The year began with two surprises, the greater of which, of course, being the dramatic — and wholly unexpected — raid ordered by President Donald Trump on Venezuela and the extraction therefrom of dictator Nicolás Maduro to stand trial for “narco-terrorism.”
A lesser astonishment, from a local point of view, was that Trump, in his first post-raid press conference, chose to dilate on what the president deemed the successes of another recent intervention — by the Memphis Safe Task Force.
Regarding Memphis, Trump told reporters, “right now crime is down 77 percent” in the city as a result of the activities of the task force, which he called into being in September. (Statistics released by the task force January 2nd claim a total of 4,700 arrests, the seizure of 750 illegal guns, and the recovery of 132 missing children.)
Reacting to the president’s remarks, the office of Mayor Paul Young issued a statement that it couldn’t “speak to” those figures. But Young had done his own crowing last week, releasing figures contending that in the two years of his first term so far, overall crime in Memphis had been reduced by 41 percent, violent crime by 30 percent, murders by 47 percent, and aggravated assaults by 24 percent.
• Meanwhile, Memphis Congressman Steve Cohen reacted to the main subject of the president’s press conference, the seizure of Maduro. Cohen had misgivings.
“Maduro is a dictator who stole an election and brutalized his own people,” said the congressman on Facebook. “Few will defend his rule. But even the removal of a bad actor does not justify violating the Constitution by engaging in an act of war without Congressional authorization.
“Removing a regime without a clear plan for what comes next risks instability, violence, and a humanitarian crisis. The United States has paid a heavy price for this kind of thinking before.
“Congress didn’t receive a single briefing on this operation, and has yet to receive a clear explanation of the legal basis, the post-action strategy, or how this administration intends to prevent chaos, protect civilians, and support a legitimate democratic transition in Venezuela.
“The Trump administration owes Congress and the American people a clear path to stability. Removing a dictator is not the same as securing peace. What happens next will determine whether this leads to accountability, or another costly failure with long-term consequences for the region and US credibility.”
Both Cohen and his opponent in the forthcoming Democratic primary for Congress were in the throng that attended the 30th anniversary of the annual New Year’s Prayer Breakfast founded and emceed for 29 years by the late former councilman and interim Mayor Myron Lowery.
This year’s Prayer Breakfast was presided over by Lowery’s son Mickell Lowery, a Shelby County Commissioner and current candidate for county mayor, who movingly memorialized his father, as did several attendees.
Cohen and Mayor Paul Young were the principal speakers at the breakfast, and the congressman seemed to be endorsing the mayoral campaign of Lowery.
• Observers of the mayoral race keenly await the forthcoming first end-of-January financial reports as some indication of who’s who in the candidate pecking order. The deadline date for filing those reports is January 15th, which, incidentally, is the date of the first major fundraiser for Marie Feagins, the former schools superintendent whose firing by the Memphis-Shelby County Schools board last year made her a martyr/celebrity and, ultimately, a viable mayoral candidate.
Feagins has made two separate announcements as a candidate, indicating she will run as a Democrat, but has not yet pulled a petition, and speculation is rife as to whether she can qualify as a primary candidate under Democratic Party laws regarding past party rules for participation.