Tag: London Lamar

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Reactions to Police Charges in Tyre Nichols Death

Posted to Facebook by Dakarai Turner

Reactions to charges filed against five Memphis Police Department officers in the death of Tyre Nichols believe the charges are a good place to start but not the end of justice in the case. 

(Credit: Ben Crump | Twitter)

Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, attorneys for the Nichols family: 

“The news today from Memphis officials that these five officers are being held criminally accountable for their deadly and brutal actions gives us hope as we continue to push for justice for Tyre.

“This young man lost his life in a particularly disgusting manner that points to the desperate need for change and reform to ensure this violence stops occurring during low-threat procedures, like in this case, a traffic stop.

“This tragedy meets the absolute definition of a needless and unnecessary death. Tyre’s loved ones’ lives were forever changed when he was beaten to death, and we will keep saying his name until justice is served.”

Tennessee state Senate Democratic Leader Sen. Raumesh Akbari:

Raumesh Akbari (Credit: Senator Raumesh Akbari | Facebook)

“While I applaud the swift action of the district attorney, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Memphis Police Department, there is no justice for Tyre Nichols today.

“Justice would be Tyre living to see his next birthday. Justice is people in this community having trust that our police officers will first police themselves. No one should fear for their life during a simple traffic stop or be afraid to even engage with our officers.

There is no justice for Tyre Nichols today.

Sen. Raumseh Akbari

“So instead, today we begin the long act of healing our hurting community, Tyre’s mother and family, and ourselves.

“We cannot move forward together unless we are willing to do the work to hold our police department to the highest ethical standards and uproot any existence or acceptance of police brutality. This is our call to action and we must be vigilant.”

Tennessee state Sen. London Lamar, chairwoman of the Senate Democratic Caucus:

(Credit: London Lamar | TN State Government)

“Like many of us, I feel traumatized by Tyre Nichols’ death and I am disturbed by the actions of the officers who were involved.

“While today we send our heartfelt condolences to the Nichols family, tomorrow we work toward achieving continuous accountability for law enforcement.

“This may be the most egregious act of police brutality in our nation’s history. It shows exactly how much work we have to do to build trust between our people and the officers who pledge to serve and protect our community.

“This may be the most egregious act of police brutality in our nation’s history.”

Sen. London Lamar

“Accountability for the officers involved in Tyre’s death is the first step. The next step is for law enforcement, state and federal officials, and local leaders to investigate why this happened. We have to fix the root causes of police brutality and then do the work to make sure it never happens again.”

U.S. Rep Steve Cohen

Cohen/Credit: U.S. government

“Right now, much of the national media is looking at Memphis as there was an awful killing of a 29-year-old African American man by five police officers within the last few weeks.

“The five police officers have been fired by the police department for violating their oaths…It could be a situation where people want to exercise their First Amendment rights to protest actions of the Police Department, and people should. But they should be peaceful and calm.

“We have a new D.A. We have a new U.S. Attorney. And we have a new police director. They are the right people at the right time to bring about reform and to deal with this case to see that justice is rendered.

“I grieve for the life of Tyre Nichols, whose life should not have been extinguished. He was an outstanding young man and it’s extremely sad that he was killed.

“I pray for my city.”

Rhonda Logan/Facebook

Memphis City Council member Rhonda Logan, chair of council’s Public Safety Committee

“I’d like to share my deepest condolences, love, and prayers of comfort to the family and loved ones of Mr. Tyre Nichols. The death of Mr. Tyre Nichols has been deeply felt and particularly painful because it was in every way heinous. It was inhumane and, in my view, absolutely a crime. 

“At the city council Public Safety Committee meeting on January 24th, 2023, I opened with a prayer for Mr. Nichols’ family and shared that I ‘…hope there will be an opportunity for open dialogue within the next few weeks once the investigation has concluded.’

“There are many unanswered questions, as well as new information we are learning about this case every day. As the Public Safety chair, I have not received any additional information from the Memphis Police Department or other law enforcement agency that has not been shared with the public.  

“I want to assure members of the public that as chair of the Public Safety Committee, I am committed to holding public conversations with Memphis Police and Memphis Fire leadership about the failings of this tragic event.

“We will consider any and all legislation proposed by the city council and/or administration that could aid in the prevention of any other tragedy such as this one. We will increase regular reporting and transparency with the public, as well as continue to urge community policing.  

As a council member elected to represent the citizens, that has and will continue to include Tyre Nichols.”

Rev. Jason Lawrence Turner, pastor of Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church, and leader of the Black Clergy Collaborative of Memphis

Rev. Jason Lawrence Turner/Twitter

“Today’s indictment against five Memphis police officers involved in the beating death of Tyre Nichols is also an indictment against the systemic injustice and abuse of power still rampant throughout the United States criminal justice system.

“Tragically, Tyre is now its face. But it has thousands of faces in thousands of communities across this country. The color of the officers who’ve been indicted is beside the point. They must be held accountable as must any person and any system that would abuse marginalized people.

“We must demand policy changes nationwide that finally pull systemic injustice out by the roots. We will start today in Memphis. Today can mark the beginning of the Second Civil Rights Movement: beyond individual equality to systemic equality.

“We demand a system that manifests justice for all, not the privileged few. In Tyre’s name, systemic justice is what we must demand and fight for — each day going forward until we overcome.”

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State Lawmakers Look for Motive In HIV Funding Shift

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

by Sam Stockard, Tennessee Lookout

Two Memphis lawmakers are raising concerns about the state’s decision to cut federal HIV funding from nonprofit agencies and direct it through metro health departments, saying such a move could endanger lives.

State Rep. Antonio Parkinson is asking the Tennessee Department of Health why it is cutting HIV funds received through multi-million dollar grants from the Centers for Disease Control. He contends the Department of Health shouldn’t “play politics” with the money because HIV prevention and treatment is needed statewide.

The Memphis Democrat sent a letter this week to the department requesting an official explanation for the end to HIV funds by June 1.

“I want to know why and how that decision came down,” Parkinson says.

The Associated Press reported documents show the state planned to cut HIV funding from Planned Parenthood and to stop a partnership with the organization for HIV testing even before the state made the decision to end the funding for nonprofits. Planned Parenthood has been a target for anti-abortion lawmakers and top state officials for years.

It’s irresponsible to deprive trusted organizations in our community (of) giving non-controversial lifesaving treatment, testing and prevention for HIV.

– Sen. London Lamar, D-Memphis

Dr. Ralph Alvarado, a former Kentucky state senator and 2019 Republican candidate for lieutenant governor there, was appointed commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Health by Gov. Bill Lee shortly before the funds were cut. Alvarado is set to address the Senate Health and Welfare Committee Wednesday at 1:30 p.m.

Dr. Amy Gordon Bono, a primary care physician, said Tuesday she hopes Alvarado will explain the decision. She pointed out Davidson County organizations such as Nashville Cares and Nashville Health have been providing HIV services for years where the “most vulnerable populations live.”

“Does Dr. Alvarado really think that our Metro Health Department has the infrastructure and staffing in place to provide these same services?” Bobo says. “And, more critically, will those who need these services be able to access them if they are not conveniently located in their communities?”

More than 20,000 Tennesseans live with HIV, and 14% with the disease don’t realize it, according to reports. 

Even though funds are supposed to go to the state’s six largest health departments, Gov. Lee said last week the state will continue to use some nonprofit agencies for HIV services. He admitted the details haven’t been worked out.

Gov. Bill Lee swears in Dr. Ralph Alvarado, pictured with his wife and Lee, as commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Health on Jan. 17. (Photo: tn.gov)

“The purpose of this is to make sure that we spend the dollars in the way that best serves Tennesseans and that best mitigates and prevents HIV spread in the community, particularly focusing on human trafficking victims, on the transmission to first responders, on transmissions from mothers to their babies,” Lee said.

However, state Sen. London Lamar says in order to be a “pro-life state,” Tennessee should ensure the funds are reaching people who need them. 

“It’s irresponsible to deprive trusted organizations in our community (of) giving non-controversial lifesaving treatment, testing and prevention for HIV,” Lamar says.

Planned Parenthood is already prohibited from providing abortion treatment under the state’s new law, and now the state is “attacking” the organization to stop it from providing other types of health care, Lamar points out.

Restricting those services for nonprofit organizations puts people at risk of spreading HIV, in part because of a lack of trust for health departments and poor access to them, Lamar points out. 

Parkinson says he doesn’t know whether the funding withdrawal is designed to punish specific organizations. 

“I hope that it’s not political like that. I hope and pray it’s not, because we don’t need to put politics over the lives and health of the people of Tennessee,” Parkinson says.



Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus 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. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.

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Naming Names

Photo: Frederick Tappan with Cary Vaughn

District Attorney-elect Steve Mulroy took the opportunity last week to name the members of his newly created transition team, to be chaired by outgoing County Commissioner and local NAACP head Van Turner.

Turner, who recently acknowledged that he would be a candidate for mayor in next year’s Memphis city election, promised “a thorough, top-to-bottom review of the operations, priorities, and staffing of the District Attorney’s Office.”

Other members of the transition team are: District 29 state Senator Raumesh Akbari (D); District 83 state Representative Mark White (R); Demetria Frank, associate dean for diversity and inclusion at the University of Memphis Law School; Richard Hall, chief of police, city of Germantown; Muriel Malone, executive director of the Tennessee Human Rights Commission and former Shelby County assistant DA; Kevin Rardin, retired member of the Public Defender’s Office and former Shelby County assistant DA; Mike Carpenter, director of marketing and development for My Cup of Tea; Yonée Gibson and Josh Spickler of Just City; and attorneys Jake Brown, Kamilah Turner, Brice Timmons, and Mike Working.

Paul Young (Photo: Jackson Baker)

• Paul Young, the director of the Downtown Memphis Commission, gave members of the Kiwanis Club a comprehensive review of current and future projects for Downtown development on Wednesday of last week. One matter of public curiosity did not go unspoken to in the subsequent Q&A. Would he, someone asked, be a candidate for Memphis mayor next year as has been rumored?

Young’s reply: “Obviously, we’ve had a lot of conversations. And you know, it’s not time for any type of announcements or anything like that. I’m gonna continue to do the job at DMC to the best of my ability, regardless of when the season comes for the mayor’s race, but we definitely have had discussions.”

• Meanwhile, the Shelby County Republican Party, having been defeated for all countywide positions in the recent August 4th election, is doing its best to retain optimism. Looking ahead to the next go-round, the federal-state general election of November 8th, the local GOP held a fundraiser Friday at the South Memphis headquarters of the Rev. Frederick Tappan, who will oppose Democratic nominee (and recently appointed incumbent) London Lamar for the District 33 state Senate seat.

Imported for the occasion was state Senator Ken Yager of Kingston, the GOP’s Senate caucus chair, who assured local Republicans, for what it was worth, that “the Republican leadership are 100 percent committed to the election of Frederick Tappan.”

Tappan, pastor of Eureka TrueVine Baptist Church and founder of L.I.F.E. Changing Ministries, sounded his own note of commitment: “We can do this if we come together. We need one mind, have one mission, to become one Memphis. We don’t lean to the left, we don’t lean to the right.”

GOP chair Cary Vaughn, who would probably admit leaning somewhat to the right, said, “We took it on the chin a few weeks ago. But that was not the finish line. That was the starting line for November 8th, we’ve got a chance to redeem ourselves.” Vaughn mentioned several of the party’s legislative candidates, including state Senator Kevin Vaughan, state representatives Mark White and John Gillespie, and state Senate candidate Brent Taylor. “We have a chance to rectify the situation. And we have an opportunity, not just to finish, but to finish well.”

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Moving the Goalposts

Current boundaries of the 9th Congressional District (Photo: Wikipedia)

Among the several factors that may change the political map, in Tennessee as elsewhere, are the numbers from the 2020 census. As a result of them, the dimensions of numerous governmental districts are due to change — with effects highly noticeable in Shelby County and West Tennessee.

Both the 9th Congressional District, which includes most of Memphis and is currently represented by Democrat Steve Cohen, and the 8th Congressional District, which contains a key sliver of East Memphis and is represented by Republican David Kustoff, will have to expand their boundaries to approximate the average district population in Tennessee, which the Census Bureau found to be 767,871.

Inasmuch as the 2020 population of the 9th District was certified as 690,749, and that of the 8th District as 716,347, both West Tennessee districts will need to stretch their limits. The 9th District actually lost 14,376 people from its 2010 population of 705,125, a diminishment of 2 percent. The 8th, by contrast, grew by 11,227 people from 705,120, a gain of 1.6 percent. But, since both districts fell below the stage growth average of 8.49 percent, their boundaries will expand.

New configurations will occur elsewhere in the state, as well — particularly in Middle Tennessee, where several districts that experienced population booms in the last decade will have to shrink. The state’s population as a whole is now reckoned at 6.91 million, representing an increase of something like 564,000 people in a decade. But Tennessee’s growth pattern still lagged behind the national average, so Tennessee will continue with its current lineup of nine congressional seats with no additional seats added.

Again, both the 8th and 9th Districts in Tennessee will have to grow geographically to catch up with the state average of population per district. That will undoubtedly cause some tension and horse-trading as state lawmakers, who must make the determination of new district lines for congressional and state offices, set to the task, which has a deadline of April 7, 2022. (In the case of local government districts, for commission, council, and school districts, the deadline is January 1, 2022.)

The situation recalls a previous significant change in the boundaries of Districts 8 and 9 that occurred in 2011 after the 2010 census. That reapportionment process was the first overseen by a Republican legislative majority, and it resulted in the surrender of a prize hunk of donor-rich East Memphis turf from Cohen’s 9th District to the 8th. Cohen was compensated by territory to the north of Shelby County in Millington.

Given the fact of continued GOP dominance of the General Assembly, the valuable East Memphis salient is liable to stay in Kustoff’s 8th District. The 9th will have to expand somewhere else in the 8th District, which surrounds it — a fact that creates a whack-a-mole situation for Kustoff, who’ll have to compensate, possibly from the adjoining 7th District.

Meanwhile, several legislative districts in Shelby County are seriously under-strength in relation to average statewide population figures. These include state Senate districts 29, 30, and 33 — now held by Democrats Raumesh Akbari, Sara Kyle, and Katrina Robinson, respectively — and state House Districts 86, 90, 91, and 93 — represented currently by Democrats Barbara Cooper, Torrey Harris, London Lamar, and G.A. Hardaway, respectively.

Significant changes are likely to occur also in legislative reapportionment, possibly in the loss of a seat or two in Shelby County.

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Turner’s Interest in ’23 Memphis Mayor’s Race Highlights Weekend Announcements

State Rep. London Lamar (right) chats with her mother (left), Mayor Jim Strickland, and state Sen. Sara Kyle (Photo: Jackson Baker)

Things are moving fast now. Though it is only midyear of 2021, a year ahead of time on the calendar, election 2022 is beginning to take form as candidates start to declare their availability and to shape their campaigns. In one notable case, in fact, that of Memphis mayor, which won’t be voted on until 2023, a major candidate has already made his intentions known.

That candidate would be Van Turner, a lawyer of consequence, a county commissioner and former Shelby County Commission chair, head of the NAACP, and president of Memphis Greenspace, the nonprofit, ad hoc organization that now administers several Downtown parks after coming into being to purge them of their Confederate identities and memorabilia.

Turner had been talked up as a possible future mayor of both Shelby County, which will cast a vote for mayor next year, and Memphis, which will do so a year later. At a well-attended fundraiser in his honor on Saturday at the Cordova home of activist Lexie Carter, Turner made his choice known.

He declared that he is forming an exploratory committee to run for mayor of Memphis in 2023, when current Mayor Jim Strickland is term-limited out. And he is likely to inherit a good deal of the Strickland support group, since the Memphis mayor has made no secret of his regard for Turner.

Turner’s declaration solves two problems. Simultaneously he puts other possible contenders for city mayor on notice that he will be in that race as a likely favorite in 2023, and he dissociates himself from the idea of running for Shelby County in 2022 under any imaginable circumstance. Turner had already made it clear he would not oppose the current county mayor, fellow Democrat Lee Harris, who has yet to make his own decisions about his political future.

Melvin Burgess speaks at fundraiser (Photo: Jackson Baker)

• Turner’s was not the only candidacy that got launched over the weekend. Two incumbents running for re-election in 2022 had their coming-out parties — state Representative London Lamar and Shelby County Assessor Melvin Burgess.

Lamar had her initial announcement for a re-election race in House District 91 on Friday at the Allworld Project Management building on B.B. King Street Downtown. She did so with introductory support remarks from both Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland and respected activist and businessman Calvin Anderson.

Lamar spoke frankly about her evolution from freshman status into a role of responsibility and outreach in the delegation at large.

Also making an impact at a Sunday event at his home in the Evergreen district was Burgess, who proudly cited his honor as Tennessee Assessor of the Year and his success in persuading the Shelby County Commission to conduct property appraisals on an every-other-year basis.

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Local Leaders on Vote to Remove Bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest

Nathan Bedford Forrest Boyhood Home/Facebook

 

The vote by the Tennessee Historical Commission on whether or not to remove the bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest from the Tennessee State Capitol has been rescheduled from February 17th to March 9th.


The State Capitol Commission voted in favor of removing the bust from the Capitol in July, and petitioned the Historical Commission to move the bust from the Capitol to the Tennessee State Museum. Forrest was a Confederate general, slave trader, and Ku Klux Klan leader. The sculpture of his likeness has been front and center in the Tennessee State Capitol Building since the late 1970s. The Flyer spoke to three local leaders about the issue.

Michalyn Easter-Thomas of the Memphis City Council

“We should pay close attention to what we choose to memorialize and render as proud history, said Memphis City Council member Michalyn Easter-Thomas. “My hope is that our state legislators vote to remove the bust that symbolizes murder, oppression, and tyranny in this city, region, state, and nation. However, no matter the outcome, it can be assured that the fight for justice will continue no matter whose bust is on the pedestal.” 

“I obviously don’t agree with the statue being in the Capitol and I’ve expressed that. I did a live video talking about that. I continue to disagree with that symbol governing over the most powerful building in the state of Tennessee,” said Tennessee State Representative Antonio Parkinson.

Tennessee State Representative Antonio Parkinson

“This statue sits in the most prominent place when you get off the elevator. I vehemently oppose it. However, it is nowhere near my highest priority in regards to what I think is important for people at this time. We are coming out probably the worst period in most Americans lives, financially, mentally and even educationally. My priorities are the health of our community and the education of our children and how we put money on the table of the people we represent. That statue doesn’t address any of those. The governor’s office and the General Assembly know exactly where I stand on that, they know exactly what to do.”       

Tennessee State Representative London Lamar


“There is no question that the history of Nathan Bedford Forrest is a symbol of hate,” said State Representative London Lamar. “The Confederacy itself symbolized the legalization of slavery where Nathan Bedford became rich from selling slaves on an auction block in Memphis, Tennessee, and served as the first Grand Wizard of the KKK. There is no positive Tennessee history behind Nathan Bedford Forrest, so there is no reason that Tennessee should be honoring him with a bust in our State Capitol. The people that we should be honoring are those who make a positive impact on our State’s history.


“The bust should be moved to the Tennessee State Museum because removing this bust does absolutely nothing to remove Tennessee’s history, it simply removes the fact that Tennessee seems to praise the man who obviously symbolizes white supremacy through his determination to keep slavery legal in this state and led mass murder on African Americans. I hope the commission votes to remove the bust to the museum where the story of Nathan Bedford Forrest can be told in the appropriate context.“ 

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Lawmakers Urge Lee for Mask Mandate

Tennessee General Assembly

Clockwise from top left Rep. London Lamar, Rep. Vincent Dixie, Senator Brenda Gilmore, and Rep. Yusuf Hakeem.

Governor Bill Lee

A group of Democratic Tennessee lawmakers urged Tennessee Governor Bill Lee to issue a mask mandate immediately.

Lee announced Sunday that new social gathering restrictions would be put in place for the state of Tennessee. He signed an executive order limiting public gatherings to 10 people. However, places of worship, weddings, some sporting events, and funerals are exempt from the order.

Lee has still not implemented a mask mandate despite pleas from healthcare workers and local lawmakers. Though Tennessee is a hotspot for virus growth, Lee has refused to order a mask mandate and refused again on Sunday, calling such mandates a “heavily politicized issue.”


In a virtual news conference Monday, Tennessee state Senator Brenda Gilmore (D-Nashville) spoke about how COVID-19 has hit Black and brown communities hardest. 

Gilmore

“COVID-19 doesn’t discriminate but institutionalized bias toward Black and brown people is causing a high rate for African Americans and Latinos, not only in Tennessee but across this country,” she said. “It’s ravaging people of color. Approximately 60 percent of the people who have died are African Americans and Latinas. It doesn’t mean that we’re more susceptible to get this virus. It just means that when we’re infected, we are most likely to die from it.”

State Rep. London Lamar (D- Memphis) said, ”[Lee] made this a political issue when he decided not to implement a mask mandate and further our ability to kill more Tennesseans by not putting in his mandate and forcing us to protect one another. 

Lamar

On the executive order, Lamar stated, “that’s not enough, we wouldn’t have to do that if we would have implemented a mass mandate, a long time ago,” she went on to say that she is tired of going to funerals during the holidays.

“I’ve never been in the shoes of our governor, Governor Lee,” said State Rep. Yussuf Hakim (D-Chattanooga), “but I believe it’s been laid out clearly that there’s great harm being done to the average citizen in the state of Tennessee. When you talk about us being the worst in the world, that means to me that you have to take exceptional actions to mitigate such circumstances.”

Hakim

Legislators on the call said that the Tennessee economy would not have been threatened if Lee had acted sooner.

”It is our fault that the Tennessee economy is suffering?” Lamar said. “Because businesses wouldn’t have to limit operations businesses and could still be functioning the way they’re functioning in other states if we implement simple tactics like mask mandates,” said Lamar. “We are killing our own economy, because we are not acting with leadership and courage and responsibility. We have over $1 billion in a fund that would be could be used to help families during this difficult time.”

They cited several republican politicians who also supported stronger measures to protect Tennesseans, like Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger, and former U.S. Senator Bill Frist.

Dixie

“Let’s take the power; let’s lead by example,” said state Rep. Vincent Dixie (D-Nashville). “I would like for us to increase testing even though we have a vaccine. I think the approach that Governor Lee seems to be taking is the survival of the fittest.”

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Tennesesee Democrats Prepare to Select New Chair

Even as outrage mounts among Tennessee Democrats regarding the Republican state government’s involvement in a suit to overturn the presidential election, the Tennessee Democratic Party (TDP) is preparing to select a new leader for itself.

At least nine hopefuls have announced their candidacy for the chairmanship of the TDP in an election tentatively scheduled for mid-January, on the weekend after the state’s legislature reconvenes in Nashville.

Mary Mancini, who has guided the TDP for the past several years, has announced her retirement from the party helm, and the state Democratic executive committee will name a successor from the nine.

The contenders are: London Lamar, Theryn Bond, Wade Munday, Hendrell Remus, Frank Hundley, Robin Kimbrough Hayes, Jane George, Civil Miller Watkins, and Kate Craig.

The first five of those participated Wednesday night in a candidate forum sponsored by The Tennessee Holler on Zoom. Lamar, a state Representative from House District 91, and Bond are from Memphis, and Remus is a former Memphian.

A second forum is scheduled for Thursday night involving the other four candidates.

Wednesday night’s participants in party chairmanship forum

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Echoes of Discord

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

As partisan disagreements on pending legislative measures continued to dominate the Washington political scene, there were distinct local echoes.

Even as Democrats in Congress were trying to force open discussion of the Senate’s pending version of an Obamacare repeal-and-replace bill, now being prepared in private by an ad hoc group of Republican Senators, the party faithful across the state held press conferences last Friday protesting the GOP’s close-to-the-vest strategy.

In Memphis, the protest, led by London Lamar, president of the Tennessee Young Democrats and including state Representative Antonio Parkinson, was held in front of the Cliff Davis Federal Building downtown. The group’s call for open discussion of health-care legislation was directed not only at congressional Republicans but at Tennessee Senators Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander and U.S. Rep. David Kustoff specifically.

Though the matter of the federal government’s current direct oversight of mandated improvements in the procedures of Shelby County’s Juvenile Court was not, per se, a partisan issue, local attitudes toward it have tended to cleave along party lines.

Such, at least, was the appearance of things after news accounts surfaced over the weekend detailing recent efforts by three county officials seeking an end to federal oversight of Shelby County Juvenile Court, the result of a 2012 Memorandum of Understanding between the county and the Department of Justice.

The officials — county Mayor Mark Luttrell, Sheriff Bill Oldham, and Juvenile Court Judge Dan Michael — were all elected under the Republican electoral banner. 

The three officials discussed the matter of ending the federal oversight with Attorney General Jeff Sessions during his recent visit to Memphis. As attorney general, Sessions has taken a hard-line approach to law enforcement, focusing on what he sees as a need for more stringent enforcement and stricter penalties.

Luttrell, Oldham, and Michael subsequently elaborated on their request in a formal letter to the DOJ, which maintained that the court’s shortcomings — pinpointed in the DOJ investigation and subsequent MOU — have been rectified.

That claim drew negative reaction, much of it from local Democrats. One critic was state Representative Larry Miller, speaking as a panelist Monday morning at the National Civil Rights Museum.

Answering a question from the audience about legislative action on juvenile justice, Miller noted the county officials’ letter to the DOJ and took issue with it: “They’re saying, ‘We’ve done it. … We no longer need oversight.'” Disagreeing, Miller said, “We’re not there yet. The system is based on incarceration of young black men.”

A more reserved response came from former county Commissioner Sidney Chism, now an employee of the Sheriff’s Department and a declared candidate in next year’s race for county mayor. Said Chism, evidently speaking on behalf of Sheriff Oldham: “He has taken the goals seriously and has worked hard to achieve them, and I think he believes they have been achieved.”

Two legislators who were on Monday’s panel at the NCRM — state representatives Joe Towns and John DeBerry — commented afterward that the MOU should remain in effect but acknowledged, like Chism, that Luttrell, Michael, and Oldham seemed to have made good-faith efforts to raise the standards in effect at Juvenile Court.

But another nay vote came from 9th District Congressman Steve Cohen, who noted in a prepared statement that he had supported the original intervention by the Justice Department and said, “While progress has been made since 2012, there are still reports of race playing a factor in court hearings and reports of the juvenile detention facilities becoming more dangerous.” 

As of Tuesday, Sessions had not formally responded to the officials’ request.

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Politics Politics Feature

RIP for the Shelby County Democratic Party

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

For what it’s worth — and that is a very open question — the Shelby County Democratic Party has ceased to exist, having been formally decertified last Friday by state Democratic Party chair Mary Mancini of Nashville. 

Mancini’s letter of decertification, dispatched to the latest person to chair the SCDP, Sheriff’s Department Lieutenant Michael Pope, cited as the basis for her action “Article III Section 2(f) and Article VII Section 1(a)(3) of the Tennessee Democratic Party Bylaws,” which, she said, made it “the responsibility of the Tennessee Democratic Party Executive Committee to establish ‘the procedures and rules for organizing and functioning of County Democratic Executive Committees and maintaining close relationships with such committees’ and to develop and monitor a minimum set of requirements that must be observed by a state sanctioned certified County Democratic Party.”

That description left unaddressed two important components of the matter: 1) whether and to what extent the state committee took part in her decision; and 2) specific reasons for her action.

Those are arguably related issues, in that one of the known factors in forcing Mancini’s hand, and likely the precipitating one, has been the Shelby County party’s months-long impasse over what to do about the case of former local party chair Bryan Carson, who resigned last year after an audit turned up evidence of unexplained shortages in the party treasury.

Ever since, through the brief tenure of one successor to Carson as chair, Randa Spears, who also resigned, pleading a need to give full attention to her administrative job at St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, and into the election of Pope as her successor, the local party organization has been riven into two factions. 

One faction was willing to accept a compromise proposal, letting Carson effect partial repayment of the unaccounted-for funds at the level of $6,000, through monthly installment payments of $100. The other, contending that a second audit showed Carson’s liability to be at $25,000 or higher, sought prosecution of some sort and prevailed in a vote of the committee at its June meeting.

Nothing came of that vote, however. Meanwhile Mancini, expressing displeasure that the imbroglio was getting in the way of the party’s ability to focus on electing the party’s candidates this year, prevailed upon Pope to execute an agreement with Carson on behalf of the $6,000 compromise.

That led to a vote at the SCDP committee’s July meeting at which a tie vote failed to ratify the agreement, and to a vote at the committee’s August meeting, two weeks ago, renouncing Carson’s bona fides as a Democrat.

Carson continues to be a member of the state Democratic executive committee, however, a fact that his critics, and Mancini’s as well, find questionable under the circumstances.

In any case, Mancini could with some justice cite as additional reasons for her decertification what she termed (in something of an understatement) the SCDP’s “many years of dysfunction,” typified by nonstop personal feuds, many of them involving self-appointed party gadfly Del Gill, and the fact that, in both Carson’s tenure and Spears’, the SCDP failed to meet deadlines for financial disclosures to the state Election Registry, thereby incurring fines rivaling in size the amounts alleged to have gone missing under Carson.

In the meantime, Alvin Crook, president of the Shelby County Young Democrats, and London Lamar, president of the state YD organization, held a press conference on Monday, at which the YD officers promised, in Lamar’s words, to continue to “represent the views of the Democratic Party,” as the only remaining “chartered Democratic organization in this county.”