Memphis-Made Doc Set for World and Tennessee Premieres

Who Will Watch the Watchers? will have its World Premiere in Los Angeles Sept. 16 at the Justice on Trial Film Festival and will screen for the first time in Tennessee Sept. 28 at the University of Memphis.

Paul Garner Watches the Watchers
seconds before being arrested

The Memphis-made documentary is set in the local and national context of 21^st Century hot topics, such as filming police, Black Lives Matter, dissent in the Trump era and citizens getting “woke” to a society that leaves many behind.

Told as a real-time narrative, the film tracks the struggles of young activist Paul Garner, who is arrested for filming police then leads a grassroots movement to seek justice at City Hall in an election year. The story’s timeline reaches into 2017 and follows local and national events along the way.

 

Nathan Bedford Forrest
monument Aug. 19, 2017

A STORY OF MEMPHIS ACTIVISM

“This film tells a story about activism in Memphis and how police abridge the First Amendment, in Memphis and everywhere," said filmmaker Gary Moore.  "It's a people's history and a case study of citizens trying to make change within the system. The film includes never-before-seen footage and some content that would not make it into mainstream media.”

Filming began in 2014 after citizens were arrested while cell-phone recording police at Manna House homeless refuge and at a Trolley Night hip-hop event.  It’s an emotional roller coaster for citizens such as Garner, organizing director at the Mid-South Peace & Justice Center, who was arrested twice for filming police and who led Memphis United grassroots coalition in a movement to bring back the Civilian Law Enforcement Review Board.   In the middle of the campaign, a Memphis patrolman shot and killed unarmed teenager Darrius Stewart after a traffic stop. 

FILM CONTINUOUSLY UPDATED

The film also spans developments such as the 2016 Mississippi River Bridge shutdown where Interstate 40 bisects America and the mayor’s February 2017 blacklist of citizens who were ordered to be escorted by police if they entered in City Hall and arrested without warning if they showed up on his lawn. The film includes footage as recent as the Aug. 19 action opposing the Nathan Bedford Forrest statue in Health Sciences Park.

Civil Rights hero and Freedom Rider Dr. Rip Patton of Nashville narrates the opening and closing sequences of the film.

The film includes graphic violence and profanity and has not been rated by the Motion Picture Association of America. Who Will Watch the Watchers? will have its Tennessee Premiere Sept. 28 at the University of Memphis.

Moore Media & Entertainment previously produced the role-reversal comedy short, "The Suburban Itch," and is developing for television two episodic dramatic comedies: In The Pregnant Prick, a womanizing member of Congress changes his ways after he becomes pregnant -- due to global warming, scientists prove.  Second Coming is a what-would-Jesus-really-do series in which Jesus returns to Earth and exposes a televangelist and a crooked politician.  

Shiloh Won't Take Confederate Statues off Memphis' Hands, Park Head Says

Don’t look for Shiloh National Military Park to accept the statues of Nathan Bedford Forrest or Jefferson Davis, despite that suggestion in a Commercial Appeal editorial and that option being entertained by some on Memphis City Council.

 

Angel cradling a solider is the type of monument
found at Shiloh, not generals on horses

“I do not believe there are any monuments in Memphis that would meet our design standard,” said Shiloh park superintendent Dale Wilkerson.  “The National Park Service has a fairly well-prescribed standard and process for monuments in parks.  All monuments related to the battle of Shiloh have to meet the design standard for this park.” 

Wilkerson said no one has approached the park about moving the Memphis statues there.

Before he was promoted to brigadier general, Forrest had command of a Confederate rear guard after the Union victory. He was reported to be the last man shot at Shiloh. A bronze statue of Forrest, who became a general before the war was over, mounted on his horse and a monument to Jefferson Davis in Memphis have been the subject of efforts to remove them from public spaces.

The city of Memphis cannot seem to get out of its own way on what to do about the statues, and to underscore the city’s level of disarray, earlier today the city put metal barricades around the statue – then took them down!

Memphis put up metal barricades, then took them down

See our earlier story in dailykos, which includes “Arrests and Aftermath..,” a video of police grabbing citizens at the statue on Aug. 19.  https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/8/20/1691819/-Memphis-is-Latest-Battlefield-at-the-Junction-of-America-vs-the-New-Confederacy-and-Rebel-Statues

A SOLDIER’S WAR

“The battle of Shiloh was a soldier’s war, not a general’s war,” Wilkerson said.  “There are markers that say this or that general was here, but there are no monuments to generals and no monuments of men mounted on horses.

“Generals can make a plan, but once the battle started, many of the men found themselves in forests with thick smoke, and they were disconnected from their commanders.  They had to prosecute the battle on their own and determine how to proceed,” Wilkerson said. 

“All artwork at Shiloh is an allegorical piece of art that’s meant to tell a story.  For instance, the Wisconsin monument is an angel cradling a dying soldier.  There is no monument or artwork of any particular person.”

IT TAKES AN ACT OF CONGRESS

Only Congress can establish a national park, Wilkerson explained, and “we look to our enabling legislation which prescribes the design of the park.  We have to ask, What was Congress’ intent?  Our enabling legislation says that states involved in the battle can place monuments.  There were 19 states involved, and 16 have placed monuments. Conversely, a state such as Virginia cannot place a monument here, because no soldiers from Virginia were involved in the battle.”

Shiloh was one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War.  About 110,000 men fought over two days, April 6-7, 1862, and there were 23,746 casualties.

“That was more casualties than every previous American war combined, including the Revolutionary War,” Wilkerson said.  “It was one of the first large-scale tragedies of the Civil War.”

The park was established in 1894, and many veterans of that battle gave input to the park service.

‘Many veterans thought of it as a soldier’s battle, not a general’s battle,” Wilkerson said. 

CITY STUMBLES, MAYOR HAS A HISSY FIT

The city of Memphis is awkwardly struggling with its two Confederate monuments, Forrest in Health Sciences Park and former Confederate President Davis in Mississippi River Park downtown.  While Mayor Jim Strickland has said he wants the monuments gone, even referring to it as “our drive,” he says he is hamstrung by a law which requires the Tennessee Historical Commission to give the city permission.  The commission rejected the city’s request last year, although City Council voted in 2015 to remove Forrest. 

Strickland had something of a media hissy fit last weekend after police arrested seven persons who were at Forrest's statue as some persons tried to put a “Black Lives Matter” banner around the feet of Forrest’s horse, King Phillip.  Strickland called the Commercial Appeal’s reporting of the arrests and protests “divisive,” although Strickland’s public defensiveness and media meltdown were more divisive and more telling than any newspaper story. 

Strickland made a point to say that he was a long-time member of the NAACP, and he was chided on social media as his credentials claim sounded to some like the equivalent of, “I have black friends.”

While Strickland has the highest-paid PR staff of any elected official in Tennessee, somehow they did not rein in Strickland from his Trump-like outburst.

The national Confederate statuary controversy was stoked Aug. 12 when a neo-Nazi drove his car at a high rate of speed into persons who were counter-protesting a large action on the part of so-called “alt-right,” white supremacists, neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members in Charlottesville, Virginia.  Heather Heyer was killed when struck by the car, and 19 or more persons were hurt.  Forrest was the first Grand Wizard of the Klan, and he sold slaves at his “Negro Mart” in downtown Memphis.

CITIZENS MEDIA RESOURCE OFFERS BROKERAGE SERVICES

While the city of Memphis is dithering around and wringing its hands, like it does not know which end is up, to jump-start the removal of the statues may require a willing buyer to step up, or an auction.  To assist the city and to help mend the divide between government and the community, Citizens Media Resource is forming an entity for the purpose of brokering the sale of the Confederate statues to private buyers, such as a museum or for part of an individual’s collection. 

In fact, look for us later as Statuary Clearinghouse, Auction and Brokerage (SCAB) as a liaison to discreetly field prospective buyers and facilitate a sale from the city.  I know, that sounds a bit tongue-in-cheek, which is our typical style – but we are dead-dog serious about this approach.  It would help the city tremendously if they could say, Hey, we got us a buyer, and here’s who it is.  That would pull the process along, instead of the city being left to embarrassingly flounder.

Behind-the-Scenes Help Gets a Nod for all those Talks about Law Enforcement

In the process of making a film, there are people who help in small or large ways but who have no paid or official roles.  That's why you see "Thanks To" or "Special Thanks" credits.  Not that everybody who deserves a "thanks" gets one!

Anne Kirkpatrick is sworn in
as Oakland chief March 1, 2017

Memphis native and now Oakland police chief Anne Kirkpatrick consulted with us while we were making the feature doc, Who Will Watch the Watchers?  We talked in spring 2016 about the city of Memphis search for a new police chief, and Kirkpatrick was interested in the job.  She was friendly, open and generous with her time, even if I called her too late at night for someone who was in the Eastern time zone -- not Pacific as I had expected -- and had to get up early the next morning to do her job training police chiefs for the the FBI.  

Kirkpatrick worked for the FBI, traveling to train command staff in U.S. cities, including Memphis, when the top cop job came open.  We talked about police practices, her philosophy and goals, and broader things that helped me shape a director's perspective while researching a film.  She enlisted me to keep her up to date on Memphis news related to the search. 

Kirkpatrick had been one of only two national candidates to be recommended to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel after a $500,000 search by the Chicago Police Board in 2015-2016. This followed the firing of CPD superintendent Gary McCarthy in the wake of the LaQuan McDonald killing by a Chicago officer.  Despite the costly, national search and the strong recommendations for Kirkpatrick and Dr. Cedric Alexander, who at the time was public safety director for DeKalb County, Georgia, Emanuel rejected the board's report and hired from within the existing Chicago department. But, he told Kirkpatrick at the time that he had a special role in mind for her.  

In June 2016 Kirkpatrick was named to head the Chicago's new Bureau of Professional Standards with the onerous task of cleaning up CPD and going beyond reform to "change hearts and minds," she said.  In January, Kirkpatrick left CPD to become chief of police in Oakland.  Many current and former Memphis police department police directors and deputy directors know Kirkpatrick, mostly from her sessions training them in Memphis.  Kirkpatrick told us she thought highly of the Memphis command staff, and the feeling was mutual, according to those she trained.  

When it came time for Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland to appoint a new director of police services, he hired Michael Rallings from within.  Mayors presumably are under much pressure to do that.  Nonetheless, Strickland had made a big deal out of the city conducting a "national search" for a new top cop to replace Toney Armstrong.  They hired the International Association of Chiefs of Police to recruit for the position, although there was a mysterious gap between the time Strickland announced the search in January, 2016, and when it officially was authorized in May, 2016.  The city said they spent $40,000 or so for the search fee and perhaps about that much more in time and expenses interviewing, lodging and entertaining candidates and meeting with the search entity.  

The city went through the charade of bringing four national candidates into Memphis -- for interviews, ribs at Rendezvous and an intro to the city -- even after Interim Director Rallings had already been annointed as the presumed heir to the position after his role in the Hernando DeSoto Bridge shutdown July 10, 2016. Perhaps Strickland thought he could have a learning experience that he could bank for the future by playing out this "national search."  

The mayor has not revealed to us any of his thought processes, however, nor has he ever responded to our interview requests. (MPD at least called us back and said officially "...we decline to participate" but wished us well.) 

The only time we got a call back from Strickland's PR team was after we talked to people at the International Chiefs of Police and they alerted Ursula Madden that we were asking questions. Madden called me in what I would describe as something of a frenzy.  We wrote a story and sent a link to Richard Ransom, then anchor at Channel 3.  Ransom did a "cop search" story every night that week, then got Strickland on the "Informed Sources" show for that weekend.  Within days of our calling out the city for foot-dragging and by late Friday afternoon, suddenly the search was up and running.  

At no time did the search firm contact Kirkpatrick.  Why not?  Let's underscore this.  The police search group did not contact a Memphis native and top-rated national candidate who trained existing Memphis police chiefs and command staff.  She was good enough to train us but not be one of us?

Nor did they contact Alexander, who was actually offered the CPD chief job by Emanuel -- who then reneged under pressure by Chicago aldermen.  At some point, we wrote an analysis about the Memphis cop search. Jerome Wright, then editorial page editor at The Commercial Appeal, contacted us about using it for their Sunday Viewpoint section. I realize that these types of pieces often are written by advocates or experts inside an industry or profession, who are pushing an agenda; but sometimes they are written by AP or actual journalists. For some reason, I had this idea I might be knocking a journalist out of money -- I was just writing as a journalist, not an "expert" on anything or someone pushing a position -- so I inquired if there were any compensation for the piece. Just asked. Unsurprisingly, that's the last I heard of it. 

We also talked with Alexander during this time, including about police practices and philosophical issues. Alexander had been a member of President Obama's Task Force on 21st Century Policing, and he wrote a book, The New Guardians: Policing in American Communities for the 21st Century. The President's Task Force made the point that officers should be guardians, not warriors.  

Alexander asked us to spend some time in Georgia, where we would have unlimited access to his department, he said, and make a documentary which he thought would be a good fit for CNN -- for whom he was a frequent law enforcement consultant.  We did not follow up on that offer, but we appreciated the thought.  Although Kirkpatrick and Alexander did not know it, those conversations helped as we made Who Will Watch the Watchers?  And we are thankful. 

Talking Out of Both Sides of One Mouth

Jeff Sessions is all for states' rights -- except when he isn't.  Author and researcher Radley Balko lays it out in The Washington Post. 

Republicans often talk up states' rights as a sacred principle, but in this decade they have amped up the squashing of states' rights when they caught the states actually doing something sensible for people.

In a mutation of failed "trickle down," just as the U.S. Congress has cast down decrees abridging laws upon states, many state legislatures -- including Tennessee -- have defecated down on cities and counties.

Examples in Tennessee include: 1-- State takeover and smashing of free public education and converting whatever "education" is left, especially in Democratic-voting Shelby and Davidson Counties, to for-profit schemes.  2--The state legislature overriding cities of Memphis and Nashville wanting to lessen marijuana possession as a crime. 3--Legislation against cities wishing to require minority hiring quotas for public contracts.  4--Pushing past cities' and counties' desires to keep firearms out of their public parks and other spaces.

In an almost-funny reverse reflex, Tennessee legislators a couple of years ago pledged to arrest any federal officers crossing the state border to enforce federal laws about firearms.

Balko gives us chapter and verse from the mouth of Sessions.  

Georgia Election is Case Study in "Don't-do-This" for Democrats

It's not hard to figure out that Republicans have been out-messaging Democrats.  We have seen that facts don't matter and that strong messaging overcomes playing not to lose.

Having been a speechwriter, political strategist and PR operative for causes and candidates since Jimmy Carter was President, I was sufficiently horrified in this century to join others in forming Messaging Values Project -- a study of how to clearly message progressive values.

During this project we met political researcher and strategist Drew Westen.

Westen is to Democrats what Frank Luntz is to Republicans.  Westen, who lives outside Atlanta, conducts focus groups to learn which messages and words resonate with potential voters and which ones fall flat.  He understands how to "prime" a message by firing off mental "frames" in the mind of an audience.

Westen is every bit as good as Luntz -- better, I think, because he does not play on ignorance and hate -- but not as widely known. Westen does not have a track record of success (if you call convincing voters to screw up the country a success) like Luntz.  For example, one Luntz gem was to advise Republicans to call Obamacare a "government takeover."

One subject for study, although it should not be a political issue, is abortion.  I hate to even bring it up.  It's a no-win subject.  It's a personal matter that Republicans have wrangled and manipulated into hate and crazy and votes.  There is no changing anyone's mind on this, but it is an issue that Westen tested in focus groups.

"A man and a woman have the right to plan a family. Voters respond favorably if you begin with that," Westen said in describing the results of focus groups on messaging women's reproductive rights.

Westen closely observed Democrat Jon Osoff's recent loss to Repubican Karen Handel in a highly watched and richly funded special congressional election in Georgia's sixth district.

In this CNN story, Westen lines out the Democrats' failures in this race, and he advises Democrats should use this as a what-not-to-do case study for 2018 congressional races.  

Dialing for Democracy: Turning Back the Turn-Off of Medical Care

Remember when Republicans used to holler about "death panels" and putting a "bureaucrat" between you and your doctor?  Almost seems like the good ol' days in 2010 when the Affordable Care Act was widely debated and a discussed before being voted into law (and letting insurance companies stay between you and your doctor).

Do you want this man to decide if you go to the doctor?
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

Now they are putting U.S. senators and representatives between you and your doctor, your pharmacy, your physical therapy, etc.

Dialing for Democracy

Phone lines to members of Congress often are busy – yeah, they know it’s you and just don’t want to answer.  (Crackerjack box: Little-known Lamar Alexander info below contacts)

Personal calls are powerful because a breathing person has to engage you.  But fax is an option.  I had faxed Leemar about Jeff-Beau Sessions and was surprised to get an email back, explaining how Sessions was his friend.  Surprise was that I got a reply, not that Alexander had his head up….  At least someone had to go to slight trouble. 

Sen. Lamar Alexander

DC office 202-224-4994

FAX 202-228-3398  

For phone calls, if you get tired of busy signal in DC, call Nashville office, even if you live in Memphis.  They don't believe Memphis qualifies as part of Tennessee.  Ask them to "log the call." 

Nashville office 615-736-5129   fax 615-269-4803 

Memphis office  901-544-4224  fax: 901-544-4227. 

Bonus: David Cleary, Alexander chief of staff, email  david_cleary@help.senate.gov

Sen. Bob Corker

DC office 202-224-3344

FAX 202-228-0566

Call to Chattanooga office would be second choice after DC.

Chattanooga office  423-756-2757  Fax 423-756-5313

Nashville office  615-279-8125  Fax 615-279-9488 

Memphis office  901-683-1910  Fax 901-575-3528 

ALEXANDER THE NIXON AIDE

Alexander learned dirty politics while he was a Nixon White House attorney under Haldeman and Ehrlichman.  Did you miss that one on his resume?  Yeah, he does not want people talking about that.

PRAISE THE LORD AND PASS THE JIM BEAM

Mr. Wholesome from Maryville, TN, in the 1970s Alexander used a church charter to get around local laws and serve liquor at a Ruby Tuesday’s restaurant he owned in Gatlinburg.

CITY SLICKER GOES COUNTRY

All you need to know about Alexander’s phony politician game is that he put on a red plaid shirt to act like a working man when he ran for governor in 1978.  When his crew got near a media or other event, they would plop Alexander behind the wheel of a pickup truck so he could “drive into town” in his pickup and plaid shirt.

AMERICAN GET-RICH SCHEME

Alexander gets rich using his government positions for personal gain.  No surprise, right?  But this 1996 Chicago Tribune story – while Alexander was a mere single-digit millionaire -- lays out some of his spurious land deals from the 20^th century and how he has leveraged his positions in office to personal wealth: 

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1996-02-19/news/9602190118_1_blackberry-farm-tennessee-governor-lamar-alexander

Open Secrets compiled this listing of assets, updated as of 2014:

http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/assets.php?year=20100&cid=N00009888