News Blog

The leader of a local organization that advocates for the Latino community here called President Donald Trump’s recent threats to remove “millions of illegal aliens” an “explosive” and “divisive" comment, and questioned the verity of the claims. 

On Monday, the president tweeted that Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) agents would begin removing undocumented immigrants from the country next week.

“Next week ICE will begin the process of removing the millions of illegal aliens who have illicitly found their way into the United States,” Trump tweeted. “They will be removed as fast as they come in. Mexico, using their strong immigration laws, is doing a very good job of stopping people long before they get to our Southern Border. Guatemala is getting ready to sign a Safe-Third Agreement.

“The only ones who won’t do anything are the Democrats in Congress. They must vote to get rid of loopholes, and fix asylum. If so, the Border Crisis will end quickly.”

Executive director of Latino Memphis, Mauricio Calvo said Trump’s statement is “another explosive, non-deliverable, and divisive comment from the president.”

“It doesn't make any sense logistically, economically, politically, and most importantly, it doesn't recognize that we are talking about people,” Calvo said. “However, deportations and separation of families are very real and a daily tragedy in our city.

"Thousands of Memphians who are among our neighbors, employees, and friends of our children are vulnerable to this reality.”

Calvo said one way to prepare for this reality is to become informed, citing the national immigration defense campaign, We Have Rights. The campaign’s website gives undocumented immigrants instructions on how to protect themselves when encountering ICE officers or when detained.

For example, the website explains that ICE agents are not allowed to enter or search a home without a warrant signed by a judge. Undocumented immigrants have the right to ask the agents to leave if they do not have a signed warrant.

We Have Rights advises those who have been arrested not to sign any paperwork, to remain silent, and to ask to speak to a lawyer even if they don’t have one. See the video at the bottom for more detail. Anyone who is arrested can be located via this site.

Calvo also encourages people to get involved in the issue by voting for legislators who support immigration reform.

When asked about the president’s tweet and whether or not ICE would execute raids in Shelby County, ICE’s office of public affairs shed little light on next week’s plans.

Plastic bags at retail stores could soon be a thing of the past here, as the Memphis City Council is looking to ban retail stores’ distribution of plastic bags to customers at checkouts.

The ban would prohibit the distribution of single-use plastic bags at checkouts in retail establishments with 2,000 square feet or more. Back in November, councilman Berlin Boyd first proposed a seven-cent fee on plastic bags that shoppers take from retail stores. He then reduced the proposed fee to five cents earlier this year.

Votes on the ordinance were held several times after a new Tennessee law was signed by Gov. Bill Lee in April. The law bans local governments from regulating the “use, disposition, or sale of an auxiliary container.”

Now, the council is waiting for a legal opinion from the Tennessee Attorney General’s office on whether or not Memphis’ amended ordinance would violate the law.

The council will return to the issue at its July 2nd meeting.

If passed, each violation of the ordinance would result in a $50 fine.

According to the draft of the ordinance, sponsored by Boyd and Chairman Kemp Conrad, plastic bags place a cost burden on municipal trash and recycling operations, citing that only 1 percent of plastic bags are recycled.

The ordinance also states that the measure is meant to ensure “sustainable stewardship of the city’s environmental treasures, and a responsibility to prevent plastic bags from polluting and clogging our waterways and endangering wildlife and the broader ecosystem.”

If the council passes the measure, exceptions to the ban would include newspaper bags, dry cleaning and garment bags, bags provided by pharmacists, and take-out bags from restaurants.

The ban would also not include bags used to package loose items such as produce or candy.

If approved, the ban would take effect in January 2021.

Officials with Memphis Light, Gas, and Water (MLGW) said the fact that there have been no rate increases this year has slowed down the utility’s replacement of lead pipes.

Giving a Memphis City Council committee an update on MLGW’s lead line replacement progress, Rhonda Morgan, MLGW’s manager of water, construction, and maintenance, said the utility had to cut the budget for this service after no rate increases were approved for MLGW by the council earlier this year.

The line item that includes funding for replacing lead lines was cut by 80 percent, dropping from $7.4 million to $1.5 million, Morgan said.

Since 2012, MLGW has replaced 3,417 lead service lines, Morgan said. So far this year, the utility has replaced 224 lines.

The goal was to have all the lead lines replaced by 2022, but Morgan said she doesn’t think that is “feasible” with MLGW’s current staffing. The utility can replace between 1,200 to 1,500 lines a year with its current personnel, Morgan said.

Morgan said the utility is responsible for only the street service line which runs from the curb stop to the main water line. MLGW replaces these pipes if they are lead.

Beyond the curb, it becomes the responsibility of the homeowner to have the lines inspected by a plumber and replaced if necessary.

Councilwoman Cheyenne Johnson questioned if the utility provides assistance to those who can’t afford to have their end of the line replaced.

MLGW president and CEO, J.T. Young said the utility is trying to find ways to help customers in those situations and similar ones. However, he said to date, the utility hasn’t been able to secure any grants or other funding sources for those efforts, but that MLGW is “continuing to pursue” those options.

There is a map on MLGW’s website that will tell you if MLGW has found lead in your water pipes. Morgan said homeowners are notified of the replacement before and after the service is completed.

A Memphis author and tenured professor at Lemoyne-Owen College is receiving backlash for comments about last week’s officer-involved shooting in Frayser.

Tom Graves teaches English at Lemoyne-Owen College, a historically-black college. In a Facebook post, he called Brandon Webber, the 21-year-old black man who was shot and killed by U.S. Marshal officers here last week, a “fucking idiot.”

“So let me get this straight,” Graves wrote. “A wanted felon who shot a guy five times was found in Frayser by U.S. Marshals. So, the fucking idiot tries to run over the Marshals with his vehicle then exits the car with a gun. So, the war he starts with a whole gang of U.S. Marshals, everyone an expert shooter ends with him dead as Dillinger.”

Graves then discusses the community uprising that ensued after the shooting, saying what happened next “makes me seethe.”

“A riotous crowd gathers and begins to harass and intimidate law enforcement on the scene,” Graves said. “Mayhem ensues. People get arrested. Asshole thugs in the crowd fire their weapons. Tear gas. Batons. Shields.”

Graves continues, criticizing activists and leaders like Tami Sawyer, who Graves said defended Webber.

“Others relate what a wonderful student he was,” Graves wrote of Webber. “His Facebook posts attest to thuggery, with him holding up fistfuls of cash, as if he were the king daddy pimp. Defending this man is wrong. He should be condemned for what he was and represented and did.”

See Graves' full post at the bottom of the page.

Many people took issue with Graves’s post. Some even called for his dismissal at the college:

In a comment on another one of his Facebook posts, Graves explained that his original post was only meant for his friends, but that it was screen-capped and shared around social media. Graves adds that he doesn’t “discuss this stuff with my students.”

“I don't discuss this stuff with my students — I teach them writing,” Graves said. “And I love and respect my students. I did not want all this to get so out of hand. Lots of folks black and white agree with my take on the Frayser incident.”

Terrell Lamont Strayhorn, vice president of academic and student affairs at LOC said via Facebook that the college is aware of the incident and is working to resolve it.

“Please know that posts made by individuals do NOT reflect the collective values and commitments of LeMoyne-Owen College,” Strayhorn said.

The LOC Student Government Associated sent a letter to Graves in response to his comments, calling them “appalling.” The students said they would like to “express our discontentment at the insincerity with which you commented on the Brandon Webber case.”

“While we agree that we do not have the facts of the case, we are in unanimous disagreement with your verbiage and disregard for the impact which your words would have on the community you serve,” the letter reads. “As a professor at a historically black college, you are keenly aware of the challenges unique to the black/African-American community.

Given the experiences of the students you teach, your implicit justification of the unfortunate events which happened have not been taken lightly.”

The students are calling for a public apology to the students and administration of the college and its stakeholders.

Civil rights groups say the community’s response to Wednesday’s fatal shooting of Brandon Webber at the hands of U.S. Marshals officers goes beyond the events of this week and is the result of years of injustice.

Just City said in a Thursday statement via Twitter that the neighborhood's response is based on “decades of sustained over-policing and entrenched policies that criminalize poverty.”

“The loss of another young life was but a spark on the smoldering ashes that exist in so many neighborhoods in our community,” reads the statement from Just City. “Every single day in Memphis, young and old alike encounter oppressive systems, which are nearly impossible to avoid or escape.”

Just City said the courts demand more time and attention from the poor than the wealthy, so “even simple traffic tickets can cause a crisis.”

“Hefty” court costs and fees, which if not paid result in driver’s license suspensions, is one way that Just City said those living in poverty are unfairly treated by the system.

“Law enforcement and courts demand accountability for the slightest misstep,” Just City said. “Yet when a life is taken in a hail of gunfire, we wait for days, weeks, or years for a simple description of what occurred, and officers are rarely, if ever, held accountable.”

“While we in no way condone violence against police officers, the boiling point reached by some individuals in the crowd last night is the consequence of decades of injustice, discrimination, and violence against black people in Memphis and beyond,” Weinberg said. “Of course people in Frayser are upset and angry. We should all be angry.”

Weinberg continues saying that to ignore the pain of protesters and instead to respond with “a militarized show of police force, only illustrates and reinforces the problem.”

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• Brandon Webber

“To adapt the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., unrest is the language of the unheard,” Weinberg said. “To stem the erosion of trust between the community and law enforcement, it is incumbent on Memphis leaders to start listening. This means acknowledging the community’s legitimate pain and anger.”

Weinberg also questioned if there were any attempts made by the officers to de-escalate the situation before shooting Webber: “Was shooting Mr. Webber over a dozen times, if reports are accurate, really necessary?”

There should be a “swift, thorough, and transparent” investigation into the shooting and a “prompt” release of any footage or evidence related to the incident, Weinberg said.

The Memphis branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) also wants answers surrounding Webber’s death.

In a Thursday statement, Deidre Malone, president of the Memphis branch, said the group is “very interested” in determining whether or not the U.S. Marshal officers that shot Webber were wearing body cameras and if there “was a better way to engage Mr. Webber once he was located.”

“Unfortunately for our citizens, Memphis is again in the spotlight over a shooting of an African American,” Malone said. “The NAACP Memphis Branch will continue to ask these questions until we obtain a response.”

Officials say the 21-year-old man who was shot and killed by U.S. Marshal officers Wednesday in Frayser was wanted for shooting and robbing a man in Hernando, Mississippi earlier this month.

Hernando District Attorney John Champion said Thursday afternoon that Brandon Webber met the victim in Hernando on June 3rd to purchase a car from him, which he’d seen advertised on Facebook. After test driving the car, Webber “cold-bloodily” shot the victim five times before fleeing in the red Infiniti, Champion said.

The victim, who is still in the hospital, later identified Webber as the shooter. Because Webber, a Memphis resident, lived out of the Hernando Police Department’s jurisdiction and was a “violent fugitive,” Champion the said U.S. Marshals Service Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force was employed to arrest him.

Webber was charged with aggravated assault, armed robbery, and conspiracy to commit armed robbery.

Champion adds that the task force was advised of the “serious nature of the charges that we had here, so obviously when they were up in Memphis looking for him, they were very aware of his propensity for violence.”

“The Marshals were dealing with a violent suspect, no doubt about it,” Champion said. “You just have to look at everything. I just wish that people would sit back and just see what happened.”

Champion said there is a second suspect that police believe to be involved in the shooting. A warrant for his arrest has been issued.

The preliminary report from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations (TBI) stated that Webber was approached by the officers Wednesday night around 7 p.m outside of his home in Frayser.

TBI officials said in a Thursday statement that Webber “rammed his vehicle into the officers’ vehicles multiple times before exiting with a weapon. The officers fired striking and killing the individual. No officers were injured.”

The statement continued: “This remains an active and ongoing investigation, as TBI Special Agents and forensic scientists continue to work to gather any and all relevant interviews and evidence. As in any case, TBI’s investigative findings will be shared with the District Attorney General throughout the process for her review.

As is our policy, the TBI does not identify the officers involved in these types of incidents and instead refers questions of that nature to their respective department.

Any updates on this investigation will be posted online at TBINewsroom.com."