Valero cases set for preliminary hearings tomorrow (May 2) in Memphis

Olivia Ramirez of Oklahoma, chained to barrels of concrete on MLK Day     --Hive Swarm Media Image

Seven of 12 persons arrested while publicly defending water over oil at the Valero Energy refinery on MLK Day in Memphis are set for preliminary hearings tomorrow May 2 at the Shelby County Justice Center, 201 Poplar Avenue.

Cases were continued from Feb. 15 when defense attorneys asked police for any body-worn camera footage they had.

At a preliminary hearing, the arresting officer usually testifies, and the judge must determine if there is probable cause to support the charge.  Defendants are not required to testify, and typically defense attorneys use the hearings to determine what evidence the prosecution has and how the state intends to prosecute the cases.  

Cases can be resolved in various ways at this juncture, ranging from dismissal of charges, to making some sort of deal for pleas and costs to advancing to trial.

Three cases against the five others arrested in front of the Valero pumping station on Mallory Drive were dismissed, and two cases were disposed of by the defendants paying costs and fines. 

Calling themselves water protectors and representing Arkansas Rising to protest the 440-mile Diamond Oil pipeline form Cushing, OK, to Valero’s refinery on the banks of the Mississippi River, five of the remaining defendants were among seven chained together through 55-gallon drums filled with concrete:  Olivia Ramirez of Shiatook, OK; Erick Conner of Glenpool, OK; Katherine Hanson of Rutledge, MO: Clay Ayers of Memphis, and Spencer Kaaz of Memphis.  They were charged with disorderly conduct, obstructing a highway or passageway and criminal trespass, all Class C misdemeanors.

Rachel Gay of Rutledge, MO, and Seema Rasoul of Memphis were charged with disorderly conduct and obstructing a highway or passageway. 

An independent journalist with Hive Swarm News & Media, Gay was filming the action when arrested Jan. 16, the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.   The disorderly conduct charge was dismissed for a defective warrant.  In arresting officer Daniel Dermyer’s affidavit, he notes that there were “20-30” persons present, and that they had not obtained a protest permit, which the city of Memphis requires for assemblies of 25 or more persons.

Gay was not part of the protest nor was she an organizer – environmental activists Arkansas Rising organized the event – so it is notable that the officer complained against Gay on the basis of no permit, and he even acknowledged that the number of people assembled may not have reached the 25-person threshold.

Neither was Rasoul chained into one of five barrels, which obstructed but did not close the Valero entrance and exit driveways.  She was arrested while she was on the public sidewalk along Mallory Avenue -- although Memphis police had shut down Mallory Avenue from all traffic including local media.  

The cases are sorted among five courtrooms:

Division 7, judge William Bill Anderson:  Spencer Kaaz, represented by Seth Segraves.  Olivia Ramirez, represented by Jason Ballenger. 

Division 11, judge Karen Massey: Clay Ayers, represented by Michael Working.

Division 12, judge Ronald Lucchesi: Seema Rasoul, represented by Jason Ballenger.  Erick Conner, represented by Ballenger. 

Division 13, judge Louis J. Montessi Jr.:  Rachel Gay, represented by Michael Working; Katherine Hanson, represented by Seth Segraves. 

Since initially being charged, disorderly conduct against Hanson has been dismissed for “no probable cause,” and criminal trespass against Kaaz was dismissed without cost.

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CLERB awaits police director's response to citizen complaints

The next chapter in the story of citizen oversight of police in Memphis will be written by director of police services Michael Rallings. 

 

Paul Garner testifies at Nov. 17, 2017, CLERB meeting

After hearing complaints from four citizens that police had mistreated them in various ways, the Civilian Law Enforcement Review Board wrote letters to Rallings stating they determined officers had violated MPD policy and procedures, and thus they disagreed with internal affairs that the citizens’ complaints were invalid.  CLERB also recommended certain actions from the police director, such as reprimands and training.

'Straight Outta Memphis'

Races, Religions, Issues Converge at MLK March

VIDEO BELOW

Memphis, Tennessee, was the center of a national day of action for labor and oppressed Americans on the 49th anniversary of the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. April 4, 2017.

Fight for $15, Black Lives Matter and national religious and labor leaders came to continue the fight King died for. Memphis organizers led Fight for $15's national day of action, and there was a unified message, "straight outta Memphis," as Rev. William Barber said, that all peoples are connected in the struggle and must work together.  Barber is president of the North Carolina NAACP and leader of Moral Mondays.

Mary Kay Henry, international president of the two-million-member Service Employees International Union (SEIU), joined Barber and others in firing up the crowd of more than a thousand before they marched from Memphis City Hall to the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel.

Fight for $15 seeks to raise the minimum wage so that hourly employees, such as restaurant and home health care workers, can form a union and make a living from their jobs.

“America, here is your wake-up call, straight outta Memphis,” Barber said.  “You crucified Dr. King, but we are the resurrection.”

As political rallies and marches go, this one was set apart by a marching band -- and what march is not better with a band? -- the Talladega College Great Tornado Band and its dancing Dega Diamonds, who earlier this year had appeared at Mardi Gras and the Presidential inauguration in Washington.

#WatchTheWatchers

Goodbye, Jerome Wright and a Free Press

Who Will Watch the Watchers when there are no reporters left?  Moore Media Images

I Double-Dog Dare You

Somebody has to do this, to vent with more than just a sentimental, boo-hoo letter to the editor about how people feel.  The public deserves to see some credibility by your running an opinion piece like this,  Mark Russell at The Commercial Appeal, David Plazas at The Tennessean – or USA Today Network Tennessee -- and Gannett CEO Bob Dickey in McLean, Virginia.

I double-dog dare you.

Jerome Wright hanging up his green eye shade was the last straw for me, although Jerome says he resigned, unlike 15 or so editorial staffers axed last week at The Commercial Appeal in Memphis and more canned at other Gannett properties in Tennessee.  Green eye shade might be too 1930-ish for Jerome's 1970s-forward generation of journalists.  But, in what he is calling a farewell column, The Commercial Appeal’s opinion editor recalls a vastly different era of newspapering.   It moved through a series of technology changes, such as from manual typewriters to computers, from hot metal type to offset printing, before the market for printed news withered in the face of the Internet.   

Nowadays, reporters and editors don't actually touch much more than a keyboard – let alone melted metal to make a newspaper -- and newsrooms sound like an insurance office or bank -- not like the raucous scenes in old movies.  Yet, Jerome came up as that era was ending and technology was taking over, before capitalism ultimately smashed the free press.

THOSE DAYS
In those days, there were glue pots on every desk, and cut and paste really meant it.  It was noisy even when the presses upstairs were not thundering in the old Ford glass plant at The Commercial Appeal.  There was much hollering across an open room about half the length and width of a football field, such as editors yelling, "Copy!" to summon a "copy boy" or "copy girl" to fetch this or that piece of paper copy, or something else.

In those days, press releases were not emailed, texted, tweeted or even faxed, they were mailed in – or even hand-carried, like when a World Football League team on the edge of its existence would send over the beat writer’s favorite cheerleader  – wearing her uniform -- to hand-deliver it while every guy in the newsroom gawked. 

Jerome Wright in 1974 Commercial Appeal photo

Jerome and others endured the changing technology and business model – I don’t know how he stood it for 46 years -- but somebody had to do it, and I am glad he did.

THE SUBURBAN ITCH

In Jerome’s final work, he was pulling up memories.  There is one Jerome Wright column that he left out, but it and the acquittal of George Zimmerman for killing Trayvon Martin later led me to the idea for our comedy short film, “The Suburban Itch,” a role reversal of a film which may be described as Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner meets Blackish in 10 minutes. 

As I recall from his story, Jerome was jogging at twilight, and a car load of rednecks drove slowly behind him and razzed him.  One threw a bottle at him.  Jerome took it like, What is a black guy like you doing running in a mostly white neighborhood?

In “The Suburban Itch,” we turned that upside down, and a white young man is hassled by police upon suspicion while running-while-white along Chelsea near Hollywood in a mostly black area of North Memphis.  

USA TODAY AND JOHN SEIGENTHALER

When I tried to post Jerome’s column to Facebook, the Gannett website did not function, did not hook me up to Facebook – which is exactly how The Tennessean website looks and works, or does not work, and it drove home one more time how we now have homogeneous journalism in Tennessee. 

To hide behind euphemistic titles like “storytelling coach” and “consumer experience director,” like The Tennessean staff, just won’t cut it.  That does not fool anybody who knows centralized reporting takes the local edge off news.   There used to be veteran state politics reporters at newspapers in the state’s largest cities.  Memphis had Richard Locker, Knoxville had Tom Humphreys and Nashville had Larry Daughtery.   Now the state legislature, which is already corrupt and misguided enough, will get away with even more as there will only be the Nashville newspaper covering the legislature and the governor’s shenanigans.

John Seigenthaler is rolling over in his grave.  I know it for a fact.  When Seigenthaler became the founding editor of Gannett’s USA Today, little did he know it would lead to a free press and the public interest coming in last place to stock price and bonuses in the C-suite.  By the way, in news of recent cuts to editorial staff, I missed seeing where Gannett’s CEO and executives announced they were doing their part to make the numbers work by foregoing their stock options

The last time I saw Seigenthaler was 2012 when he was 84, two years before he died.   This is a man who as Bobby Kennedy’s aide was knocked unconscious by a Klansman in Montgomery while he sought to quell violence against Freedom Riders.  He was not talking to me about consolidation of assets, or convergence of media, or earnings per share.   He was worried that a woman was wrongly in state prison, and he was working to shed light on her story and get her some relief.  

We are going to miss that sort of thing in the press.  But, we better not.  We better do something.  A robust and free press goes hand in hand with democracy.  As an unhinged President bashes and punishes the press, and as dissent and the First and Fourth Amendments are under attack everywhere, including in Memphis where we have police and a mayor conducting surveillance of citizens, there is a choice:  democracy and a free press, or a further spiral into the abyss of a system that rewards those who least need help and despises those who do.  

With the demise of local journalism, in Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville, everywhere, there will be a hole in the story.   Looming ever larger will be the question posed by the title of our documentary:  Who Will Watch the Watchers?

Gary Moore operates the non-profit Citizens Media Resource and Moore Media & Entertainment, which makes films about social justice issues.  Moore formerly was a sportswriter at The Commercial Appeal.

This yellow form was used by editors who would mark it up for printing instructions, after the newspaper transitioned from hot metal type to offset printing.  

We Need More of Those Who Watch the Watchers -- so Why Are We Employing Less of Them?

Jacqui Helbert, fired reporter

In our upside-down world, where truth seems to be out of fashion and we are horrified to see how far horse manure can get you, the public radio station in Chattanooga fires a reporter after a legislator complains, and Gannett continues to cut staff at The Commercial Appeal and its other newspapers.

We have seen an increase in arrests of journalists in this decade, while the ranks of reporters continue to slide.  If there were ever a scarce commodity in America, it is the commodity of truth and the companion acute need for truth tellers to watch-dog elected officials.  Thus, we are living upside down and backwards to be ditching truth-tellers -- whether it is because a corporate behemoth is seeking to trim its bottom line, or whether a state-funded university is so afraid of its money getting cut that it lets a legislator make editorial policy.

In the case of Jacqui Helbert, the reporter at WUTC in Chattanooga, the gist of it is that some Republican legislators were at a meeting with high school students, and she talked to them, then did a story.  They complained they did not know she was a reporter.  She said she was wearing her WUTC station ID, carrying some bulky gear, and held a 22-inch directional mic in their faces.  Being a radio reporter, there was no camera and no cameraman to ride alongside the reporter.

My take: While I do not believe she played "gotcha" with the legislators or did anything sneaky, it seems as though their own stupid statements made them look bad.  In other words, much Trump-like, they complained that the media reported what they did and said.

Further, we should not distinguish between media and citizens.  Citizens are journalists with as much standing as any member of the dwindling ranks of reporters.  Anything an elected official says to any citizen is as much a comment to the public as anything he or she says to a card-carrying, corporate-paid reporter.  A citizen can talk or write about her experiences with a politician, or what the politician does or says, same as any journalist.  A citizen can talk to a journalist and report, representative Smith or Jones said or did this or that.

See, there is no distinction between "journalist" and citizen journalist.  In this era, especially, when everyone has a cell phone that can record video, every citizen is a journalist.  Get used to it.  If you are an elected official and you don't like people knowing you say and do stupid things, I have a simple fix for you:  Quit saying and doing the stupid things that make you look foolish.

Thus, the answer to Who Will Watch the Watchers? is everyone of us.  It's a necessity.

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in the 21st Century

While Americans are distracted by celebrity news and funny pet videos, and as macro forces move slowly and invisibly, the Earth and its political societies face events that can change life as we know it.

J.P. Harpignies writes about it in Bioneer, and makes the point that we often ponder:

"It is an open question whether our species is wired to be able to respond to long-term existential crises..."

DOJ Consent Decree Embraces More than Spying on Activists

A Report: When Police Arrest Citizens for Taking their Picture

Memphis police arrest Paul Garner who was live-streaming at Valero Refinery on MLK Day 2017
Image by Hive Swarm News & Media

The 1978 Department of Justice Consent Decree with the Memphis Police Department has been thrust into the news lately, and it is the basis of a lawsuit for political intelligence gathering.  However, the consent decree cites the First Amendment in broad terms.  One violation of First Amendment rights occurs when law enforcement stops persons from recording them, sometimes by even arresting them.

From time to time, these actions and video clips appear publicly such as on the Internet or TV news.  Following are summaries of seven such incidents in Memphis, Tennessee, which are included only because they notably made the news.  In five of these incidents, those recording or attempting to record with cell phones were arrested.

All of those cases were dismissed once they came before a judge.

1—Oct. 2, 2011. A woman sees five officers on top of a man on Beale Street, and one is punching him. She begins recording and says, “He didn’t do nothing” and “I’m going to get a picture of this.”

As the woman persists in recording with a cell phone, three officers approach her and say, “Get off the street; the street is closed” and “shut the fuck up” as the camera gets tossed about and captures a jumble of images.

No arrests were made, but the images made YouTube and local TV news.

https://www.liveleak.com/view?i=2bb_1318265071&comments=1

“Excessive force on Beale Street”  10/2/2011 YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPa89aLErZ8&index=8&list=PL4ciy-ln_07nF1k1KlM3CD22KH1k_e9DH