From the Mighty 990 Broadcast Center, you're waking up in Starnes Country with Todd Starnes. Wow, happy Friday to you everybody. It is Stearns Country. I'm Todd Stearns. Great to have you with us today.
Look, the weather, it's getting warmer outside. Hopefully, you kids will be going back to school sometime this century. But in the meantime, we've got a lot of fun coming your way. We have a very busy show today. Our good friend Patty Postle is going to be here.
And also on deck, Memphis City Councilwoman Jerry Green. She is running to be the next governor of Tennessee. She's running as a Democrat, and she has graciously agreed to sit down for a great conversation. Also, taking your questions as well. 901-260-5926 is our telephone number this morning.
That's 901-260-5926. And of course, a little bit later on this morning, heading to Nashville, I'll be speaking this weekend at the Young Americas Foundation. Their National Freedom Fest is going to be a Lot of fun. We've got a lot of great speakers. Congressman Tim Burchett's going to be there, Scott Walker.
I believe the governor, Bill Lee, is going to be there. And also, we've got a delegation of conservative young people from Memphis and Shelby County. And they're going to be making the track probably already on the way up Interstate 40. And so it's going to be fun. We'll be sure to take lots of photos and we'll post those on the Mighty 990 social media page.
So a couple of things here. We have two major polls going on right now. Who do you want to see as your Republican nominee for governor? And we have a poll on our K-WAM Facebook page. It is pinned to the very top of the page.
Would love for you to go and participate. Justin Johnson, our good friend out in Collierville, longtime supporter of conservatives, and he has a poll as well that was posted last night.
Now, look, all of these are not. They're unscientific, right? But these are real people. You only get to vote one time. Almost 1,500 people have voted in Justin's poll.
And it's very interesting. Again, I'm just sharing the data here. And the way Facebook works, you're only allowed to vote one time, all right? One person, one vote, and no illegals.
So, you know, if you're not a member of Facebook, I don't believe you're allowed to vote in this.
So here we go. This is the Justin Johnson poll. 1,400 voters right now. State Representative Monty Fritz getting 51% of the vote. Marcia Blackburn, 43%, and John Rose coming in last at 6%.
Now, there was a poll conducted by Beacon, and they had Marsha Blackburn crushing everybody. Theirs was some sort of a paid scientific poll. And what was very interesting was who was coming in second place. And right now, John Rose and Monty Fritz are neck and neck in that poll.
Now, the K-WAM poll, we have just launched, and you'll be able to vote throughout the day. And we'll give you those totals here. I'm calling them up. All right, here we go. We've just got just shy of 500 people now voting in the K-WAM poll.
Right now, Marshall Blackburn is 71% of the vote, Monty Fritz at 24%, and John Rose, the congressman, at 5%.
So you'll be able to vote on that poll all day long.
So be sure to take advantage of that and let your voice be heard. All right. Wow. Justin, we have a pair of Justins in the state house, and they're a bunch of rabble-rousers. We've got Justin Pearson in our side of the state, and Pearson made some pretty severe allegations against the Tennessee Highway Patrol.
Troll. And he alleged that they had run over a supporter, a protester rather, during one of these anti-ICE marches. And he was calling for an investigation. It was all the talk up on Capitol Hill in Nashville.
So finally, the THP had had enough of it and said, you know what? Fine. We're going to release the Dash Cam video. Last night they did just that. And you can check that out on our K1 Facebook page.
which if you search for Mighty990, you'll find our Facebook page. And we posted the video. And the video clearly shows that not only did the THP officer slam on the brakes when the protesters marched into the roadway, but there was nobody, nobody anywhere near the patrol cruiser until the protesters ran up to it. And then one of the protesters pretended to slam into A parked patrol car. And it's all on video, ladies and gentlemen.
Every single Dead of it. mister Pearson lied to you, and it's important that you know that. Because that man is not trustworthy. And it's a sad thing to say because. My understanding, he is a religious man.
And for him to come out there and to say something, and then for the highway patrol to come out and say, hey, look, here's the video evidence. Come on, you gotta do better than that. And now his cohort, Justin Jones, out of the Nashville area, has posted an item regarding the Super Bowl halftime show by one Bad Bunny. Take a listen. There's gonna be a halftime show.
I know some folks are gonna be a little bit triggered by an artist named Bad Bunny. Um but I wanna just make an announcement that before you rage tweet, uh bad bunnies from Puerto Rico and Puerto Rico is a part of America. They have American citizenship because of colonization, so I wanna just give you some information before we see a few racist tweets. Um secondly, I know some of you are gonna be watching the the bootleg Timu version of the halftime show that um Turning Point and MAGA's doing um with a man named Kid Rock. It's kind of weird, he's a grown man named Kid Rock.
But he has lyrics about liking underage girls, which is called pedophilia. And I think we should be a little uncomfortable by that. I know that's very common right now in the White House. But I think that we should not support people who have lyrics about liking underage girls.
So, Kid Rock, shameful. I hope you all tune into Bad Money, it's some good music, get some culture, and enjoy. All right. So it is, no, that, no, that is completely not true. And by the way, the lyrics, which were taken out of context, came from a song he wrote back in 2001.
And of course, we all know there is no evidence that President Trump has ever done what Mr. Peterson just accused him of doing. And I certainly hope the Trump administration and Kid Rock sue the ever-living daylights out of Justin Jones. And by the way, that's how you put a stop to this nonsense. That's how you put a stop to the liars.
Liars are going to lie until they start getting their butt suit, and he'll be spending the rest of his life living in some sort of a podunk trailer park. Unbelievable. All right, 901-260-5926, our telephone number. We've got to take a quick break. Coming up next, Patty Pazle joins us.
She's look. We need your help. And you're going to give it to Patty Postle because she is a great American patriot and we've got a great audience out there. Again, our telephone number, if you want to weigh in on Pat Bunny, 901-260-5926. That's 901-260-5926.
Let's check in with Commander Chuck standing by with a look at your traffic. Yeah. And welcome back to Starns Country. We are broadcasting in the Principal Toyota Memphis studio this morning. By the way, if you're looking for a great car, I want you to go and visit my friend Todd Lochner over at Principal Toyota Memphis.
He's going to take very good care of you. Just be sure to tell him that you're a big K-WAM listener. All right. Wow, election season is upon us, and it seems like election season has never stopped for some weird reason. Our good friend Patty Postle joins us, and she is here in her position as a Shelby County Election Commissioner.
Good morning, Patty. Great to see you. Good morning, Todd. Thanks for having me. I'm just, you know, I'm envious because all of the ladies that listen to KWAM, when they show up in person at the crack of dawn, it's like you guys just sprang out of the fashion pages.
I don't know how you ladies do it, but God bless you.
Well, thank you. It's called getting ready before I went to bed and then just sleeping and waiting.
So, so we have Jerry Green coming up at the bottom of the hour. And I'm always hesitant about those. You know, it's early. It's in the morning. And she goes, I have three kids.
I'm up at 5 a.m.
So this is a piece of cake for me. Oh, well, it's not for me. My kids are grown and gone, so I can sleep in normally. Exactly. There you go.
That's it. There is, you and I were talking a few days ago, and we've got a big challenge, and we need some help here from our K-WAM listeners. We need what, poll watchers. No, not watchers. Workers.
Poll workers. There is a difference between a poll watcher And and there is a shortage of those as well. but we need poll workers. And the difference is A watcher. Gets credentials and they go around and they just stand and watch and make sure that the poll workers.
are actually doing their jobs. And then the poll workers are the people like when you go in to vote. You know, they greet you, they they get your ballot ready for you. You know, they help you process your ballot. Those are the people that were super shy.
on the Republican side because what people don't realize is that The Election Commission really tries hard. to have balance And so at the we have a Approximately 144 voting locations on election days, and there's three election days. here um this year. And so Out of those 144, we need a dozen or more workers in each location. But half the workers Should be people who vote in the Democratic primaries, and half of them need to be.
On the Republican side. And right now we're imbalanced and we're shy about four hundred four hundred. Republicans.
So we're needing 400 Republican poll workers. More. More. More. More.
Okay.
So right now, there's somebody listening and they're like, oh, I think I could probably do that. Are there any specific qualifications to be one of those poll workers? Yes. Number one, you have to be over 17. Um, because we will take you if if you are seventeen or eighteen, even though you you're not able to vote.
Well, some eighteen-year-olds are able to vote, but Um, seventeen-year-olds can step up as well, and they're like Um assistant workers. The rest of us have to be 18 or older. Registered to vote. The first time you don't have to vote it in a primary the first time you work. But the second time you have to have voted in a primary.
So, um, you have to be a citizen to register to vote. And that's about it. And be willing to come in for a day of training. and then be there on election day itself. All right, so are these and these are all what volunteer positions?
Do people get paid for that? You actually get paid. Wait, what? That's where do I sign up for you? You do it, and it's not bad pay.
It's $280 a day. Oh, wow. Plus, you get $60 for the day that you go and get training. And the day you go and get training, it's a couple of hours, but There's different schedules. You can do it during the day.
You can do it in the evenings. You can do it on Saturdays. you just sign up for one of, you know, those days.
So Basically you give a few hours and then You step up and and do what I call your patriotic duty, which is Help. You know, make elections safe.
So you're getting a little bit of cash in your pocket and you're being a great American patriot. That's a pretty good, honorable thing to do. That's right. All right, where can people go? What do they need to do if they want to sign up?
If they want to register to do something like that, how can they do that, Patty?
So they can go to the Election Commission's website, which is elections with an S. Spelled out. Shelby T N Yeah. And just say you want to be a poll worker, and you can see all the additional details. You can fill out your application.
Pam's in charge of coordinating all the workers, so she'll give you a buzz if you fill out that application. And then you go to training, and then you show up on, and you can do all three election days, you can do two election days, you could do one election day. You know, whatever fits into your schedule. I I love this. And I will tell you that whenever I go and vote, I have a I live in Germantown and so the poll workers are always they look like they're having a good time.
You know, they're they're busy, but they're having fun and I love it. I did. I was the first person at my polling precinct to ask for a paper ballot.
So I think I caught. I think I caused a bit of a kerfuffle. I didn't mean to. But they were just so kind and helpful. And that's, you know, it's a great thing.
So an additional 400 Republican bodies are needed, is what you're saying. Yes, sir. I love that. All right, folks, you know what to do. And again, if you're 17 years or older, got to be registered to vote.
And you can reach out again, electionshelbytn.gov, and you'll be able to register online or at least fill out the application online to do that. Wow, 144 locations. I didn't realize we had on election day. Wow. Early voting, we have 26.
Okay, gotcha. Let's talk about election integrity. You know, that's been a big, big issue. Of course, Congress has been debating the SAVE Act and whether or not we need to have a vote, show, show an ID to vote, whether or not we need to show proof of citizenship. Here in Tennessee, we just haven't had those.
Kinds of problems they've had in other states, like Georgia, for example.
So here we already have it written into state law that you have to have an ID.
So it's a no-brainer for us. You have to have an ID. It has to be a picture ID. It has to be a qualified government ID.
So, you know, we don't have that issue here. Actually, Tennessee is usually ranked in the top two or three. For election integrity, so I'm quite proud of that as well. We do a great job on maintaining our voter rolls here in Shelby County. which is another loophole in some of the other states.
We're tied in.
So that as somebody passes away, we get that notification so our dead don't vote.
So, you know, we do a lot of work here. And that's a good thing. What I love about Tennessee is we're very common sense in our approach to everything. And you're right, the dead don't vote here in Tennessee, unlike, say, for example, Chicago and other locations and locales. And you also, there's the audit process, and so the citizens are allowed to watch all of this.
Absolutely. And so.
So This was something that I became very interested in in in the mid teens. And so as a citizen, I did go and watch the audit. I happened to be the only citizen. to actually watch the audit. And I'm like.
Man, for all these people who are out here complaining that election integrity and we don't have it here and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. My question always comes back to: Have you ever gone and watched the audit here in Shelby? And it's different in each county, even across Tennessee. But And they're like, well.
Well, no. And I said, Well, before you start saying we don't have Election integrity here in Shelby County. I encourage you to go watch that audit. Because it's an all-day process. I love it.
It's a great idea. And again, we have to make sure. And here in Tennessee, again, we're blessed, but one of the reasons we're blessed is we're always keeping an eye on things. And it's so important to do. The other thing is just getting out and voting.
And that's what angers me: the low percentage of people who just don't go out there and do their responsibility as a citizen. We got to get out the vote, especially in off-year elections. Absolutely. And Just to s Statistically. In off-year elections.
Here in Shelby County, we lead the state a lot of times, and the most people to vote, but we're somewhere between That's really sad, and that's of the registered voters. Not everybody's even registered. If you're 18 years. Old? You should be registering the vote.
If you're a citizen, obviously, if you're not a citizen, you can't do that because it's a privilege, but also a responsibility. And everybody should be doing that because nobody has the right to complain about. Anything from potholes, To you know how government makes policy if you're not out there voting, fair enough, and we're gonna ask we're gonna ask councilwoman green about the potholes. Yeah, and there's quite a few. There's one on Forest Hill Irene, there's two big ones.
Please take care of that. All right, we'll work it on. It's it's insane out there. I nearly lost the back half of the Cadillac coming into work this morning. Um, okay, uh, Patty, again, let's get out the website address, folks.
We need 400 more Republican poll workers. Um, and if you want to participate, where can they go to sign up to register?
So, elections with an S. Shelby T N All right. Elections Shelby, T-N.G-O-V. Patty Postle, good to see you. By the way, I know you and I are heading to Nashville.
We have separate events, but we'll be driving up high 40. Are you doing anything special for the Super Bowl? I know you're an amazing chef. Do you put out a big Super Bowl spread? I'm more of a ballet.
Uh Watch her.
So uh I'm more in the performance arts That, you know, the theater and the ballet than I am. I'll freely admit, I don't even know what teams are playing. How pathetic is that? No, no, no, no.
So, but like, for ballet, do you guys do like beer and wings or, you know, hot wings? No, I think we do more wine and you know, you know, stuffed mushrooms. This conversation is not going as I thought.
Sorry, not chips and dip. No, but ladies and gentlemen, this lady right here makes the best freaking cheesecake in the mid-south.
So, thank you. All right, Patty, great to see you. Thank you so much for having me. All right, folks, there you go. Elections ShelbyTN.gov.
Go check that out. We've got to take a quick break. Jerry Green wants to be your next governor. She'll be here next. All right, welcome back.
It is now 35 minutes past the hour here in Stern's Country, brought to you by Principal Toyota. If you are looking for a great deal for a car, go visit my friend Todd Lochner over at Principal Toyota, Memphis. I've been telling you for the past six years how awesome our folks are in the Mid-South, how giving we actually lead in the city of Memphis nationally when it comes to philanthropy.
Well, there is a young lady down in Oxford, and you know, they got hit super hard by these storms that impacted us. We're going to talk potholes in just a moment. Callie Prescorn is a young lady, and she decided, you know what, we've got to do something to help all those linemen out there trying to get the power back on. And I want you to hear what this young lady did. Take a listen.
I live in Oxford, Mississippi, and we were hit pretty bad with a snowstorm. There are a lot of people who don't have electricity, heat, water. There are truly just as many people here working around the clock to make sure that we can get those things back. I do feel like these guys are typically the underdogs. We're all grateful that we have power, but we forget why we have power.
I thought it would be fun to find a way to give back to them today. We're gonna go to Chick-fil-A, order a ton of sandwiches, and pass them out to the workers that we see.
So let's go. About the research certification. I'll check for a way. You test. Thank you so much, Mason.
You're welcome. Don't want to stop the cheaper. Do you guys want some Chick-fil-A? Yeah, but Do you guys want to chick-fil-a? You up there?
You guys want Chick-fil-A? Oh, Chick-fil-A. Bye, thank y'all. Regular sandwiches, spicy sandwiches, or a chicken nut beef. Mm-hmm.
Thank you. There you go, ladies and gentlemen. I mean, are you getting misty? Helen's getting misty. And it's not your allergies, Helen.
No, look, I mean, this is pretty awesome. And we just want to say thank you for all of the folks out there.
So many of you are telling the linemen, the first responders, thank you. And that's what it's really all about. All right. So, well done. And if you know somebody who's out there doing good deeds, I want you to let us know about it.
Go to kwamradio.com and send us a note, and we'll be sure to say hello to those folks.
Well, we are excited to have our next guest. We've had just about every single person running for governor here in the studio, and we're so excited to welcome Jerry Green, who's a member of our city council. She wants to be the next governor of Tennessee. Why, in God's name, I have no idea. We're going to find out here in a minute.
But, Jerry, good to have you with us this morning. Thank you. And I love that story you just started with. Councilman Spinoza and I actually, yesterday, he came and scooped me up at my house. And early in the morning, we went and got Chick-fil-A and we took it to the Mount Moriah Police Station and to the Fire Station 41 on Ridgeway Road and did a similar thing.
So that's really sweet. I'm glad to see that's going on around the Mid-South. I just love, and that is one of the great things about our city. And, you know, we, you know, we've had a bad rap for a while with all the crime and everything, but at the heart of who we are, I mean, we are just a very kind, giving community. And I think, you know, really St.
Jude is sort of symbolic of the giving nature of our people here. Yes, definitely. When people ask me about Memphis, I tell them to come and meet the people. I mean, we have great food, we have great music, we are, you know, our culture is around the world. But when you get here and you meet the people, you'll fall in love with this city.
When we were chatting, we ran into Patty Possel on the way downstairs and we heard somebody laughing. And I'm like, who is downstairs laughing? I had no idea. I forgot that Patty was like on the art side of the equation, you know? That's so funny.
So, my husband played football at Vanderbilt and I went to UT.
So, let me just say this year's been hard in my family, mostly on me. But we're big football people, and we'll definitely be having some nachos and watching the Super Bowl together. But I was cackling at whether she was having beer and wings before ballet. Yeah. I get to see it down at the Memphis Ballet, you know, and just little wing carcasses all over the place.
You know, one of the things that I also enjoy about K-Wham, and you know, when I bought the radio station, I felt it was important to have a locally owned News Talk radio station. We can talk about all this stuff you're not supposed to talk about, you know, around the dinner table. I think that's what radio is for, and I think it's important. And what I love about you, though, is that Senator Brent Taylor, you know, who is probably, I guess you guys may be polar opposites politically, but when it comes to like the big things that matter, like picking up trash, you know, that's in the neighborhood, he actually tweeted about you and the idea that you're one tough mother, which is a great slogan. We actually, thank you.
I came up with it myself. He and I work together all the time. In fact, he texted me this past week about a. Particular road in front of a school that needed to be taken care of, and I immediately got on the phone to our director of public works. Yeah, whether it's he sees a burnout car in front of Shelby Farms or a house in a neighborhood that's All blighted and needs to be torn down.
He texts me. I get on it. And the great, you know, I make some calls. The really, the hard workers are the people in Memphis who go and cover up the graffiti and the overpass and things like that. But he sees it.
I call the people and we get it done. I want to read this. This is from last year. Senator Brent Taylor says: When Councilman Greene's not cutting the city budget or fighting for higher pay for our first responders, she is cleaning up the city. Are you sure you're not really a Republican?
Just want to throw that out there. I'll tell you this. I am very progressive, but I am pragmatic because I'm a mom, you know, and what moms do is get things done. And whether it's cleaning up a mess you didn't make, like a blighted property, or being sensible with your budget, I think those are all things that go back to my most important job, which is being a mom, and that's just who I am. I think a lot of people, when they see Memphis, you know, we and we see what's happening in Nashville with the massive growth, you know, they've experienced and the skyscrapers and all that kind of stuff.
And, you know, I spent 15 years in Brooklyn, and I love a vibrant downtown, and we just don't have that yet right now. And I think a lot of people are wanting to know, you know, why don't we have those things, you know, here in Memphis? And what is it going to take to really revive our city? We're losing population, bringing those people back and helping especially Gen Alpha and Gen Z understand we're a great place to start a family, to start a career, and maybe end up here for the rest of your life. Yeah, we have a great cost of living here.
I think really, and it's one of the reasons that I think it would be important for us to have a governor from Memphis. We haven't had one in over 100 years. And when you're not at the table, you're often on the table or you're forgotten. And so I think a lot of times we've been left behind Nashville in investments in ways that have been detrimental to us. Because you know what they say, when you're bad, they put you in a corner.
And we live over here in a corner, right?
So, I think having somebody who puts Memphis as a priority will be helpful. I do think we've done some great things to turn around some of the concerns.
So, like around crime, you know, we started our real-time crime center. We've seen record lows even before the task force got here.
So, we're working really diligently, whether it is cleaning up the streets. You know, I think probably my first week. On council, I walked down the streets with Sam Hardiman, Daly Memphis, and Bill Street and said, see this, we gotta clean up this, see this, we gotta clean up this. And then I walked down the streets with our public works director, and we got those things fixed. People want to see a vibrant downtown, and I think we're getting there.
We're getting there. Jerry Green is running for governor on the Democrat side of the aisle. And we posted a message last night on the social media page: What questions? You know, what questions do you have? And we had a number of people write in.
Jim LaSapio, who owns Rumbookie and a number of restaurants around the Mid-South. And got to give a shout-out to Jim. They just had the International Blues competition, and it was insanely good. Jim says, I would like to know what Councilmember Green is doing about crime in Memphis, was doing prior to the surge of federal agents arriving.
So we did multiple things. You mentioned that post by Brent Taylor.
So the first thing and the first priority was to increase the pay and benefits for our first responders, for our police department, to make sure that we could recruit and retain talent. We also did a deep dive on their budget to make sure that we weren't outsourcing services that needed to be done by MPD and to save money for the city. After that, we also invested in their benefits.
So I worked really hard on some on-the-jobs. PTSD, especially after we lost Officer McKinney, to make sure that they're getting the care they need to be able to do their job. And then we did things outside of police. One of the very first initiatives I put in the first budget was $200,000 for youth mental health. You know, we've got to get these kids on the right track and we've got to invest in them.
We also put a million dollars back into our schools, which is something the city of Memphis doesn't have to do anymore, right? We gave up the charter. But we know investing in our children is investing in our future and that helps with crime. I, on the county side, because I was Deputy Chief of Staff for the mayor, I've done multiple things. The thing I'm probably most proud of in this is my website called Work to Break the Cycle, where we hire people regardless of their record.
And we've hired 200 people with criminal histories and we've had zero recidivism.
So, when they've served their time and they want to serve their community, we're going to give them an opportunity to get a job and a career and get back on the right track. And so, I've done multiple things. I started a free gun lock by mail program. In the two years that I've done it, we've had 2,000 people take advantage of it. We've seen a 25% reduction in guns stolen out of cars, and we used to have 40% of our violent crime traced back to guns stolen out of cars.
So, I think all of those things combined really have helped crime. And we did that before the task force got here. Jerry Green is joining us in the studio, and maybe you have a question. Give us a call, 901-260-5926. Luke Symbol, who's been very active.
You know who I know, Luke. Hi, Luke, if you're listening. All right, well, yeah. Here's his question. Wait for the question here, Jerry, before we get too excited.
These are neighbors, actually. Is that right? Yeah. You know, he's doing like a fix-er-upper thing.
So, all right. Here's what Luke said: Why did she say the Memphis Safe Task Force would terrorize citizens during a press conference?
So, I was talking about bringing in the National Guard, not the full task force, and I think that needs to be. Really made clear. I, again, as a Georgetown-trained lawyer, have spent my life defending the Constitution. And it troubles me on a deep level to think about unilaterally armed troops being dropped into cities.
So that's what that press conference was about. And we did see in other places where communities, particularly communities of color communities, Hispanic communities, did feel terror and we have seen that here in Memphis. We have talked to church leaders that have had to move their masses and services online. We've talked to people at Church Health because people are not showing up for their doctor's appointments and they're worried that they're going to end up sick or dying. And we have kids who are not going to school.
That's really problematic for me. Those feel like things that people should be able to do to go to drop their kid off at school, to go to a doctor's appointment, and to go worship. I I I was not talking about the task force overall, and that was not what I said. But I do think there is a sense of terror out there. And I'll tell you, Todd, I've been across the state multiple times now.
I've done about fifty stops. I meet people in South Pittsburgh or in Dixon and they're immigrants and they say, I don't go out and speak now, even though I'm a US citizen, because I'm afraid. I don't want people to live in fear that have come here to complete the American dream. And yet, on the other side of that equation, though, people have been terrorized for years in Memphis. They have been living in fear because of this incredibly violent crime and the gangs.
And, you know, when Mayor Young, you know, one of his first orders of business was to invite the gang leaders to City Hall for a confab. I think that sends the wrong message here. And I think a lot of people, especially business owners, are just really, they were frustrated and they were to a point where we can no longer do business here. And they were packing up and leaving. And we don't want that to happen.
So what do you say about? Because again, city council was not providing the resources we need. Our complement of officers has never been where it's supposed to be at. And when you see more bodies on the street with law enforcement, guess what? The bad guys see that.
And they either are relocating to another city or they're not going to do that crime. Yeah, I actually went on a ride along. with a police officer to ask him if he thought the National Guard would help. Because I believe getting really close to the problem, right, to see what the solutions are. We talked to prostitutes that were out that night, and he's like, These ladies need drug treatment, counseling, and housing.
The National Guard can't help with that. We talked about apartment complex. We got a lot of domestic violence calls. They needed different resources for these women to be able to leave. The National Guard couldn't help with that.
Every place we went, we met a man who was schizophrenic and off his medicine and attacking his mom. He needed to be put in a facility. We took him to that facility. Mark Billingsley, who works with Alliance, really helped me there. That's the sort of thing that people are needing, and that's what the officers are telling me.
We've got a couple of folks that want to ask questions. Is that okay? Exciting. All right. Well, hang tight.
Let's go right to the phones. And guys, just keep your questions pretty brief. We want to try to get them in. Let's go to Dean in East Memphis. Dean, you're on the air.
What's your question to Councilmember Green? Good morning, Mr. Green. All right, I'll change mine up just a little bit, but you said you were more against the National Guard coming in. Me and my wife both have been out and about the city of Memphis or whatever.
And the National Guard wasn't terrorizing anybody. They were just saying hello and walking around and doing all other kinds of things.
So I I don't know what the problem is. Right. And so I'll say this. I also think the National Guard, I've seen them at Target, I've seen them at Crosstown, I saw them walking up and down Main Street. I don't see them solving either the underlying root causes of crime or actually stopping criminals in acts.
And so for me, again, we go back to good government spending and good use of your taxpayer dollars. We're seeing that these National Guard deployments could be costing us billions. Um I don't think that that's the smartest way for us to go about attacking crime. That's why I invested in police force, I invested in new cars for them, I invested in the real-time crime center downtown so that we can watch uh things happening in real time. That and at the same time, investing in our youth, investing in pathways and careerways for them.
That to me is a better investment of your tax dollars than just having people walk around your target. Dean, I got to run, but you got your question in. Thank you for that. 901-260-5926. We've got to take a quick break.
Can you stick around for a few more minutes? We have Jerry Green with us right now. Need to check in with Parker May standing by with your KYM sports update. All right, greenforgovernor.com. That's green for governor.
That's like literally F-O-R, not the number for Jerry. Thank you for not making it. What is it? One tough mother? Is that right?
That's the slogan. I love that. That's great. Let's go to the phones here. Jerry, Northeast Memphis.
Hey, Jerry, what's your question for Jerry Green?
So, yeah, I just want to know why you're sent a backstabbing organizer.
Okay.
Ah, Jerry. I think Jerry hasn't had his coffee yet this morning. That's all right. That's all right. I've been calls worse.
Let's go to you and me both. Let's go to Mike in Memphis. Hi, Mike. What's your question? Greetings all.
There is an obvious authoritarian overreach going on right now. And what I would ask you to do is look at the root causes of the crime as opposed to the heavy handedness that we're dealing with. It's clearly a way to derive money from the public, but If you would admit that you will commit to eliminating all the infringements against the rights of the people in the state as the Constitution calls for. The right of the people to bear arms shall not be infringed. Also eliminate these private for profit prisons, which the state has a A statute that guarantees occupancy, which enforces the judges to put people in prison that are otherwise eligible for probation or parole.
All right, Mike, let me jump in here because you've got a lot of stuff here, and I want Jerry to respond to what you just said. Thanks for the call. Yeah, well, Mike, I agree with a lot of the things you just said there. I actually was just appointed the interim chief public defender, so I also joke often that I've probably been in prison more than any other person running for governor.
So I agree that we do need to get private corporations out of prisons. And I also am a gun owner and do believe in the second amendment. I got my first gun when I was nine years old. My dad gave me a hunting gun. I recently had to get a sidearm because I've had multiple credible death threats.
Um that resulted in arrest. And So now I too want to make sure that our constitutional rights are upheld. But that goes for all of them. That goes for free speech. That goes for searches without warrants.
Absolutely. That's what I've done my whole career. I've got about 30 seconds here, 40 seconds. Why do you want to be governor? Look, I do have special interests.
Their names are Beau, Vivian and Wilder. I look at them every day across the table, and I want to make Tennessee better for them in the future. That means that they can live out the American dream. And I know that means A lot of things that we could work on together.
Well, it's well said, and we're going to have to leave it there. We'd love for you to come back. Absolutely. All right, Jerry Green running for governor on the Democrat side of the ale. That's how we roll here at KWAM, everybody.
We want to hear from everyone here in the Mid-South. Get out there. Have a great one. We'll see you back for the national show 11 o'clock right here on the Mighty 990. Have a great one, everybody.
