Author: Derek Haire

Categories
Opinion Viewpoint

Playing the Bike Card

In a recent Flyer column, Wendi C. Thomas posed a question that demands an honest and sincere answer. Her question is relevant to all Memphians, and to all residents of Shelby County, Desoto County, Greene County, and any other place in the U.S., or in the wider world, where people of different races and cultures must live and work together. She asks: “How will biking be different from the other well-intentioned movements that still leave brown and black people and poor people behind?”

While her question was framed in the context of the economic impact of bike lanes on disadvantaged brown and black Memphians, the underlying problem behind her interrogative will come up again and again for as long as the world turns: How will we all make public policy together that doesn’t leave someone behind? This isn’t some random local issue that we Memphians alone have to deal with when we’re worrying about bike lanes, of all things. This is a fundamental problem within democracy itself, and woe to us all if we ignore it.

Nobody likes talking about race, but there it is, staring us all right in the face every day. Memphians, especially, must strive to reconcile the race issue for ourselves and for others, because we have the opportunity to do so. If we, of all communities, of all houses divided, can work out our differences and stand united afterward, we can become an example for the rest of the world to follow. The world desperately needs that kind of example, and we are uniquely poised to offer it. The stakes are higher for us than we might at first realize, because there are a lot of other people who don’t live in Memphis who will also be helped if we can we can get our own house in order.

Here is how we will not work out our differences: leveling the charge of “replicating racist systems” — essentially an accusation of racism — for supporting bike lanes. Firstly, if institutional racism is so pernicious that it can infiltrate the minds of staunch anti-racists when they endeavor to support a public project that has nothing whatsoever to do with race, then we all may as well drive home and go back to bed because there is no possible way to defeat an enemy that powerful. Moreover, even if the social theory behind that accusation describes reality with 100 percent accuracy, that is one of the single most depressing things you could possibly tell someone else: You were being racist without even meaning to. That message will win no elections and change no minds, because it immediately puts the listener on the defensive and tells them that they are not in control of their own thoughts and feelings. Nobody wants to hear that. Not even the Devil himself is believed to have that much power over the human will.

There is a movement afoot to make privileged Americans more aware of the largely invisible class, sex, gender, and race structures that undergird our society. Contemporary academics who study race and gender use a framework for understanding and mapping out those social dynamics called intersectionality. Among social scientists, intersectionality is used as a way to account for the fact that a single black mother of two in Binghampton might face a different set of challenges in life than an unmarried white male college graduate in Connecticut. In popular discussion or debate, it has become a way to bludgeon privileged individuals who are seen to be insufficiently devoted to the cause of social justice. If you’ve ever been told to “check your privilege,” you’ve already encountered it.

As long as this movement points an accusatory finger at the people it ostensibly aims to enlighten and tells them that they have no control over the problem, it is bound to fail. Race and class privilege are difficult enough concepts to understand and apprehend on their own, let alone when they are accompanied by a guilt trip. There are many more constructive ways to approach the problem, and while those privileges may very well permeate every aspect of our daily lives, the insistence that we shoehorn a discussion of race into absolutely every aspect of public policy decision-making is simply not practical. Sometimes a bike lane is just a bike lane.

Categories
News

Director Godwin’s Looking For Him — and We Found Him: MPD Enforcer’s Dirk Diggler!

by DEREK HAIRE

In what appears to be an attempt to silence his critics, Memphis Police
Director Larry Godwin has filed an interstate subpoena for discovery against
the owner of the blog MPD Enforcer 2.0, an anonymous website geared toward and
run by current and former members of the Memphis Police Department. The
anonymous Google Blogspot site has, for the last four months, served as a sort
of online water cooler where Memphis’ uniformed patrol officers can voice
their anonymous discontent with the leadership of MPD, whoM they collectively
refer to as “the 12th Floor.”

The MPD Enforcer 2.0 quickly became a clearinghouse of unreported or
unpublished stories of interest to Memphis police officers, in part thanks to
its name. In the 1990s a paper version of the MPD Enforcer was circulated
among Memphis Police by hand. Later, during the dawning days of the internet,
an online version appeared on the Geocities website.

Today, the MPD Enforcer 2.0, written and maintained by a group of people with
no connection to the original paper version of the Enforcer, enjoys new life
on Google’s Blogspot website, where anyone within or without the MPD can
publish whatever they like without fear of recrimination. The only method of
contacting the current administrator of the Enforcer 2.0, who operates under
the pseudonym Dirk Diggler, is via his AOL email address, and he agreed to an
email interview with the Memphis Flyer under the condition that his identity
remained secret.

Q: How did you find out about the subpoena? Was it through a friend, an
email tip, a letter from AOL, etc?

A: AOL sent an email to us and included a copy of the subpoena.

Q: Since you started the blog, have you had any contact with or endorsement
from the writers of the original MPD Enforcer, or are you working
independently of them?

A: Since starting the blog, we have had someone contact us and claimed to
be the author of the original Enforcer. They praised us for keeping up the
good fight and gave a general endorsement. To the best of our knowledge, they
have not contributed. We accept tips from a numerous amount of anonymous
resources.

Q: What contact, if any, have you had with AOL about your account since
July 11? Have they given you any indication that they intend to comply with
the subpoena?

A: AOL only contacted us after receiving the subpoena. AOL gave us a limited
amount of time to respond and we are currently seeking legal counsel. Further,
we are consulting with the Justice Department to see if there is a possible
“color of law” violation being committed by Director Godwin.

Q: Have you received any threatening or harassing emails from self-identified
members of MPD?

A: We have never received any threatening or harassing e-mails from anyone.
All communications have been positive and congratulatory. On the other hand,
we have received numerous troubling comments on the blog. It appeared to be
nothing more that the administration trying to disrupt our public forum. We
had to lock down the comments section, but that issue was resolved.

Q: In your opinion, why do you think Director Godwin is trying to out you?
Do you think it is connected to a particular story or blog post?

A: We feel that Director Godwin is trying to put an end to our blog because it
exposes the intimate secrets of the administration. I would like to make this
perfectly clear. The blog and comments posted have nothing to do with the
person Larry Godwin. The aim is at the direction of the police department and
the decline in morale. The public position of the Director’s office makes it
fair game for any citizen to comment on. If there was another person in the
Director’s office that was steering the ship towards the rocky reef, every man
or woman on that boat would voice an opinion. We provide the location for
anonymous “venting” and will continue to do so until the internet is no longer
available.

Q: Has the subpoena changed your attitude toward blogging? If you are outed,
will you continue to write?

A: Absolutely not. If anything, it has made us more focused on searching for
the truth. Further, it has caused us to focus on the individual officers and
their need for justice. For decades, the Memphis Police Department has had a
history of handing down discipline based on political or personal beliefs.
Many officers have been charged and suspended over an arrest/incident with
someone who is connected to another in political office. That’s just not fair.
We are in the developmental phase of creating an impartial support group for
officers who have been wrongly disciplined. Once established, we plan on
attacking the issues in a litigious setting.

Director Godwin has filed a motion for discovery of the identity of Mr.
Diggler under the Uniform Interstate Depositions and Discovery Act, which has
been made law in thirteen states, among them Tennessee and Virginia. According
to Channel 24 Eyewitness News reporter Jeni DiPrizio, subpoenas have been sent
to AOL, Google, and Zimbio, Inc., but among the three, only AOL is based
in a state where the law is applicable. AOL is headquartered in Virginia, but
Google and Zimbio are both based in California, and neither company has
contacted Mr. Diggler about Director Godwin’s legal motion.

Under the law, the jurisdiction of the discovery state has the power to quash
the subpoena, which in this case is the 20th Judicial Circuit of Virginia. In
a previous case, IPA vs. May, Judge Thomas D. Horne of the 20th Circuit issued
a protective order on behalf of AOL on the grounds that the plaintiff had
failed to furnish a “mandate, writ or commission” to the court under the UFDA
as required by Virginia law.

To put it in layman’s terms, Director Godwin may face a long, tedious legal
battle if he truly wants to publicly identify Mr. Diggler and his associates
in court. As the original Dirk Diggler might say, “You’re not the boss of me,
Jack. I’m Dirk Diggler and I say when we roll.”

Categories
Cover Feature News

Chez Chumney

Carol Chumney ended her campaign for city mayor at 10 o’clock Thursday night, in the same aggressive spirit that distinguished her term on the Memphis City Council. Promising to “work with Mayor Herenton any way I can” in her concession speech, she nevertheless took the opportunity to launch a final volley at the city leadership, saying, “We have sent a message that Memphis deserves better.”

The parting shot at Mayor Herenton rallied the crowd of more than a hundred close supporters and volunteers gathered in the Peabody’s Continental Ballroom, most of whom hadn’t seen their candidate in person since the election results were announced on television. For many, it was clearly a cathartic end to a long and exhausting day.

Earlier, as the first few precinct reports trickled in by word of mouth, the mood at Chumney’s election night party was buoyant, if slightly tense, and continued to remain so even as the early returns showed Mayor Herenton with a significant lead. But by the end of the night, with the outcome all but certain, any trace of that early hope had given way to sore discontent.

“I’m disappointed in the people of Memphis,” said longtime Chumney supporter Zenia Revitz. “I can’t believe that they didn’t open their eyes and see what’s going on in this community.” Her reaction may have best captured the mixed emotions felt by those present, as she quickly qualified her remark by adding, “So far, that is. We’re only at 50 percent,” referring to the number of precincts still uncounted. No one at the event was willing to fully give up the chance of a turnaround until it became unmistakably clear that none would come.

Another strong supporter, Joan Solomon, summarized what many at the party saw as a flawed election process, stating, “Everyone who voted for Morris was voting for Herenton.”

A Rasmussen poll commissioned by WHBQ Fox-13, taken just days before the election, showed that in a two-way race against Herenton, either Chumney or Morris would have won with a comfortable majority. Together, the two candidates provided the embattled mayor with the chance to win a fifth term with 42 percent of the vote.

The message of the Chumney campaign was strongly populist, and as such, their election strategy was centered around volunteer support. Noting in her concession speech that she was “outspent probably about two to one,” the councilwoman credited “hundreds of volunteers” with a large measure of her success. Campaign manager Charles Blumenthal was also quick to praise the campaign’s unpaid workers, calling the operation “a well-oiled machine,” adding that out of 14 full-time staff, only four were paid.

Indeed, it was a different campaign from what one usually sees in Memphis. It began with little money and very little financial support from the business community. What fund-raising momentum there was didn’t come until the final month of the race. Chumney’s largest donations came from labor unions and trade associations, with most of the city’s old money going to Herman Morris.

Also remarkable was the fact that compared with the two other major candidates, few current or former elected officials endorsed Chumney, with only two notables present at the election night event. State representative Mike Kernell, long an ally and friend of Chumney’s, was there, along with freshman Shelby County commissioner Steve Mulroy, who appeared with her onstage. Otherwise, the rest of her support appeared to come from family, friends, activists, and more than a few political neophytes.

While there were more whites than blacks at Chumney’s final campaign stop, Chumney was pleased by the support she received from predominantly black neighborhoods. “There were some [African-American] precincts where I was running at 30 percent,” she said. “It made me feel good.”

After the loss, Chumney was upbeat but expressed disappointment in the low turnout: “The people who didn’t vote should be kicking themselves because this was their chance to make a change.”

Ineligible to run for mayor and City Council at the same time, Chumney is out of public office for the first time in many years. After finishing the remainder of her council term, she said she plans to return to her private law practice, but she was otherwise undecided on any future political plans.

“Who knows?” she said. “We’ll see what the future holds.”

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

A C Wharton Speaks: Smoothie or Snoozer?

by DEREK HAIRE

When a popular mayor speaks to a group of highly engaged partisans in advance of an off-year election, one might expect a spontaneous political rally to be the inevitable result. However, Monday night’s guest at the Memphis College Democrats’ first spring meeting was Shelby County’s famously low-key mayor A.C. Wharton, and his halcyon tone was more like that of an easygoing academic than a textbook politician. Speaking in lecture style at the University of Memphis Mitchell Auditorium before taking questions, the county mayor offered the student activists an object lesson in his characteristic brand of room-temperature politics.

While he may have won himself more yawns than applause, the mayor nevertheless proved to be more than ably prepared to discuss the wide range of astute questions he fielded from the students. Presented with a buffet of issues, Mayor Wharton staked out clear positions without stepping into too much controversy, nearly filibustering with personal and historical anecdotes.

Asked about gaps in county emergency services, he sidestepped the knotty topic of coverage boundaries and advocated a regime of county-wide dispatch. On the subject of legalizing marijuana, he contrasted himself with the late Republican mayor Wyeth Chandler, who, he reports, was a quiet supporter of decriminalization. On illegal immigration, he avoided talk of borders and fences and re-framed the debate entirely, deftly placing the focus on the demand side of the equation by exclusive use of the term “illegal labor.”

Though longer on wind than fire, Mayor Wharton did unintentionally sprinkle a dash of gasoline on one smoldering rumor. Asked to make an endorsement in the city mayor’s race, Wharton declined, opting to wait until the race had developed further before giving any candidate the nod.

Afterward, this caused some in attendance to wonder aloud if Wharton knows something the rest of us don’t, namely that Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton may not seek re-election, a frequently recurring speculation both in local party circles and online. However, in fairness to both mayors, it is much more likely that Wharton’s reluctance to make an endorsement in the city race was just another example of the careful way the county mayor budgets his substantial political capital.

Mayor Wharton also refused to make any predictions about his own longevity once his term-limited job comes to an end. Noting with a broad smile that he is “healthy and reasonably sane,” he refused to rule anything out, saying, “it ain’t over till it’s over.” He may have been joking, but serious students of politics should take note: in spite of a limited term, Wharton finds himself in a better position than many politicians in Shelby County because he is, as he says, healthy and reasonably sane.

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

During Campaign Heat, Memphis Democrats Have Cooled Relations

Depending on whom you asked Saturday, Democrat Harold Ford Jr. was
either trailing Republican Bob Corker by ten points or leading him by
six in the final days of the Tennessee Senate race. The latter figure is
Ford’s own, and its reiteration was the ostensible reason for his
campaign’s decision to schedule a press conference at four o’clock
Saturday afternoon — the precise moment that Steve Cohen, Democratic
nominee for the Congressional Ninth District, was holding a rally in
Midtown.

More than a week ago, the Cohen campaign made several efforts to invite
Ford to the event, billed as a “Democratic Unity Rally,” according to
people in the campaign. Both events, geared to draw media attention,
instead drew attention away from each other. In spite of the scheduling
conflict, campaign manager Kevin Gallagher did not regard the parallel
timing of the two events as a slight. “The message just didn’t get passed
up the chain,” Gallagher explained. “From the beginning, there has been
a breakdown in communication.”

That beginning, of course, was the August 3 primary. After Cohen won the
Democratic nomination, independent candidate Jake Ford, Harold’s
brother, began his House campaign in earnest. Since then, relations
between the two Democratic campaigns have been less than hostile, but
awkward at best.

If indeed Cohen got a cold shoulder from Ford yesterday, it was not
apparent to anyone in attendance at Cohen’s headquarters. Flanked by
Shelby County Democratic Party chairman Matt Kuhn and Councilwoman Carol
Chumney, among others, Cohen voiced his full-throated support for Ford
during his speech.

Cohen field director Liz Rincon, who organized the event, also expressed
her support for Ford’s Senate bid, but did give vent to some frustration
over the strained relationship between the two campaigns since the
primary. Describing what she believes was a lost opportunity, she
outlined “what an amazing image it would have been to have a white
Jewish Representative from a black district, and a black Senator from a
white state.” Had the two Memphis Democrats campaigned together, she
said, it would have shown that “we don’t care about race down here.”

Gallagher was also perturbed by the lack of comity between the two
Democratic campaigns. “We have expended every opportunity,” he said, “to
coordinate and use our resources to help get Harold Ford elected because
we want a Democratic majority.” Referring to a recent press release from
Ford’s campaign in which the Senate candidate accused Cohen of, among
other things, wanting to “cut and run in Iraq,” Gallagher said, “I
understand that Harold’s brother is in the race, but don’t work against us.”

The Ford campaign issued a press release Saturday from its internal
pollster, Benenson Strategy Group, challenging the methodology of the
conflicting polls, concluding that “the race is a tossup and too close
to call heading into the final week.” The Commercial Appeal, which
endorsed Ford for the second time in an editorial Sunday morning,
released the results of the latest poll in the same edition. The poll,
from Mason-Dixon Polling and Research, shows Ford behind his Republican
opponent by an even wider margin: twelve points