Month: July 2023

• “Battle”, “Blow”, “Counterblow” between Mr. Mulroy and Mr. Strickland.
  
  Steven J. Mulroy is the District Attorney for Shelby County, Tennessee. He was elected DA in August 2022. And Jim Strickland Jr. is the current mayor of Memphis, Tennessee, serving since 2016. Those government positions are very important for the lives of local residents, and they have great impacts and can have great effects on the local community.
  
  It was being talked about “a back and forth between Steve Mulroy and Jim Strickland” over getting tough on crime in the city of Memphis and Shelby County recently. And local media defined it as “battle”, “blow”, “counterblow.”, “DA responds to Mayor’s criticism.” And Mr. Mulroy said, “Three strikes, you’re out.”
  
  However, we have to add another name for the ongoing discourse about, from, and between Mr. Mulroy and Mr. Strickland. The third name is “PIC” which is the abbreviation of “Prison-Industrial Complex.”
  
  According to Tufts University Prision Divestment, current estimates indicate that there are approximately 2.3 million people incarcerated in the United States, with an additional 4.5 million people on probation or parole. The US has the world’s highest incarceration rate and, despite representing under 5% of the global population, the US holds almost 20% of the global prison population (Prison Policy Initiative).

• What is the Prison-Industrial Complex(PIC)?

Abolitionist organization Critical Resistance explained it as “the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) is a term we use to describe the overlapping interests of government and industry that use surveillance, policing, and imprisonment as solutions to economic, social and political problems.”

The prison-industrial complex (PIC) is said to be a term, coined after the “military-industrial complex” of the 1950s, used by scholars and activists to describe the many relationships between institutions of imprisonment (such as prisons, jails, detention facilities, and psychiatric hospitals) and the various businesses that benefit from them.(Source: Wikipedia)

They say that the PIC is not just the prisons themselves or incarceration. The PIC is said to be an interlocking web of many different systems that assure the powerful will stay in power. In terms of “PIC”, there exists such issues of (A) the expansive network of people and parties with vested interests in mass incarceration, and of (B) how this network functions to fill prisons and support mass incarceration.

It seems that there are such players in terms of the field or the industry including, but not limited to government and law enforcement agencies, private prison companies, suppliers and service providers, lobbying groups and politicians, and so forth. Justice Education Project analyzed like this. “Some of these systems include prisons, the bail system, the police, courts, and more.

The Project continued to say, “Private prison companies rake in huge profits for incarcerating people and politicians garner support for being “tough on crime.” All of these people and companies profit greatly from incarcerating, transporting, feeding and exploiting prisoners.”

Such players are not the only players in the field. Even media play their roles for that. It is said that mass media helps to depict a large variety of oppressed peoples (people of color, poor people, LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, youth) as criminals or people who need to be stopped.”

ChatGPT says, “Some politicians and interest groups may support policies that lead to increased incarceration rates or longer sentences, which can further the growth of the prison system.” It is said that the prison-industrial complex is criticized by many activists, scholars, and advocacy groups for a variety of reasons, including, but not limited to incentive for incarceration, mass incarceration, inequity and racial bias, lack of rehabilitation, human rights concerns, and so on.

ChatGPT concludes like this, “Efforts to address these concerns include advocating for criminal justice reforms, reducing mandatory minimum sentences, improving rehabilitation programs, and reassessing the role of private companies in the prison system.”

• PIC, Memphis, and Shelby County, TN
  
  We have a fundamental question about, to, and for Mr. Strickland about his policies on crime. He can answer or make his comment when he is ready to.
  
  Question: Is Jim Strickland, Mayor of Memphis, one of those politicians who have been suspected to support such policies that can lead to increased incarceration rates or longer sentences, which can further the growth of the prison system in Shelby County, TN?

We ask another question to ourselves. Why is the prison industrial complex a problem?

We present this explanation instead. Justice Education Project explains, “Private prisons make more profit with more inmates, so instead of working with the goal of rehabilitating people and returning them to society, they work with the goal of keeping as many inmates incarcerated for as long as possible. This then contributes to the cycle of over-policing and longer sentences.”

Justice Education Project concludes, “The Prison Industrial Complex exploits incarcerated people on a daily basis. Private prisons not only make a profit just from holding incarcerated people, but can also force those people to partake in prison labor due to a loophole in the 13th Amendment. Our criminal justice system is riddled with injustice, but the PIC creates and upholds some of the most inhumane and unjust systems.”

Whenever we see the face of Mr. Strickland in the television regardless of whether you think his face is handsome or not, or even ugly, it is suspected that the “IMAGE” of PIC is overlapped or superimposed with his face.

As the Times pointed out in another editorial, in order to respond the local crime in Memphis and Shelby County, the COMPREHENSIVE COUNTERMEASURES are necessary and the INCLUSIVE SOLUTIONS should be suggested.

Just only trying to send more people into prison cannot solve the various social problems in Memphis and Shelby County in terms of “fighting against crime” or “getting tough on crime.”

In order to treat or cure diseases on human body, you need to cure the cause, not the symptom. That is the fundamental difference between ‘charlatans or quack doctors’ and ‘excellent or noted doctors.’

It seems that Mr. Strickland has been thinking of or talking about such symptoms during the last 7 or 8 years. But the good news is that a new mayor will be elected on this coming October, 2023. It is really a good news.

Published: July 26, 2023

The Memphis Times
www.memphistimes.org

[Related Content] Mulroy says mayor’s criticism ‘misleading,’ urges cooperation to solve crime problem

[Related Content] Mulroy says mayor’s criticism of woman who shot at police last November is ‘misleading’

[Related Content] [Editorial] The Important Issues for the Imminent Mayoral Election in Memphis

[Related Content] [Open Letter] An Open Letter to Jim Strickland, Mayor of Memphis

[Related Content] [Editorial] How to have better local police around Memphis

[Related Content] [Editorial] The Gilded Age in Memphis

Every election has its own issues. Memphis suffers from more than several important issues for the daily lives of the Memphians. Here are some of the important issues which were, are, or will be talked about or discussed before, during, or even after the mayoral election in the city of Memphis, Tennessee.

First, the MINIMUM WAGE should be increased in the city of Memphis. The minimum wage is said to be the lowest hourly wage that employers are legally required to pay their workers. The working class in Memphis deserves better and higher wages no matter what.

The issue of the minimum wage in Shelby County and the city of Memphis is much more important than any other counties or cities in the State of Tennessee because it is closely related to or connected with other socioeconomic factors in and for the city of Memphis where such economic opportunities and financial tranquility or serenity are so much important for the social stability and prosperity.

Second, as you already know or may know, we should deal with the urgent issue of fighting against crimes. However, it is not enough to adopt a stopgap measures or such policies. A myopic or a short-sighted way of thinking cannot solve or decrease the social problems of crime in the city of Memphis.

The COMPREHENSIVE COUNTERMEASURES are necessary for responding to the local crimes. And the INCLUSIVE SOLUTIONS should be suggested not only in order to fight against the local crimes, but also in order to decrease the increasing crimes.

Of course, we have to deal with different kinds of street crimes. But the Memphians have to open their eyes in terms of so-called “Hybrid Crimes” in Memphis. Such crimes are the mixture or the cross-breed of the physical(violent) and the white-collar crimes which actually exist in Memphis.

The criminals who commit such hybrid crimes don’t run away when they are caught or when their crimes are discovered or revealed. Instead they tries to hurt or threaten the victims or destroy the lives of the victims through various way including, but not limited to extraordinary schemes or unbelievable machinations.

Third, the GOVERNMENT REFORM must be pursued. Both the political and legal accountability should be found and realized for the government officials who are allegedly corrupt or even criminal. Judicial decisions should be verified by microscope. Administrative actions should be reviewed with attention. Political activities of local politicians should be monitored with seriousness.

Citizens, media, and activists should be more involved in the local democratic process. The local democracy of Memphis should not proclaimed or declared only in the school textbooks. The spirit of democracy should be alive in the local community.

Forth, the RULE OF LAW should function fundamentally in the city of Memphis. There seem to be a lot of serious allegations not only judicial misconducts or police misconducts, but also even judicial crimes and police crimes. And so-called “crooked” lawyers should be censured, condemned, denounced, sanctioned, or even disqualified.

And even though Memphis is located about 3 hours away, by car, from Nashville, but the Memphians need to pay attention to what’s going on in the General Assembly in Nashville because the laws of the State of Tennessee were, are, and will be made there in Nashville. The lives of the Memphians are governed by the constitution and laws of the State of Tennessee including the constitution and laws of the United States of America.

Fifth, the spirit of COMPASSIONATE SOCIETY should be valued or realized in the local community. Such culture of exclusion, discrimination, coercion, disregard, negligence, or ignorance has been deeply penetrated into or widely distibuted over the local culture or minds.

The city of Memphis has been facing very challenging local issues which are both political and social. Some of the urgent issues among them are the minimum wages, the comprehensive countermeasures against the crimes, the government reform, the rule of law, the spirit of compassionate society in the local community, and so on.

Memphis should take a leap in order to move forward, not backward. This city should not be stalled or in a rut.

One vote of a Memphian citizen for the next mayoral election had never been more important than that of the year of 2023 throughout the entire history of the city of Memphis.

You can make a history. And you can make a difference.

Published: July 16, 2023

The Memphis Times
www.memphistimes.org

On July 1, 2023, in this editorial, the Times warns against the establishment of a “governmental-industrial complex” in the city of Memphis and in the county of Shelby County in the State of Tennessee in the United States of America.

“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.” – Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1961).

On January 17, 1961, in the farewell address, President Dwight Eisenhower warned against the establishment of a “military-industrial complex.” His farewell address was said to have surprised the general public at his strong warnings about the dangers of the “military-industrial complex.”

They say that the military-industrial complex refers to the close and mutually beneficial relationship between a nation’s military establishment, the defense industry, and the government. It is a term that was coined by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in his farewell address in 1961.

Critics are said to argue that it can lead to a perpetual state of conflicts, as the defense industry relies on military spending for its profits, while mentioning such phenomena of “interconnections”, “interdependence”, and/or “cooperation” between the military, defense contractors, and government agencies.

They say that the military-industrial complex can also create ethical dilemmas, as decisions regarding military interventions and weapon development are influenced by profit motives.

The City of Memphis and Shelby County have many fundamental problems for functioning as municipal governments, but some of the characteristic malfunctions seem to be originated from the real or potential existence of “governmental-industrial complex” in the city of Memphis and Shelby County, TN, in the U.S.

One of the fundamental problems within or from the local governmental agencies is the chronic diseases of “manipulation of records.” Where there exists any possibility of issues or legal disputes, there exist such maladies of manipulating records or distorting the factual allegations or evidence.

The crime, practice, and such culture of the manipulation of records are only one of the maladies afflicting the city of Memphis and Shelby County. Such maladies are real and deplorable.

Such manipulated records are used for judicial crime where the judges can have find ways for excuses in the name of “judicial discretion” when they make intentional misjudgments or mistakes for “factual findings.” Judges almost always have an excuse for their very calculated misjudgment or intentional mistakes in the name of the judical discretion or judicial power.

However, they are not just misjudgments or mistakes, but they are fundamentally crimes. They are judicial crimes and judical coercion. Judges are or can be criminals in the City of Memphis or Shelby County. Such criticism, allegations, or possibilities are real here. They are not just hypothetical or theoretical. They are real.

At the same time, there are many reasonable allegations about the illegal or unlawful activities in terms of the local law enforcements. We are not just talking about “police misconducts”, or “police (intentional or unintentional) mistakes” which were based on the notorious reputation as “Local police are organized gang or legalized gang of thugs.”

We are even talking about “police crime.” If there exist such crimes within the local law enforcement agencies, there are more likely to exist that bigger level of criminal activities exist in the higher level of authorities than the those of the lower level of police power.

It is our human experience that more power produced more corruptions, and that absolute power caused and was connected to arbitrary discretion or oppressive mechanism, which were eventually manifested. That is our empirical knowledge and observation. That is not just theoretical. Human history successfully, consistently, and continuously showed and demonstrated that.

Such “Governmental-Industrial Complex” is Corporations and Government Complex. Overall, such complex is “Money and Power Complex.” Such complex (allegedly) exist in Shelby County and the City of Memphis.

There exist such allegations that corporations are dependent on the both corrupt and criminal government officials, and such corrupt officials were and are bought, directly or indirectly, by the hidden bribery of corporations under the table or behind the curtain.

Local government officials get or are suspected to get their bribery. Corporations get the maximization of their profits. It is win-win situations for them. However, justice is lost, and the innocent victims suffer from the consequences of such crimes during the course of their business between governmental-industrial complex.

There exist such phenomena of “interconnections”, “interdependence”, and/or “cooperation” between the governmental agencies and industrial sectors here in the local communities. Industry relies on government spending and power for the maximization of its profits and for the cover-ups of its hybrid crimes. Local government officials are dependent on, and became DOMESTICATED by the bribery from industry.

Such “Governmental-Industrial Complex(in other words, Money and Power Complex)” led to a perpetual state of CORRUPTIONS and CRIMES in the City of Memphis and Shelby County.

Published: July 1, 2023 (Saturday.)

The Memphis Times
www.memphistimes.org

[Reference]

President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Farewell Address (1961) (link)

Eisenhower’s farewell address (Wikipedia) (link)

[Video] President Dwight Eisenhower Farewell Address (C-span) (link)