever hear in person, and she never fails to deliver, and she has the same powerful voice that she’s had for her entire career. I just marvel at her every time because she just has such an intense power.”
That power was apparent to friends who heard her even before that first show, and Russell credits their encouragement as a key motivator back in those early days. Through a series of bands, first Visions, then Portrait, and finally Reba and the Portables, Russell, Wayne, and a rotating cast of band members took the city by storm, performing mainly covers at clubs like Solomon Alfred’s or the Bombay Bicycle Club. In the meantime, the singer and her bassist were clicking romantically, marrying in 1986.
Yet on her journey, from the Portables becoming one of the city’s premier cover bands, to a production deal with Chips Moman, to finally leaning into singing and recording her originals with the Reba Russell Band, the singer has remained appreciative of friends who helped her along the way. At Saturday’s event, Russell says, “I just got up there and praised Memphis and Memphis musicians and producers and engineers and everybody who perpetuates the whole blues scene. Because, you know, I had no experience when I started. I came here and, boom, everybody helped me. Nobody was ugly to me or told me to go away. So I was just trying to express my appreciation to the fabulous musicians in this town, many of whom aren’t here anymore, that have left the planet, yet were so instrumental in helping me and other people get on our feet and become worthy and hard-working musicians.”
That gratitude extended to her fellow awardees as well. “It was really awesome to be included in that group because there were some really cool other people that were given awards that night,” says Russell, noting that it reflected well on the the Memphis Blues Society. Founded in 2005, it gave aid to blues artists during Covid, then launched its Lifetime Achievement Awards in 2021
“There are blues purists, and then there are people who are into opening the blues up,” she observes. “It was really cool that Al Kapone was honored last night, and he spoke about that. He has been advocating and adding a blues feel and blues themes to his rap, and I’m sure that there are a lot of blues purists who kind of thumb their nose at that. But from my point of view, it’s absolutely amazing that he’s doing that, and teaching kids, and passing that blues legacy on. I really enjoyed his speech. What he said was really important.”
Reflecting a bit more on the evening and Al Kapone, she continues, “I think he was as proud as I was about receiving the award. And, you know, he’s a lot younger than I am, and he’s got a long time to perpetuate his artistry. So yeah, that part was lovely to me because it was about the continuation of this genre. It’s important for younger people to get hip to it.”
There’s a Mexican restaurant near me where I go for dinner every week or so. The hostess and the waitresses know me. I’m the guy who always orders the fish (or camarones) tacos, a side of queso dip, and a house margarita — and tips nicely. They even know the booth I like.
The place is usually populated with diners of all ethnicities. The background music is some kind of Ameri-Mexican blend with bright pop hooks and a beat you could dance to if you had more than one house margarita. There’s usually a soccer game on the television. It’s a clean, lively, friendly place. I can eat, look at my phone, and sip my margarita in peace.
The hostess and waitresses speak English better than most of their customers. They’re smart and engaging and easy to chat with. The busboys, not so much. Sometimes, I’ll stop one and ask for something — a fresh napkin, a straw — and they just shake their heads and smile, and go get a waitress. They don’t understand English very well, I assume. They could have crossed the border legally and are waiting for a work visa or a disposition on their application for asylum, but it’s also quite possible they are here without papers, working hard and laying low, hoping to avoid the coming storm.
From my seat, I can hear the busboys and kitchen staff chattering in a Spanish spoken so quickly and colloquially that it would baffle Duo the Lingo Owl. It makes me wonder what’s going to happen in a month or so if the new president and his minions follow through on their campaign pledge to institute “mass deportations.”
Will sheriff’s deputies, U.S. Marshals, or even the National Guard barge through the front door of my favorite little haunt at dinner time and march off with half the staff in handcuffs? Will they then sweep their way down Summer Avenue, stopping at all the Hispanic-owned businesses, demanding, “Papers, please”?
Will the same law-enforcement brigades start hitting up the construction sites around town, taking away the crews who build our homes and office buildings? Will they begin visiting the massive farming operations across the South and West that rely on millions of immigrants to harvest the nation’s crops? Will they raid the packing plants where immigrants prepare the beef, poultry, and pork for our grocery stores?
If it happens, it’s going to be another of those moments when ideology meets reality and it’s not going to be pretty. When fulfilling a campaign promise leads to a major disruption of the economy, when ensuing worker shortages lead to abrupt price increases, when oranges, tomatoes, and all our other produce lie rotting in our fields and orchards, will Trump and the GOP hard-liners blink? Will they really risk an economic meltdown to own the libs? Will the Americans who voted for this madness finally figure out how effed-up it is?
When millions of families are separated from loved ones, when there are mass camps of “illegal” humans of all ages across the country, when the real costs and the enormous cruelty of trying to deport 10 million people become obvious, will the politicians who ran on this xenophobic bullshit back down? Who knows?
Reporters around the country are already asking governors whether they will cooperate with federal deportation plans. Such cooperation might well involve authorizing state National Guard troops to help with rounding up suspects. In red states, including Tennessee, governors have mostly spouted the GOP party line when questioned, saying that they would do whatever the president asked them to do. In blue states, the opposite reaction has mostly occurred, with governors, mayors, and other regional officials saying they would not use local resources to help with mass deportation.
Look, if Republicans really wanted to fix immigration, they would start at the top and start prosecuting employers who hire undocumented laborers. Problem solved. But that’s never going to happen. Employers are the wrong color and they have money to grease political palms. And since the polarization game plan just won an election, I suspect it will be in play for the next four years. My advice is to speak out for justice when and where it’s possible. Then go have a margarita, if you can find one.
