The Watchman Watchers Do Some Watching
📑 Last night at the Metro Council · Tennessee refugees · Bodies in the river · Roads · Much more!
Good afternoon, everyone.
I repeat my mantra to all our readers: if you watched just fifteen minutes of one of our council meetings, it would be enough to radicalize you.
Onward.
After passing a resolution declaring racism a public health crisis, the council took a half hour to mull over a nonbinding resolution requesting MNPD adopt a new zero-tolerance policy for sexual misconduct. The policy propped up in the council’s legislation was put together by the Community Review Board and approved by its members three weeks ago.
“Four years ago, we began this conversation when Ms. McClain came to the Women's Caucus to say that there were issues going on in MNPD where women were feeling that they could not report incidents because they were suffering from retaliation,” resolution sponsor Joy Styles explained to her colleagues. At the time, a protocol allowing people to file complaints anonymously was put in place; still, supporters of the new policy expressed dissatisfaction with the implementation of MNPD’s current sexual misconduct policy during last night’s meeting.
Though all council members agreed that sexual misconduct claims are to be handled delicately, a handful of representatives wanted more time to review the CRB’s proposed changes. Near the start of the discussion, Councilmember Courtney Johnston requested a two-meeting deferral for Metro Legal to review the new policy. Councilmembers Bob Nash and Sheri Weiner both stood up in favor of the deferral. “We have a policy in place that is already pretty stringent if you read it, and I think there's still lots of questions that could be answered,” said Nash. “The best policies that are created are the ones that are thoroughly vetted,” echoed Weiner. “We have an existing policy in Metro Police. We also have a really good policy that's been presented by the CRB.”
Councilmember Tasha Ellis then stood up in opposition to the deferral, questioning Metro Legal’s lack of initiative: “If the numbers have gone up, of the complaints and the harassments, what's taken so long for you all to review the policy?” Director Wally Dietz asserted that Metro Legal serves at the will of the body. “Not a single person at Metro—not the CRB, not this council, not a single person at Metro— has asked the Department of Law to look at this policy,” he said. Dietz noted that Legal did not request the deferral, but instead was asked for “the very first time, two hours ago” to review the policy. “We are ready to do this, if this body asks us to do it, but the notion that we have been dragging our feet is just patently false,” he rebutted.
Shortly after, Councilmember Burkley Allen rose in favor of taking more time to review both the existing and new sexual harassment policies. “I did go look in the MNPD manual,” she said. “It specifically says sexual harassment will not be tolerated.” Allen then explained that while she “absolutely [agrees] that we need to have an effective policy, and that there's probably room for improvement,” she doesn’t want to “send the signal to the world that we have not had a policy.”
In the end, despite Metro Legal Associate Director Lora Fox’s concern that the policy could require approval from the Civil Service Board and Councilmember Mike Cortese’s suggestion to expand the policy across all Metro departments, the council voted against the deferral.
Before the final vote, Councilmember Nash, leaning into his experience as both a past member of the Tennessee Sex Offender Treatment Board and a 33-year veteran of MNPD where he retired as the Commander of the East Precinct, explained why he would be abstaining. “I used to serve as the commander of the sex abuse unit for a couple of years,” he said. “And I was very proud of the work the people in that unit did at addressing sexual abuse, sexual harassment claims.” Part of the problem with the resolution, he said, was CRB’s reluctance to collaborate with MNPD when drawing up the policy change for the department. “I'm not sure it's proper that they [the CRB] brought it here to council so we can leverage one side or the other in this discussion.”
Though, as Nash pointed out, the resolution is nonbinding to begin with, the council ended their exhaustive deliberation by supporting the CRB’s policy proposal: 30 in favor, 4 abstaining. MEGAN PODSIEDLIK
⧖⧗⧖ SHOW YOUR SUPPORT ⧗⧖⧗
If you want to support our work at The Pamphleteer, a recurring donation is the best way. We have a $10/month Grub Street tier and a $50/month Bard tier. Membership gets you access to our comments section and free access to upcoming events.
🗺️ Refugees in Tennessee In the wake of Springfield, Ohio’s Haitian invasion, we thought it might be useful to check on Tennessee’s refugee situation. According to the United States Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP)—which identifies, screens, and distributes refugees—nearly ten thousand people have been resettled here over the past decade. This number does not include asylum seekers, which is a smaller amount, but could be as much as 50 percent of yearly refugee intake: their numbers aren’t so cut and dry.
Below are both the number and nationalities of refugees received during 2022, 2023, and part of 2024 (up to August), plus where they’ve settled by county for 2022 and 2023 (the data for 2024 is not available yet).
1,566 refugees in 2024 (10/1/23 - 8/31/24)
- Congo: 434
- Venezuela: 323
- Afghanistan: 138
- Syria: 110
1,132 in 2023 (10/1/22 - 9/30/23)
- Congo: 469
- Syria: 160
- Venezuela: 65
- Afghanistan: 52
499 in 2022 (10/1/21 - 9/30/22)
- Congo: 226
- Sudan: 71
- Syria: 30
- Burma: 26
2023
- Davidson: 577
- Shelby: 333
- Knox: 144
- Hamilton: 113
- Rutherford: 66
- Sumner: 15
- Washington: 5
- Bedford: 3
- Anderson: 1
2022
- Davidson: 300
- Shelby: 138
- Knox: 53
- Hamilton: 36
- Rutherford: 34
- Williamson: 23
- Bradley: 7
- Hamblen: 7
- Blount: 6
The system of refugee resettlement here in the US is composed of a variety of federal departments working with a dozen or so large NGOs known as national resettlement agencies who distribute refugees and funds to hundreds of smaller NGOs spread throughout the country. In Tennessee, we have Catholic Charities Diocese of Nashville, the Nashville International Center for Empowerment (NICE), the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (Nashville), Bridge Refugee Services (Chattanooga and Knoxville) and the World Relief Corporation (Memphis). EDWARD LANDSTREET
🌊 Something In The Water On Monday, the MNPD recovered yet another body from the Cumberland River, this time in full view of tourists about to enjoy a boat tour. “I feel like they should have yellow taped it off,” Ruth Van Lier told WSMV4. “That’s what I see in most things like that, instead we got to see everything.”
Given the recent string of high-profile disappearances in Nashville, it’s clear that such occurrences are not as uncommon as previously believed. It’s reasonable to assume that such incidents, many of them “out of sight, out of mind,” will become more noticeable as the city develops the East Bank.
In March, we asked Bob Mendes, who now serves as Mayor O’Connell’s chief development officer, whether the administration has considered the increasing visibility of bodies discovered in the river. He replied with characteristically cool logic. “Anywhere where you attempt to city build, you know there'll be city problems and city opportunities,” he said. “So we're trying to keep our eye on as many unforeseen circumstances as we can.” MEGAN PODSIEDLIK
DEVELOPMENT
- Portman Announces The Addition Of PennePazze To Starling Germantown In Nashville (Now Next)
- White's Mercantile faces demolition, new project eyed for site (NBJ)
- Upscale men's retail shop to open in Wedgewood-Houston (Post)
- Century Farms slated for Drury hotel (Post)
✹ TN SENATOR WANTS TO POUR BILLIONS INTO ROADS
The first stretch of Tennessee’s toll lanes isn’t expected to be completed until 2031-32, leading one senator to call for a billion-dollar annual infusion into the state’s building fund to expedite highway projects.
Republican Sen. Mark Pody of Lebanon says he plans to revive a measure to bolster Department of Transportation work by $1 billion annually after a similar bill failed last session. Pody’s plan would dedicate sales taxes revenue on automobiles and tires to the Department of Transportation for road work and earmark a share of the sales tax revenue for administrative costs.
“I really believe we need to have another dedicated source to be giving solid money to our department. We need to get it up to another billion dollars. We should double our state budget to TDOT,” says Pody, a Senate Transportation Committee member whose district includes a portion of eastern Davidson County.
THINGS TO DO
View our calendar for the week here and our weekly film rundown here.
📅 Visit our On The Radar list to find upcoming events around Nashville.
🎧 On Spotify: Pamphleteer's Picks, a playlist of our favorite bands in town this week.
👨🏻🌾 Check out our Nashville farmer's market guide and yearly festival guide.
TONIGHT
🪕 AMERICANAFEST 2024 @ Multiple Venues, $125, Info
+ feat. Chatham County Line, Danielle Nicole, Rhonda Vincent and the Rage, Greenwood Rye, The Steel Wheels and more...
🪕 Freight Train Mgmt. Americanafest ROSTER PARTY @ The Underdog, 1p, Free, Info
🎸 MJ Lenderman & Karly Hartzman @ The Blue Room, 7p, $34.61, Info
🎹 Herbie Hancock @ Schermerhorn Symphony Center, 7:30p, $85+, Info
🎸 My Morning Jacket with Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats @ Ascend Amphitheater, 7p, $29.5, Info
🪕 Bluegrass Night @ The American Legion Post 82, 7p, Free, Info
📰 Check out the full newsletter archive here.
The Pamphleteer
The Pamphleteer
The Pamphleteer
The Pamphleteer