Memphis and Shelby County have seen declines in three major categories of violent crime so far this year, and leaders say that while citizens “probably don’t yet feel or sense it,” the needle is moving in the right direction.
Numbers for murders, rapes, and robberies were all lower in Memphis and Shelby County in the first three quarters of 2018 compared to the same time last year, according to new figures released Wednesday by the University of Memphis Public Safety Institute and the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission. However, aggravated assaults rose in both the city and the county.
Here’s the basic breakdown of the numbers in Memphis so far this year (compared to last year):
Here’s the basic breakdown of the numbers in Shelby County so far this year (compared to last year):
• Reported murders — 118 (down from 138)
• Reported rapes — 437 (down from 524)
• Reported robberies — 2,367 (down from 2,668)
• Reported aggravated assaults — 7,723 (up from 7,513)
“One violent crime will always be one too many, but these numbers indicate the needle is moving in favor of increased public safety,” said Shelby County District Attorney General. Amy Weirich. “My hope is that this momentum will continue and result in even better numbers by the end of the year.”
Crime Commission executive director Bill Gibbons said violent crimes need to “decline significantly more, but we are moving in the right direction.”
“The declines are significant, even though most citizens probably don’t yet feel or sense it,” Gibbons said.
Allan Wade, the veteran lawyer who represents the Memphis City Council, among other clients, is a glib talker, both in the courtroom and out, as he indicated once again in a hearing Tuesday in the courtroom of Chancellor Jim Kyle and afterward.
Allan Wade
The hearing concerned a request by several plaintiffs attempting to halt the council’s proposed use of city funds to launch a “public information” campaign in favor of three referenda on the November 6th ballot. Wade argued vigorously against the suit and was gratified when the Chancellor went on to rule that the issue was not “ripe” for judgment.
Wade was explaining as much to a reporter in the hallway of the Courthouse after the hearing when John Marek, also a lawyer and one of the plaintiffs, passed by, muttering something about “corruption.” Wade instantly shifted gears, responding “Kiss my ass,” and then continuing with his exegesis of what he saw as the relevant legal issues in the case.
The outburst was a reminder of another reported incident in the council chambers when, after a meeting, several attendees expressed criticism of an action taken by Wade in his role as attorney for the council. One of them, Theron Bond, said Wade responded with a profane threat, and another, Carlos Ochoa, who was attempting to make a video of the exchange, said Wade called him a “punk.”
Every now and then Fly on the Wall likes to publish something “From the Morgue,” which, in newspaper jargon, means an article we published some time in the past that’s been filed away. But in this case the expression’s especially fitting. It’s late October — time to remember Memphis’ original horror host Sivad. All links have been updated, so readers should be able to sample some of the movies that made Fantastic Features so fantastic.
The horror first took control of Memphis television sets at 6 p.m. Saturday, September 29, 1962. It began with a grainy clip of black-and-white film showing an ornate horse-drawn hearse moving silently through a misty stretch of Overton Park. Weird music screeched and swelled, helping to set the scene. A fanged man in a top hat and cape dismounted. His skin was creased, corpse-like. He looked over his shoulder once, then dragged a crude, wooden coffin from the back of the hearse. His white-gloved hand opened the lid, releasing a plume of thick fog and revealing the bloody logo ofFantastic Features.
“Ah. Goooood eeeevening. I am Sivad, your monster of ceremonies,” the caped figure drawled, in an accent that existed nowhere else on planet Earth. Think: redneck Romanian.
“Please try and pay attention,” he continued, “as we present for your enjoyment and edification, a lively one from our monumental morgue of monstrous motion pictures.”
Happy Halloween: A Tribute to Sivad and Fantastic Features
In that moment, a Mid-South television legend was born. For the next decade, Sivad, the ghoulish character created by Watson Davis, made bad puns, told painfully bad jokes, and introduced Memphians to films like Gorgo…
Happy Halloween: A Tribute to Sivad and Fantastic Features (5)
The Brain That Wouldn’t Die…
Happy Halloween: A Tribute to Sivad and Fantastic Features (7)
and Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent.
Happy Halloween: A Tribute to Sivad and Fantastic Features (8)
Watson Davis’ wisecracking monster wasn’t unique. He was one of many comically inclined horror hosts who became popular regional TV personalities from the ’50s through the ’70s. According to John Hudgens, who directed American Scary, a documentary about the horror-host phenomenon, it all began with “Vampira,” a pale-skinned gorgon immortalized by Ed Wood in his infamously incompetent film Plan 9 From Outer Space.
Happy Halloween: A Tribute to Sivad and Fantastic Features (9)
Although a Chicago-area host calling himself “The Swami” may have been the first costumed character regularly introducing scary movies on television, the big bang of horror hosting happened in 1954, when the wasp-wasted actress Maila Nurmi introduced her campy, Morticia Adams-inspired character on The Vampira Show, which aired in Los Angeles.
Happy Halloween: A Tribute to Sivad and Fantastic Features (6)
In 1957, Screen Gems released a package of 52 classic horror films from Universal studios. The “Shock Theater”package, as it was called, created an opportunity for every market to have its own horror host. “Part of that package encouraged stations to use some kind of ghoulish host,” Hudgens explains. “Local television was pretty much live or had some kind of host on everything back then.”
Overnight, horror hosts such as New York’s “Zacherly” and Cleveland’s “Ghoulardi” developed huge cult followings. “TV was different in those days,” Hudgens says. “There weren’t a lot of channels to choose from, and the hosts could reach a lot more people quickly. Ghoulardi was so popular that the Cleveland police actually maintained that the crime rate went down when his show was on the air, and they asked him to do more shows.”
Dr. Lucifer
Tennessee’s first horror host was “Dr. Lucifer,” a dapper, eyepatch-wearing man of mystery who hit the Nashville airwaves in 1957. Since Fantastic Features didn’t air until the fall of 1962, Sivad was something of a latecomer to the creep-show party. But unlike most other horror hosts, Davis didn’t have a background in broadcasting. He’d been a movie promoter, working for Memphis-based Malco theaters. His Sivad character existed before he appeared on television. At live events, he combined elements of the classic spook show with an over-the-top style of event-oriented marketing called ballyhoo. So Davis’ vampire, while still nameless, was already well known to local audiences before Fantastic Features premiered.
“You’ve got to understand, things were very different back then,” Elton Holland told the Memphis Flyer in a 2010 interview. “Downtown Memphis was a hub for shopping, and going out to the movies was an event. And back then, Malco was in competition with the other downtown theaters, so when you came to see a movie, we made it special.”
Happy Halloween: A Tribute to Sivad and Fantastic Features (4)
To make things special Holland, Davis, and Malco vice president Dick Lightman became masters of promotion and special events. Davis and Holland were neighbors who lived in Arkansas and car-pooled into Memphis every day. During those drives, Davis would float ideas for how to promote the films coming to town.
The studios only provided movie theaters with limited marketing materials. Theater businesses had in-house art departments that created everything else. What the art department couldn’t make, Davis built himself in the theater’s basement. When 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea came to town, he built a giant squid so large it had to be cut in half to get it up the stairs. He constructed a huge King Kong puppet that towered over the lower seats. For the filmDinosaurus, he built a Tyrannosaurus rex that was 20 feet tall and 45 feet long. It sat in the lobby, roaring and moving its tail.
“All movies were sold through exploitation,” Holland explained. “And horror movies were the best ones to exploit. … I remember when Watson first told me he wanted to be a monster. He was thinking vaudeville. He wanted to put on a show.”
Davis’ plan to create a scary show wasn’t original. The “spook show” was a sideshow con dating back to when 19th-century snake-oil vendors traveled the country hawking their wares. Slick-talking performers would hop from town to town promising entertainment-deprived audiences the chance to see a giant, man-eating monster, so terrible it had to be experienced to be believed. Once the tickets were sold, it was loudly announced that the monster had broken free and was on a bloody rampage. The idea was to cause panic and create a confusing cover for the performers to make off with the loot.
In the early 20th century, the spook show evolved, and traveling magicians exploited the public’s growing fascination with spiritualism by conjuring ghosts and spirits. By mid-century, they developed into semi-comical “monster shows” that were almost always held in theaters. Today’s “hell houses” and haunted mansions are recent permutations of the spook show.
When England’s Hammer Films started producinghorror movies that were, as Holland says, “a cut above,” he, Davis, and Lightman took the old spook-show concept and adapted it sell movie tickets. They went to Memphis State’s drama department and to the Little Theatre [now Theatre Memphis] looking for actors so they could put a monster on a flatbed truck in front of the Malco.
Davis dressed as Dracula, Holland was the Hunchback of Notre Dame, and another Malco exec played Frankenstein. The company also included a wolfman and a mad doctor.
Davis sometimes joined Lightman on inspection tours of other Malco properties. On one of those tours, the men saw an antique horse-drawn hearse for sale on the side of the road. They bought the hearse that appears in the Fantastic Features title sequence for $500. It also appeared in various monster skits and was regularly parked in front of Malco theaters to promote horror movies.
“One time we had this actor made up like a wild man,” Holland said, recalling a skit that was just a little too effective. “While Watson did his spiel about the horror that was going to happen, the chained wild man broke loose and pretended like he was attacking this girl. He was going to jerk her blouse and dress off, and she had on a swimsuit underneath.” One 6′-3″, 300-pound, ex-military Malco employee wasn’t in on the joke and thought the actor had actually gone wild. He took the chain away, wrapped it around the wild man’s neck, and choked him until the two were pulled apart. The proliferation of television eventually killed ballyhoo promotions and all the wild antics used to promote movies. At about that time, the studios started “going wide” with film distribution, opening the same film in many theaters at one time instead of just one theater in every region. This practice made location-specific promotions obsolete. By then, the Shock Theater package had made regional stars out of horror hosts all across the country. WHBQ approached Davis and offered him the job of “monster of ceremonies” on its Fantastic Features show. The show found an audience instantly and became so popular that a second weekly show was eventually added. Memphis viewers apparently couldn’t get enough of films like Teenage Caveman…
Happy Halloween: A Tribute to Sivad and Fantastic Features (12)
And Mutiny in Outer Space…
Happy Halloween: A Tribute to Sivad and Fantastic Features (15)
Joe Bob Briggs, cable TV’s schlock theater aficionado who hosted TNT’s Monster Vision fro m 1996 to 2000, says that “corny” humor was the key to any horror host’s success or failure. “Comedy and horror have only rarely been successfully mixed in film — although we have great examples like Return of the Living Dead, Briggs says. “But comedy surrounding horror on television was a winning formula from day one. In fact, it’s essential. If you try to do straight hosting on horror films, the audiences will hate you.”
In 1958, Dick Clark invited New York horror host Zacherly to appear on American Bandstand. “This wasn’t the year for the comedians, this was the year for the spooks and the goblins and the ghosts,” Clark said, introducing “Dinner With Drac,” the first hit novelty song about monsters. Four years later, Bobby “Boris” Puckett took “Monster Mash” to the top of the charts. In the summer of 1963, Memphis’ favorite horror host hopped on the pop-song monster bandwagon by recording the “Sivad Buries Rock and Roll/Dicky Drackeller” single.
Happy Halloween: A Tribute to Sivad and Fantastic Features (13)
Novelty songs such as “What Made Wyatt Earp” became a staple on Fantastic Features, and Sivad began to book shows with the King Lears, a popular Memphis garage band that influenced contemporary musicians like Greg Cartwright, who played in the Oblivians and the Compulsive Gamblers before forming the Reigning Sound. Although “Sivad Buries Rock and Roll” never charted, Goldsmith’s department store hosted a promotional record-signing event, and 2,000 fans showed up to buy a copy.
In 1972, Fantastic Features was canceled. And though Davis was frequently asked to bring the character back, he never did. Horror movies were changing, becomingbloodierand more sexually explicit in a way that made them a poor fit for Sivad’s family-friendly fright-fest. In 1978, Commercial Appeal reporter Joseph Shapiro unsuccessfully tried to interview Davis. He received a letter containing what he called a cryptic message: “Sivad is gone forever” is all it said.
Davis, who borrowed his name-reversing trick from Dracula, Bram Stoker’s blood-sucking fiend who introduced himself as Count Alucard, died of cancer in March 2005. He was 92 years old.
* A version of this article appeared in theMemphis Flyer in 2010 —- but without all the nifty links and embeds.
Since the Grizzlies don’t play on Halloween, FedExForum celebrated the holiday Tuesday night with trick-or-treating for the kiddos pregame, and spooky sketches and in-game music. Fittingly, the first half of basketball was a nightmare for both teams. The Grizzlies finished the half shooting 39 percent from the floor on 42 shots. The Wizards shot 41 percent on 37 shots. At the half, the Grizzlies led 46-45. By comparison, the Warriors scored 48 points in just one quarter on Sunday.
The Grizzlies coaching staff and players have been throwing around the word “thrust” a lot recently, saying that they need to more strongly initiate their offense quicker, and with more power and direction. Basically, imposing pressure on the defense and making the defense bend and react. Larry Kuzniewski
The Grizzlies did not show any “thrust” in the first half of Tuesday night’s game. Instead of lifting off, the offense taxied aimlessly, like they were cruising the parking lot looking for an open space, in no hurry whatsoever.
Indeed, the Grizzlies have a problem unfolding their offense in a reasonable amount of time. In his piece for The Athletic, Peter Edmiston crunched the numbers and the Grizzlies are the slowest team in the league, getting their shots off later in the shot clock than anyone else.
The Grizzlies take 29.7% of their shots w/ :07 or less on the shot clock, more than any other team. Clippers are 29th (20.3%). The difference between Griz in 30th & Clips in 29th is greater than the one from 29th to 2nd. https://t.co/bBPn9Zwva5pic.twitter.com/Kh5cbdp4TH
Memphis started the game shooting 1-8. Conley missed consecutive free throws (for the first time ever?). Temple started 1-4. Jaren Jackson entered foul trouble early (and remained in foul trouble for the rest of the game).
Thankfully, the Wizards had a frighteningly bad half as well.
The Grizzlies have struggled coming out of halftime for a while now, but that wasn’t the case last night. Jackson committed his fourth foul before a minute had passed in the third quarter, and wasn’t able to make an impact on the game in the second half. Other than that, the Grizzlies came out strong on both sides of the ball in the third quarter.
Suddenly, the offense had flow. Conley and Marc Gasol worked their magic two-man game. People moved and were found off the ball. Good looks and shots were generated. The Grizzlies opened the quarter on a 18-1 run, at one point extending the lead to 19. Larry Kuzniewski
On defense, the Grizzlies’ energy and length generated a number off turnovers. Unfortunately, Memphis wasn’t able to capitalize on these turnovers, and converted just three of their 13 fast-break opportunities.
The Wizards rallied in the latter part of the third, cutting the Grizzlies lead to 6, and finished the quarter with 27 points to the Grizzlies’ 32. Their run continued till midway through the fourth quarter, getting the Wizards to within four points.
For a bit, it looked like the Grizzlies were poised to cough up another big lead (like they did in Sacramento). Instead, Memphis closed out the win with a steady hand. Garrett Temple’s defense on Bradley Beal was clutch down the stretch. Aside from Omri Casspi officially becoming a Grizzlies defender by fouling Beal on a 4-point-play, Temple held Beal scoreless in the final period, and hit a three of his own.
Shelvin Mack, whom the Grizzlies leaned on heavily throughout the game, allowed Conley to play off the ball down the stretch, greatly enhancing Conley’s scoring opportunities without over-taxing his stamina, and enhancing Conley and Gasol’s two-man game overall.
In back-to-back offensive sequences, Gasol received the ball wide open from midrange and from deep due to his two-man game with Conley as Mack brought the ball up the court and initiated the offense. After drilling the dagger triple, Gasol let loose this celebration.
The Grizzlies have wanted to get Conley off the ball, and to alleviate the primary ball-handling burden, for a while now, and Mack enabled just that in last night’s game. He scored 14 points in 29 minutes, shot 2-3 from deep, and handed out eight assists.
Another surprise from last night’s game? The Grizzlies shot 46 percent as a team from deep, and made 13 threes. And the space that shooting provided Conley and Gasol was impressive to say the least. Also, Anderson quietly, finally, had a nice game. He finished with five points, 11 rebounds, three assists, and four steals. I expect his scoring to bump up a bit when he finds his groove with the team.
Special shout out to Ivan Rabb, by the way. Due to Triple-J’s foul trouble, Rabb played nearly 12 minutes tonight and made the most of them. He played with composure, facilitated the offense, and outworked Otto Porter’s defense in the post. Larry Kuzniewski
The Grizzlies return to action on Friday, when the Jazz get a chance to even the score at home in Utah.
Tweet of the night:
The only reason the Grizzlies are in this game is because Jeff Green plays for the other team.
After a four-day hesitation, during which time a palpable optimism flared among opponents of the three city council-supported referenda, Chancellor Jim Kyle reverted to form on Monday, ruling, as he had on an earlier request to excise the referenda from the ballot, that, as he said both times, the issue of the council’s use of public funds (estimated in the range of $30,000 to $40,000) to “educate” voters was not “ripe” for judgment.
Although Kyle acknowledged that the plaintiffs — three individuals and the Save IRV organization — had standing (a point that attorneys for city had contested), he suggested again, as he had on October 11th, that the rights or wrongs of the matter could best be adjudicated in the wake of an actual election, or at least at a time when specific consequences, as against potential ones (“mays” and “maybes,” he called them), could be alleged.
Plaintiffs Erika Sugarmon, John Marek, and Sam Goff had all presented themselves as past candidates for political office who intended to run in the city election of 2019 and would face improper obstacles favoring incumbent opponents should Ranked Choice Voting (aka Instant Runoff Voting) not be instituted, as provisionally planned by the Election Commission but as opposed in a council-sponsored referendum.
Kyle was not impressed by the plaintiffs’ argument, suggesting that he had no intention of granting either side what he referred to ironically as “a fair advantage.”
City council attorney Allan Wade, referring to Ranked Choice Voting as “a failed experiment,” expressed satisfaction with the ruling and claimed to reporters, as he had in the hearing, that the council had the right to use taxpayer funds to “influence” or “educate” voters (he used both verbs at different times) and that Mayor Jim Strickland was legally bound as city administrator to assist in executing the strategy, which opponents had likened to the council’s putting “a thumb on the scale.”
Bryce Ashby, attorney for the plaintiffs, said his side still maintained hope that the mayor could exercise independent authority by declining to sign papers that would put into action a public-information campaign as envisioned by the council. Deidre Malone, of Malone Advertising and Media Group, has confirmed that she has been approached by the council about assisting in an organized media campaign in favor of the anti-IRV referenda and two others on the ballot.
Strickland has made no public statement on the controversy.
The Memphis City Council District 1 seat will soon be vacant, as Councilman Bill Morrison’s resignation from the council becomes effective on Thursday, November 1st.
Candidates wishing to fill the vacancy may be nominated by council members and the general public, or interested candidates can submit an application packet to the council office in Memphis City Hall. The packets can be picked up from the office beginning Friday at noon and must be submitted before Wednesday, November 14th at noon.
All candidates must submit proof of residency documents, as well as a sworn affidavit and nomination petition with at least 25 registered voter signatures who live in District 1.
The council, who will ultimately decide who fills the seat, plans to vote on a candidate at its meeting on Tuesday, November 20th. At the meeting, the qualifying candidates will have the chance to deliver speeches and answer any questions council members may have for them. Then, the council does multiple rounds of voting.
The process calls for the candidates receiving less than two votes in the first round to be eliminated. The voting continues until one of the candidates receives seven votes. After three rounds of voting, Chairman Berlin Boyd has the option to only consider the top two nominees.
Morrison, who was elected to the council first in 2007, then again in 2011 and 2015, was elected Shelby County Probate Clerk in August. Morrison, along with Janis Fullilove and Edmund Ford Jr., is one of three council members to be elected to other posts. Fullilove and Ford have yet to resign.
If you savor local flavor, Memphis music and musicians are lovingly entwined with the dance works in Ballet Memphis’ Fall Mix that continues through this weekend.
Every October, Ballet Memphis presents a series of new, or newish, works that often give the young dancers and sometimes new choreographers a chance to do contemporary and sometimes experimental movement. Steven McMahon, the company’s associate artistic director, says Fall Mix re-launches The Memphis Project, an off-and-on series that puts the focus on the creative and cultural soul of the city.
The effort is a triumph of programming and performance. The opening work is something of an epic oldie, Trey Mcintyre’s “Memphis Suite,” reworked from its debut 20 years ago. The dances are song-length short stories soaked in Memphis sauce and with a soundtrack of classic tunes and local performers starting with Elvis, and moving through Ike Turner, Al Green, The Staples Singers, Roscoe Gordon, Rufus Thomas, B.B. King, Pat Hare, and John Lee Hooker.
The next piece by dynamo Alia Kache is “Unrest,” and is, fittingly, overlaid by the music of Memphis singer/songwriter Julien Baker from her “Turn Out the Lights” album. Baker is a poet of unrest and Kache’s choreography, dark and constrained at first, finds a fascinating deeper expression throughout.
McMahon choreographed the final piece, “Unapologetic,” in collaboration with Unapologetic LLC, the innovative record label and brand that travels the sonic edge while treasuring enough of the traditional to keep you guessing. Headed by record producer IMAKEMADBEATS, the group — Cameron Bethany, Kid Maestro, C Major, PreauXX, and Aaron James — is at the back of the stage, interacting with the dancers. The ballet, like the music, endeavors to take some risks and give the spirit of Memphis some complex, energizing expression.
FallMix is a thrilling program grounded in Memphis history and Memphis today, and celebrating the bounty of creativity in the city.
It’s performed at Ballet Memphis, 2144 Madison. Showtimes are 8 p.m. Nov. 1 (with a spark discussion beforehand), 8 p.m. Nov. 2, 8 p.m. Nov. 3, and 2 p.m. Nov. 4. Tickets are $25 evenings / $15 matinees. Go to balletmemphis.org or call 901-737-7322.
DNC chair Tom Perez at the National Civil Rights Museum on Saturday.
Tom Perez, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, paid a stop in Memphis on Saturday, at the National Civil Rights Museum for an installment of the DNC’s “Seat at the Table” tour, designed to galvanize the involvement of African-American women in the party.
In his farewell message to attendees, Perez took note of one of the major issues on the November 6th ballot — the referendum for Memphis voters on repeal of Ranked Choice Voting, a method for determining winners, sans runoffs, in multi-candidate races in which no candidate has a majority.
“I’ve spent a lot of time on that issue,” said Perez, after giving a hat-tip to Steve Mulroy, the University of Memphis law professor and former county commissioner who has been a major proponent of RCV (aka Instant Runoff Voting), scheduled to be employed in the 2019 city election, unless repealed.
Perez suggested that “the Republicans” were “trying to take it away,” though in fact it was incumbents of the nonpartisan Memphis City Council who implanted the repeal referendum on the ballot.
“If I were living here, I’d vote no on that referendum, because you’ve already voted for it,” said Perez, who referred to a previous referendum, in 2008, when Memphis voters approved the process by a 70 percent majority. “It forces candidates to talk to everyone, instead of just that one base. It fosters civility because you can’t ignore 70 percent of the people.
Perez went on: “Talk to them! What a radical concept. That’s why y’all voted for it, and that’s why they don’t want it.”
Not even a truckload of washing machines could clean up two weed-hauling truckers.
Corey Dajuan Walden, 31, of Antioch, Tenn., and Jonathan Tarell Carter, 43, of Cane Ridge, were driving a tractor trailer Sunday evening when they were pulled over for a traffic violation on I-40 close to Canada Road.
But Nic, a K-9 officer, smelled something funny.
Shelby County District Attorney General
When officers opened the truck’s trailer, they found a load of washing machines. But in that seemingly clean load, they also found 280 pounds of marijuana. That’s about how much pro wrestlers weigh.
Street value for the weed was estimated to be abut $840,000, according to West Tennessee Drug Task Force Director Tim Helldorfer
The arrest was made by members of the Multi-Agency Gang Unit and the Drug Task Force. Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich and Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner said the seizure is good example of the coordinated efforts of multiple law enforcement agencies, including the Tennessee Highway Patrol.
On Monday, U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen asked for an emergency hearing on hate crimes and domestic terrorism in the wake ”of recent killings by individuals with white supremacist views.”
Cohen joined Reps. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Shelia Jackson Lee (D-TX) in a letter to House Judiciary Committee chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) to request the hearing.
In their letter, they cite three incidents for the need of a hearing:
• On Wednesday, Gregory Bush attempted to enter a predominantly black church in Jeffersontown, Ky. When he failed, he entered a nearby supermarket and killed two African American individuals. He is reported to have told a bystander: “Don’t shoot me. I won’t shoot you. Whites don’t shoot whites.” He is also reported to have a long history of domestic violence charges and to have been previously barred from possessing a firearm under federal law.
• On Friday, federal prosecutors charged Cesar Altieri Sayoc Jr. with sending explosive devices to at least a dozen public figures who have often been singled out by President [Donald] Trump. Savoc identified himself to coworkers as a white supremacist who “dislikes gays, African-Americans, Jews, and anybody who isn’t white.”
• On Saturday, Robert Bowers shot and killed 11 people gathered to worship at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He made his motive clear to the SWAT team that captured him: “I just want to kill Jews.
“In the past week, our nation has borne witness to three acts of terror,” reads the letter to Goodlatte. “This groundswell of violence includes both the largest attempted mass assassination of prominent political figures in American history and the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in American history.
[pullquote-1] “Each of these acts was carried out by an individual understood to espouse white supremacist views…Whether it manifests itself as racism or anti-Semitism or xenophobia, white supremacy is white supremacy. In its modern form, it motivates a fluid and particularly virulent form of domestic terrorism. It must be stopped.”
The three lawmakers say Goodlatte did not respond to a similar request for such a hearing after last year’s Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va.
Larry Kuzniewski 
Larry Kuzniewski 
Larry Kuzniewski 
JB 
Memphis City Council 
Shelby County District Attorney General 
Shelby County District Attorney General 
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