vibinc

Progressive Politics from Memphis

  • Transparency at City Hall

    We’re just 11 days into the new administration at City Hall, and expectations are high for Mayor Jim Strickland and his team. Since his inauguration, Mayor Strickland has had his initial appointments approved, though not without some controversy from an appointees former employer. In this world of 24-hour news cycles, and extreme “I want it…

  • Changing of the Guard

    The Commercial Appeal reports that half of the members of MPD’s administrative staff have left, or will be leaving soon. This follows the recently announced departure of Police Director Toney Armstrong. While there’s no question the loss of so many seasoned officers who made their way up through the ranks will be a huge loss…

  • Breach and Overreach

    Finally some drama in the race for the 2016 Democratic Presidential nomination! Thursday night it was revealed that the Bernie Sanders campaign viewed and possibly downloaded proprietary information from the Clinton campaign for about 40 minutes. This happened due to a mistake in an update pushed by DNC data vendor NGP Van. Sanders’ access to…

  • The Ugliness of White Privilege

    I’m going to be honest with you: I’m probably the wrong person to be writing about this. I’m a white guy, raised in a middle class household, with two educated parents. All of my aunts and uncles went to college paid for by my grandfather. I am the definition of white privilege. I grew up…

  • Cameras are only part of the solution

    16 shots. Chicago police released the video this week, after a year of legal wrangling, of the police shooting of Laquan McDonald. Over a year since the incident, the officer is facing first degree murder charges. According to police accounts, McDonald was a suspect in some auto burglaries in the area. The police also say…

  • Time for a change

    Another election, another election night with glitches. At this point, we don’t really know what caused the problems that marred election night 2015 in Memphis, but what we do know is that the Election Commission isn’t very good at doing elections. In nearly every election since 2012 there has been some problem. And while some,…