May 12, 2025 • 57 mins
Episode Notes My guests include Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy. We discuss the state case of the three former officers who were accused along with two more of killing Trye Nichols. Charged with 21 counts and found not guilty on all counts. The city is reeling and he shares his thoughts. Eric Barnes is the CEO of the Daily Memphian and host of Behind The Headlines. We discuss the trial and the responsibility as a news source to stay relevant on various issues while earning the public trust. Finally, Leadership Memphis is a non-profit, community leadership development organization. Its mission is to prepare and mobilize leaders to work together. President and CEO Dr. Bobby White heads both this group and Volunteer Memphis. He tells us why the organization is so vital to our city's future. That and more on air and online Monday @ 6 pm on WYXR 91.7 FM. Also, TuneIn, Facebook Live and YouTube. It's time to talk!
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Host chim washing him white young.
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It's real tough, it's a real talking, it's real cop.
Speaker 5 (01:15):
And here we go.
Speaker 6 (01:16):
Here we go on this Monday evening in the city.
It is May twenty twenty five, six o'clock pm, straight up,
which means it is time for an all new and
live Real Talk Memphis. I am your humble host. My
name is Chip Washington. Glad to have you with us
this evening. Yeah, we've seen a lot of rain here,
(01:36):
kind of off and on all day long. But I
think the rain is finally moving out and the sunshine
is moving in and yeah, and everything is going to
be okay. Glad you can make it for this evening show.
We have a three great guests in studio with us
this evening. Actually two of them are actually in studio
(01:57):
and the other one will be joining us at Zoom
on Zoom a little bit later on. We'll get to
all of that in just a few minutes. Of course,
if you're listening to us now, you're listening to us
on ninety one point seven FMWYXR that, of course, you know,
our flagship station. You can also find the show on
the WYX app. We are on the tune in app
(02:19):
as well, and we are live streaming this evening on
Facebook Live, so you can check out the show if
you to do so now.
Speaker 5 (02:26):
The next day or two, once the.
Speaker 6 (02:27):
Show is posted a little later on this week, you
can hear us on YouTube. We'll be on YouTube, and
of course, as the show is a podcast, you can
catch us wherever it is you get your podcasts there
you go. Plenty of opportunities plenty of options available for
you to check us out, watch us, see us, and
(02:49):
the whole nine yards. We do have a good show
for you tonight. We are going to be speaking just
a couple of minutes here with our DRA Chevy County
DA Steve Molroy on me in studio. Of course, we
are all still reeling from what happened last week in
the estate trial of Tyree Nichols. We're going to talk
(03:10):
to our DA about that, and yeah, it is you know,
I mean for many of us, including him, a bit
of a shock as to what the jury did. But
we'll have that conversation in just a few minutes. A
little bit later on, we're going to be talking to
the CEO of the Daily Memphian. I'm sure many of
you know what that is, and his name is Eric Barnes.
(03:32):
He will be joining me just a little bit as well,
and he's also a host of Behind the Headlines by
the way.
Speaker 5 (03:38):
And a little bit.
Speaker 6 (03:39):
Later we will be talking to the President and CEO
of Leadership Memphis. His name is doctor Bobby White. So yeah,
we have a loaded, loaded show for you this evening,
and again, thank you all for being with us, and
we hope that you can stick with us for the
next sixty minutes because I think, as always, you will
learn something. I like to think that people learn a
(04:00):
few things when they watched this broadcast or listen to
this broadcast, So that's a good deal as well. Before
we get into all of that, we will do what
we always do, which is shout you out. You know,
it's an another month, another month of birthdays and another
month of celebration, and you know, we like to do
(04:22):
this little thing called the shout out, which is what
we do. And of course we shout you out across
the country, let people know that it is your birthday,
that you made another trip around the sun, and we
are glad about that. But I can't do that until
I say hit bran, Happy birthday, Happy birthday, Happy birthday.
(04:43):
Going out to the following shows. Lisa Lee celebrating her
birthday today. Happy birthday to Harriet Walters, long time, long time,
my wonderful friend of mine celebrating her birthday today. Happy birthday,
Tracy Jeffries, I see you, Jeffrey, celebrating your birthday on
this day. Happy birthday to Judy Tate, to Brenda Dillard,
(05:06):
Audrey Eleon.
Speaker 5 (05:08):
Celebrating her birthday today.
Speaker 6 (05:10):
Happy birthday to you, Gail Rose, to Michael Stephen Moore,
Happy birthday Monica Smith and Chuck Wedding Mister, all celebrating
birthdays on this May the twelfth. From all of us
here at Real Talk, Memphis, we are very happy that
you made it another trip around the son and celebrated
(05:33):
your birthday.
Speaker 5 (05:33):
I hope it's been a day full of fun.
Speaker 6 (05:35):
And love and laughter, and of course all of us
hope to be with you next year as you celebrate
your next trip around the sun.
Speaker 5 (05:44):
Somebody told me the rumor hans it dead.
Speaker 6 (05:47):
My birthday is a sometime this month, back today, but
sometime this month, so hopefully I can be around here
to celebrate that.
Speaker 5 (05:54):
Between them now and the end of May.
Speaker 6 (05:58):
All right, well, let's take a look at some news
and notes on this day, of course, since we last
saw you or last spoke to you last Monday evening.
Of course, UH, the state trial UH is now over
of Tyree Nichols and all three former officers were declared
not guilty by UH the jury on all charges.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
UH.
Speaker 6 (06:22):
The next phase will be the sentencing in the federal trial,
which I believe should happened, uh sometime next month, and
then after that, uh there will be uh the uh
the the monetary aspect of the trial uh as well.
So for a lot of us, very surprising uh verdict, uh,
(06:46):
you know, and and and very stunning, and a lot
of us, you know, are going through a myriad of
emotions about all of this. Yours, your yours truly included
uh in reference to it. And as I said, if
you just joined, if you just not clicked the radio
on our d kind enough to join me this evening,
Steve Morerare will be talking with me in just a
couple of minutes. Say hello to the new pope, ladies
(07:08):
and gentlemen. The first American born pope in the history
of all of this was selected last week. His name
is Robert Prevost, but you can call him Pope Leo
the fourteenth.
Speaker 5 (07:21):
That is the name that he chose.
Speaker 6 (07:23):
And he is the first pope, as I said, ever
to be elected from the United States of America. He's
a Chicago native and he's also a Peruvian, a citizen
where he served for over twenty years there. So yeah,
he was a bishop there for a very long time.
A lot of folks seemed to be very pleased with
this selection, and he is. He's in there now, and
(07:45):
he's sixty nine years old, so he's younger than the
last two or three popes that were selected as well.
So congratulations to him, Pope Leo the fourteenth. All right,
many of you will probably oh and by the way,
way not to dampen any of this right now, but
I hope that all of you mothers were celebrated in
(08:09):
the way you should have been celebrated yesterday, as yesterday
was Mother's Day, and I hope that you had a
lovely time when your family took you and spoiled you
and showed you just how much you mean to them,
with all of the love and everything that goes along
with that. I hope you all had a wonderful, wonderful,
wonderful Mother's Day, a celebration some folks who are a
(08:32):
bit shook up yesterday afternoon in reference to all of this,
of course, I'm speaking about the shooting that happened to
Jay Alexander's restaurant on Germantown Parkway yesterday about six thirty
or so. Man walked in displaying a gun, approaching his
ex girlfriend displaying a weapon. There was some words exchanged
(08:52):
between some other folks that got into it, and the
man did not fire a shot, thank god. But he
walked in. Everybody saw the gun. He was holding the
gun by a side, so there you go. He was
announcing himself and apparently at some point everyone resorted to
getting under their tables at that restaurant. I can just
imagine how that was, how all that went on yesterday.
(09:15):
No one was hurt, thank god, thank god, thank god.
The suspects there was a male and a female suspects
that the police are looking for right now.
Speaker 5 (09:22):
They escaped.
Speaker 6 (09:24):
But yeah, that was that was kind of a tough deal.
And let me just it was just some shooting out. Congratulations.
Here a couple of more. First of all, to all
of those who are belonging to the class of twenty
twenty five, the graduates, whether you graduated high school, whether
you graduated college, or however you graduated, if you graduated
(09:45):
this year, shout outs and kudos from all of us
here a real talk menference to you on your hard
work and your accomplishments. In reference to all of that,
you know it takes a lot of hard work getting
through school, and so we salute you the class of
twenty twenty five. I'm to understand that the University of
Memphis had the largest doctoral class in the history of
(10:06):
the school graduate this past Saturday, which is a very
very very big deal. And again, you know, we salute
you and congratulate you on all the hard work and effort.
Now get out there and find the job, right, that's
what's the next. And finally, shout out to our folks
at Central High School.
Speaker 5 (10:24):
Why you ask why?
Speaker 6 (10:25):
Indeed, well, they are the winners of the international jazz
band competition that was held in New York City over
the weekend. They went up there and just blew get it,
blow music blow. They blew everybody away, and they came
out with first prize.
Speaker 5 (10:42):
And yeah, we are just extraordinarily proud.
Speaker 6 (10:45):
See, I don't ever say things good things don't come
out of Memphis, Tennessee. So shout out to Central High
School and all those affiliated with their jazz band who
won that international competition in New York City over the weekend.
They came back home today triumph, fintend. We are so
proud of each and every one of them. That is
(11:05):
a brief look at news and notes. I am going
to take a break and we will prepare for our
first guest. Our District Attorney Steve Moore Roy is here.
You are there, I'm Chip. You know who you are.
We're gonna take our first break. We'll be right back.
Don't you go away.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
If you like Real Talk, here's the way you can
get involved. Do you have a show topic, idea or
a suggestion. Want to be considered a guest or have
a guest idea? Then send Chip a message on his
Real Talk show page and you can be a part
of the Real Talk experience. So as he always says,
go out and tell somebody, We'll be right back.
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It's real.
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It's.
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Support for WYXR comes from IRAM Memphis, dedicated to advancing
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back to more Real Talk with Chip Washington's.
Speaker 6 (13:14):
And welcome back to Real Talk Memphis on this Monday
evening in the city. Of course, Chip Washington with you.
Glad to have you with us this evening, and we
are very happy to have with us this evening. Our
district attorney, the Chelby County District Attorney, Steve Molroy, is
in studio with me this evening, and mister Dia, it
(13:35):
is great to see you again and great to have
you here. Thank you for taking time, really appreciate you.
Speaker 7 (13:38):
Always happy to do it ship well.
Speaker 6 (13:40):
Thank you sir, and of course many of us still
talking about and thinking about the state trial just ended,
uh in the Tyree Nichols murder case.
Speaker 5 (13:51):
Three officers, of course we're on trial.
Speaker 6 (13:54):
In reference to that, the jury decided that none of
these individal jewels in their eyes were guilty, so we
had each of them facing seven counts seven fourteen twenty
one counts all not guilty. And I guess my first question,
the natural question I would ask is in reference to you,
(14:15):
as the chief prosecutor in the case, how did.
Speaker 5 (14:18):
You feel when you heard that determination?
Speaker 9 (14:22):
Well, we were obviously very disappointed. I was very surprised.
I mean, it's really hard to understand, I think, having
watched those videos, how the jury would have quit on
all charges, not even on official misconduct or official oppression,
the lower level charges. And we have to respect the
(14:44):
jury's decision, obviously, but I don't mind telling you we
all strongly disagreed with it. We were very surprised, very disappointed.
It was a bitter pill to swallowship.
Speaker 6 (14:55):
Yeah, for a lot of us, so who sort of
witnessed this. And you know, one of the things about
it is uh you know when you when you see
what we saw, and we know the jury came from Chattanooga.
It was an all white jury that came from Chattanooga.
And we'll talking about that in a minute. But for
many second third generation Native Memphians, I'll just say people
(15:16):
who live some life here and or were around back
in the days of the fifties and the sixties when
uh Injustice uh ran downhill at a pretty good pace
around here. This reminds folks of of of a dark past.
This reminds folks of a dark time, uh, you know,
when folks were put on trial, you know, and and
(15:37):
in certain instances, uh and and found not guilty uh
by by some of these juries. And a lot of
people are are are sort of the older folks who
have been been around here for a while are sort
of thinking this is the.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Ken to that.
Speaker 6 (15:49):
And and it really hurts on another level because it
begs the question for all of us, what does justice
look like, you know in our city now?
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Yeah?
Speaker 9 (15:59):
Yeah, no, I mean, of course hurts just a kick
in the gut to anybody who cares about this kind
of stuff, you know, the need for people to be
treated humanely and not have those who are sworn to
uphold the law being the ones that are violating the law.
I can tell you that, you know, the prosecution team
had a challenge going in because the two most culpable
(16:22):
of the five officers had already pled guilty right and
were earned weren't on trial, and so that allowed the
remaining defendants to point the finger and say, oh, it
was really them. Now, I still think there was plenty
of evidence even as to those three defendants that were
on trial, but that was a challenge. I think, you know,
maybe the one thing that's a bit of a consoling
(16:43):
factor is that all five of them have been convicted
over in federal court, right and they will all be
sentenced next month in federal court. So I you know,
the idea that they completely escaped justice is wrong. But
obviously you know that that state jury verdict hurts.
Speaker 6 (17:02):
So you know, in a reference to the decision that
was made by the jury, it was decided that you
went out of Chevy County and kind of worked your
way east throughout the state to find a jury. We
had eight men, four women, all white, and they're from
Hamilton County around Chattanooga. And I guess for me, and
the lingering question that I have in reference to all
(17:23):
of this is when they were chosen. I'm pretty sure
that there were folks that looked like me that live
in Chattanooga, and I guess I was trying to figure
out why the makeup.
Speaker 5 (17:33):
Of the jury was the way it was in reference
to this case.
Speaker 9 (17:36):
Yeah, so the jury pool on Chattanooga was about ten
percent black. There were about a half a dozen black
potential jurors who got seated in the juror box and considered.
All of them happened to have excuses reasons, you know,
school work, health, while they couldn't serve, and the judge
excused them. Now, the judge, who himself is African American,
(17:57):
excused plenty of white people too who had similar reasons.
At the end of the day when the jury was picked,
there was one black person and I think one other
person of color who were actually on the jury. Came
to Memphis and sat and listened to the testimony. But
over the course of the trial, each of them at
various times ended up developing health issues and were excused.
(18:19):
And so when the dust settled, you had an all
white jury. Now, obviously that's not ideal in a case
as racially fraud as this one, but really, Chip that
shouldn't have mattered because the evidence was really compelling. In
my view, if you take a look at that video
evidence and you listen to the testimony, there should have
been convictions of at least some of those charges. So
(18:40):
you know, again it's it's it's hard to take, but
at least all of them are facing some sort of justice.
Speaker 5 (18:47):
Over in federal court.
Speaker 6 (18:49):
Yeah, and that is true, and I think that I
guess that that is the saving grapes. But when you
think about the family, mother, and of course the step father,
mister Wells, and everybody affiliated and associated with that family,
I mean, again, I mean, just an absolutely stunning verdict.
When you saw the jury, the makeup of the jury,
(19:10):
the final makeup of the jury, were you anywhere in
the back of your mind thinking to yourself, I mean,
I mean, there could be something here one way or another.
Or did you just feel like, as you said earlier,
that the evidence was compelling enough for them to even
be able to see and make any decision.
Speaker 9 (19:28):
I mean in the back of my mind. Sure did
The thought never cross my mind once that it would
have been better had we had a more racially diverse jury.
Of course it did. But nonetheless, given the overwhelming nature
of the evidence, I thought there was, you know, every
chance that we would get convictions on at least some
of those charges. And when even the e felonies, even
(19:49):
the official oppression and official miscontact ended up not guilty,
I was genuinely, I was genuinely astounded. And you know,
you mentioned the family. I got a shout out to
the family. They showed extraordinary grace throughout this process as
much of an ordeal as was and and you know
that day in the courtroom, they were stoic when they
heard the verdict, and you know, and their remarks you know,
(20:11):
the next day at that rally in front of the
Civil Rights Museum, I thought, you know, they went out
of their way to praise our trial team. You know,
I mean, they they could have pointed fingers, but they didn't.
They said, they understood, we did our best, We tried.
You know, the trial team gave it their all. You know,
they obviously had a problem with the jury and the
jury the decision uh that they made, but they weren't
(20:33):
pointing fingers at us. And I appreciated that.
Speaker 5 (20:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (20:36):
Absolutely, they had high praise as matter of fact for
the prosecution team. They said, you all worked and you
did your You did absolutely the best that that you could.
Speaker 5 (20:45):
In terms of all of this.
Speaker 6 (20:46):
And and and you know, when you when you when
you think about all of this, and one of the
things that people have been talking about the you know
now that this has past us is the number of
individuals that were called this witnesses, the prosecution. I think
at seventeen that's the prosecution. The defense team at seventeen
and you all had five. What was what was the
(21:08):
thought process there?
Speaker 9 (21:09):
I mean, you know, you don't anybody who's done jury
trials knows you don't just add it up that way.
You don't say, oh, they had more witnesses, so they
had the stronger case. Remember there were three different defendants,
three different defense teams. Each of them called a couple
of witnesses, and so when you added it all up,
they got to seventeen.
Speaker 5 (21:26):
You know, we.
Speaker 9 (21:28):
Called the number of witnesses that was necessary in the
view of the trial team to prove the case and
no more. You know, the strategy of you know, over
in federal court they had lots of witnesses and they
got a mixed result. Yeah, so you know, the state
chargers were different. The trial team decided to keep it simple,
show the video, provide witness testimony from the TBI and others,
(21:53):
and then also use the defense's own experts on cross
examination to get them to acknowledg and admit over and
over again that what you were watching on those videos
was unnecessary and excessive and unjustified, over and over again
at every stage of the video and got them to
admit that any officer who was present and saw that
(22:17):
had an affirmative duty to try to stop it, and
they would be in violation if they didn't. And despite that,
the jury went a different way. It's it's it's hard
to figure out.
Speaker 6 (22:28):
You mentioned the federal case, and of course, even when
the verdict came down in the federal case in terms
of charges, I remember you saying you are a bit surprised,
as were.
Speaker 5 (22:39):
The rest of us.
Speaker 6 (22:40):
It's some of the some of the things that we
thought would be, you know, added into all of that, weren't.
Speaker 5 (22:46):
So it's a funny.
Speaker 6 (22:48):
It's just a I don't know, it's not funny in
a way, but it's funny in the dynamics of how
these trials really work, isn't it.
Speaker 5 (22:55):
Yeah, I mean it.
Speaker 9 (22:57):
I think it makes me concerned and makes me think
we have a long way to go in this country
to understand what the duty to intervene means in law enforcement,
and that it really is the case that you know,
even if you're not the one actually throwing the kicks
and throwing the punches, if you're the one that's holding
on to the victim while those kicks and punches are
(23:19):
being held. If you're the one that sees it and
never says anything and never tries to do anything to
stop it, and you don't adequately report to medical personnel
exactly what happened, that's that's the basis for liability too.
And the law is clear on that. I wish it
was clear in the minds of the jury.
Speaker 6 (23:40):
You know, one of the things that you have been
fighting for and talking about for a long time is
this situation. You know what, we've seen an increase in
criminal activity in our in our city here recently, and
a lot has to do with these young folks. But
in terms of bail and in terms terms of you know,
(24:01):
assigning bail to particular cases, I know that's something that
you've been talking about for for a long time now.
The parody in all of this, Yeah, do you think
that we are starting to hint in a right direction
or is that a fight that you are continuing to
fight in terms of you know, who stays in jail
depending on the charges against them and how all of
that goes.
Speaker 9 (24:19):
Now, I think there's room for improvement, but I think
there are improvements that are being made. You know, I
want to point out once again, I respect the jury's decision,
by the way, when I was talking earlier, you know,
I can disagree with it but still respect it. Sure,
But with respect to the bail situation, you know, first
of all, we've had six consecutive quarters of crime coming
down in Memphis and Shelby County, double digit percentage decreases
(24:42):
across all categories. It's still too high, but at least
we're going in the right direction, knock Wood. You know,
let's pray that that positive trend continues. So that's something
we need to acknowledge. And then with respect to bail,
there were a couple of outlier decisions last year that
we disagreed with and we appealed. But you know, most
(25:04):
of the time, I think the judges are trying to
do the right thing and doing the best thing. There
have been some positive developments. You know, I cooperated with
local law enforcement and the judicial commissioners and the pre
trial services to get better information to the judges and
judicial commissioners so they can make better bail decisions. So
information from law enforcement like gang affiliation and difficulty and
(25:29):
apprehending them that might lead to risk of flight. We're
getting more comprehensive information about the criminal records of those defendants.
You know, we did that last year in cooperation with
Mayor Harris. And now there's you know, an ability for
us to use juvenile court records as well in adult
court when we're setting bail. So I think there are
(25:49):
positive trends. We're all working on it, and you know,
I'm hoping things will continue to improve.
Speaker 6 (25:55):
A man that I guess you'd called it one time,
your friend Senator Brent Taylor, who had been coming after
you for quite some time now, uh, you know, he
he took this thing to a higher court. In the
higher court said uh, nothing nothing to see here, and
I guess I wanted to get your take on on
that situation. Of course, he has some things to say
(26:15):
about this trial as well. But I mean in terms
of that situation, and last time you were you were saying,
this is an assault. This has been an assault on
DA's across the state.
Speaker 5 (26:23):
Absolutely. But but but in reference to across the country, yeah.
Speaker 6 (26:27):
Yeah, yeah, And and but in reference to that, you
must feel good about the fact that Okay, well, you know,
take to whatever level you take it to, and you
see what happened to know.
Speaker 9 (26:35):
Do I feel vindicated, Yes, I feel vindicated. I I
note that, you know, Senator Taylor boldly promised last summer
and last fall that he was going to have the
legislature remove me and investigate me, you know, and he
was relentless. And yet his bill to have the legislature
investigate and me for possible removal didn't advance at all.
(26:55):
I didn't even get a hearing in committee on either
the House or the Senate side, and that's because he
couldn't get the votes. And then towards the end, he
pivoted with this, you know, face saving bit of window
dressing where he said, well, we're going to do a
non binding resolution asking the Supreme Court to investigate me
in two other das. And that really was a bit
(27:16):
of face saving window dressing from a guy who couldn't
get the votes in the legislature to do what he
had so boldly promised he was going to do.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
You know.
Speaker 9 (27:25):
And on top of that, you know, his ethics complaints
that he keeps filing against me keep getting dismissed. He
had all these complaints supposedly about our finances, and yet
the Controller General did a financial audit and gave us
a clean bill of health. The U of M did
a study on bail which I think vindicated my views
on bail and showed that his signature bail statutes didn't
(27:48):
really accomplish all that much. And there was a comprehensive
study of the Shelby County criminal justice system by the
Controller General's office that didn't criticize us at all. So
I think when the dust settles been vindicated, and he
spent a lot of time, you know, wasting my staff's
time responding to his requests, distracting my office, making it
(28:11):
harder for us to do our job, I don't think
these last ten months have made us safer, in fact,
quite the country.
Speaker 6 (28:19):
Last question before I let you go in the aftermath
of the state trial of Tyree Nichols and how folks
are feeling, and probably including yourself obviously, as you stated,
what is your message to all of us as citizens
of Memphis and Shelby County. He asked pertains to law
(28:39):
and order and to fight to and the fight to
do what's right.
Speaker 9 (28:44):
So a couple of things, but by way of consolation,
first of all, the people of Shelby County have to
know that this District Attorney's office is going to vigorously
prosecute any violations of the law by those who are
sworn to uphold the law, and we are not going
to be discouraged by this hard to understand verdict. And so,
(29:06):
you know, please be assured that we will be on
the case to make sure that we prosecute all cases
of excessive force, police brutality, other types of police misconduct,
just as we will vigorously enforce violations of the law
by those who are not police right. But I think
if there is any other silver lining that we can
(29:26):
derive from this essentially very dark cloud of not only
the offense itself, but this most recent jury verdict, it's
that we have to recommit ourselves to the cause of
police reform. And you know, the city of Memphis has
set up this committee managed or shared by former Judge
Bernice Donald, who have a lot of respect for I
(29:47):
think she's well respected, and I think we need to
redouble our efforts to make sure that there are systemic
reforms that are put in place going forward to make
it less likely that tragedies like the Tyree Nichols killing
will ever have.
Speaker 6 (30:00):
And again, well listen man, thank you so much for
taking the time and coming in and visiting with this
us this afternoon in our audience. I've been, I've been.
You know a lot of us have been bothered by it,
and I know you have as well. The fight continues.
What you have to say, fight continues. Chelby County District
Attorney Steve Molroy. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you sir for
(30:21):
coming in and being with us this evening. I really
appreciate your time. Like always, thank you, Hip, take care
of you too. There you go, Ladies and gentlemen. DA
Steve Molroy talking to us about this, about this trial
and some other things as well. Really appreciate his time
and thank you so much for coming. Let's take another break.
When we come back, we will prepare for our next guest.
This is Real Talk Memphis.
Speaker 5 (30:41):
I'm Chip. You know who you are. Don't go away,
We'll be right.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
Back if you Real Talk. Here's the way you can
get involved. Do you have a show topic, idea or
a suggestion. Want to be considered a guest or have
(31:07):
a guest idea? Then send Chip a message on his
Real Talk show page and you can be a part
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go out and tell somebody, We'll be right back.
Speaker 5 (31:18):
It's it's it's real.
Speaker 10 (31:24):
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(31:46):
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Speaker 6 (32:05):
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Real Talk with Zip Washington.
Speaker 6 (32:38):
It's Hey, Welcome back. To real talk Memphis on this
beautiful turning out to be a beautiful Monday evening in
the city.
Speaker 5 (32:52):
Chip Washington with you.
Speaker 6 (32:53):
Glad to have you with us out there as well,
and glad to have my next guest. You know, I
haven't we haven't seen each other or really talk to
each other. He's been on this show before, but it's
been a minute. But I am so happy that he
was able to find some time this evening to join us.
Speaker 5 (33:07):
He is Eric Barnes.
Speaker 6 (33:08):
He is the CEO of The Daily Mifian and of
course he's also the host of Behind the Headlines and
of course you know he he gets right to the
heart of the matter with a lot of politicians, decision
makers and folks out there who make this city run.
Speaker 5 (33:24):
Mister E is great to see you.
Speaker 7 (33:26):
How are you, sir, I'm good, I'm great.
Speaker 6 (33:28):
Thank you for having me man, thank you for taking
some time to be with us today. So uh you
you you know h d A.
Speaker 5 (33:34):
Malroy pretty well? And then yeah, yeah.
Speaker 7 (33:41):
He was on the show last week.
Speaker 5 (33:43):
I think, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, oh your show.
Speaker 7 (33:46):
Yes, I just saw him walking out.
Speaker 5 (33:49):
Yeah, absolutely that.
Speaker 6 (33:50):
So I'll ask you as a as a as a journalist,
and someone who keeps up with what is going on
in our community. What was your take on the verdict
in the Yeah Tyree Nichols case last week?
Speaker 7 (34:02):
I mean, my initial reaction was less journalistic than just
as a human and you know, so my adopted home
of almost thirty years now was shock and it's still
a level of shock. As I stepped back and thought
about it, I think, I mean, I don't do a
lot of I'm not a calmnist, you know, I try
not to give too much of my opinion, but this
(34:23):
is sort of my take on it was. I had
to step back and remind myself that it was only
three of the five police officers, right, that all of
them had been convicted on federal charges and still have
to be sentenced. And I got the point that the
I think the DA made, and certainly in a statement
after it that you know, the way the legalities work,
(34:48):
and I'm not a lawyer, was they could sort of say, well,
these two were the clearly the biggest offenders, and these
two were just standing by.
Speaker 5 (34:54):
Right.
Speaker 7 (34:54):
What I can't really get my mind around is, at
a minimum, the idea of what was it official misconduct?
And there were two or three charges of official misconduct
who were found All three were found not guilty of them. Yes, I,
as a lay person, don't know what official misconduct would
be if not standing around watching that happen. Because I
(35:18):
had to watch those videos of the body cam video
and the telephone video, the pole video many many times
as part of our coverage. Didn't want to, but I had,
you know, I had to, as we did. We did timelines,
you know, second by second timelines. I was honestly surprised
that more people in the vicinity weren't charged. I know
many were reprimanded or lost their jobs or all that. Sure,
(35:41):
it doesn't I don't undertan. I guess the law is
poorly written. If you give the law a break, how
can at a minimum there not have been official misconduct
as this young man was beaten to death and these
people stood nearby. That's the part I still can't get
my mind around.
Speaker 5 (35:57):
Yeah, you know, I was.
Speaker 6 (35:58):
I was thinking, I mean, it does matter if I
didn't put my hand on anybody, if I saw somebody
just getting beat to death, which was exactly what happened,
and I didn't do a thing about it, and I
just stood there and watched the man lose his life.
There has to be some accountability for that. From my perspective,
I would just say it like that.
Speaker 7 (36:17):
Yeah, as a non right, as a human, as a
non lawyer, as somebody who's around these kind of people.
If you look at the statements from say CJ. Dayton,
that statements, I mean, I hadn't just show two three
months ago on behind the headlines her talking about how
horrified she was when she saw that, the mayor saying,
the former mayor saying, all these people saying, I mean
to watch it was to be horrified. The DA said that,
and it I think the fact that the official misconduct
(36:41):
at a minimum wasn't guilty. Memphis and Shelby County handled
that as best they could once it happened, in terms
of coming forward, no sweeping under the rug, making charges,
firing the police officers. They did it for a horrific
situation about as best as they could. And it took
that away that the system didn't to me, and I'm
(37:03):
been editorializing too much, but I just I don't think
in my mind around that the law is that week
on what is official misconduct? We got to change the law.
Speaker 6 (37:11):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely that So you you run. You run
a pretty uh, pretty tight operation over there at the
Daily Memphian. What what is what is news gathering? Uh today?
What is the fundamental philosophy in terms of you overseeing
this operation? Y uh and in news gathering on a
daily basis in and around Memphis and Chevy County in
(37:33):
your in your estimation, I mean.
Speaker 7 (37:35):
You know, we're actually May first was my seventh anniversary.
That was employee number one of the Daily Memphians. We
launched about four or five months after that, So September
will be our seventh anniversary from launch. And you know,
we're now the biggest newsroom in the region. We're got
just under forty people. When you you know all the
freelancers and stuff. It's never enough people. So that's one thing.
(37:58):
And and forty is a lot if you look at
peer cities compared to Memphis, US, having forty people in
a newsroom is a lot. While also there are still
four TV stations, there are radio stations. The commercial appeal,
although much smaller than it was, still has some really
good journalists over there, Business Journal Fly or MLK fifty
Tri State Memphis has a lot of independent and corporate media. Again,
(38:21):
maybe none of it is staff the way we would
want in terms of the number of people, but there's
a lot of competition. I think that makes us all
much better. So that's one thought. The other thought that
has really come to light for me over the last
couple of years is that people really, so many consumers
of news really expect their news to draw an opinionated conclusion.
(38:46):
And I think a lot of that comes from It
started with cable TV, where when you watch whichever it is, CNN, MSNBC,
Fox News, whatever you watch, there's so much of a
take or an opinion built into the coverage, and we
try very hard not to do that. It's hard to
be perfect about that unless we're doing an opinion piece
(39:08):
so Otis or Dan Conaway or Candas you know, people
can have opinion pieces and what happens is we'll get
The fascinating thing for me is when we get criticism
for someone who says you didn't say X, y Z
person was wrong, that means you're taking the other person's side.
And for us, we're a little old school that way
that we try to kind of reflect the various opinions
(39:30):
of various people and put it all out there, and
we might do an opinion piece where someone has an opinion,
and we might do an opinion piece so someone has
a different opinion, but the reporting is meant to be
Give voice. Xai is a good example. Give voice to
the protesters, give voice to Justin Pearson, give voice to
the chamber, give voice to scientists, give voice to MLGW,
(39:53):
and not conclude this is good or bad. And that
drives a certain number of people nuts because I I
think they expect if you don't take an opinion, you.
Speaker 6 (40:04):
Support the other side in your estimation, whether it be
the Daily Men, few and commercial apeo or whomever, and
even on your TV show behind the head lines, Are
we doing enough in your perspective, from your perspective in
holding individuals accountable period?
Speaker 7 (40:23):
Probably not, because there are enough people, you know. But
I think we try. We try to put shine a
light on everything that's going on with the most important
stories that we can get to, while also doing the
stuff that entertains people and informs people and is not
necessarily the most serious stuff going on, but that people
want to know that a restaurant opened and a restaurant closed,
and a concert is happening and a play is being performed,
(40:46):
and high school sports happen. So we devote a fair
amount of resources to things that aren't about accountability. And
I know some people would just like us to do accountability,
but other people they want to know who won the
basketball games, you know, they want to know, So we
have that big mission. I remember Louie Graham, who was
one of the editors up until about twenty seventeen twenty eight.
(41:07):
He was an editor of The Commercial Payer, only been
there for decades. And I got to know Louis before
we launched Daily Memphian, and he did some kind of
informal He was just kind of advisor, and he said,
I was complaining that we weren't gonna have enough people.
We weren't gonna have enough people, and he and we
launched with only twenty five people and we're about forty now.
And he said to me, Eric, you know what, twenty
(41:29):
years ago at the CAA, we had two hundred and
fifty people and a million dollar freelance budget every year,
which in twenty years ago would buy you a lot
of articles. And he said, Eric, you know what, we
always said we don't have enough people. You'll never have
enough people, But we really don't have a lot enough
people now, and I think that so we try to
hold people accountable. We tried to hold government leaders, business leaders, people,
(41:49):
and authority, but it's tough to balance all that, and
accountability for us is not the same as saying somebody's
It's about shining a light on them and letting people
draw their own conclusions with enough information.
Speaker 6 (42:05):
Finally, let me ask you this, in terms of the
direction of our city, of our county, as we continue
to move forward day after day, a year after year,
where do you think we're headed as a community from
your particular purview.
Speaker 7 (42:23):
I mean, like I was saying, I mean, Memphis is
my adopted home. I love it here. I've raised my
kids here. I don't ever want to live anywhere else.
I love it here, for all its imperfections. I've lived
in lots of other places before I moved here, and
I've traveled a ton. Everywhere I've ever been and I've
ever lived has problems, right, And I think sometimes we're
a little too hard on ourselves about our problems. That said,
(42:44):
I mean, the last years of a spike in crime
was really hard, first and foremost on the individuals who
are victims of crime, but on the kind of psyche
and the mood and the belief in the city and
that it is good to you just have the DA on.
And the crime numbers are going down. They're still too high,
(43:04):
but they are going down, and I think that is
a huge issue. And then the education. You know, Memphis,
Shelby Kenny Schools, like virtually every I mean again, this
is where we're too hard on ourselves. Virtually every public
school system and every medium or large city in this
country is not that great. Rural schools and a lot
(43:26):
of places not that great, but we're focused just on Memphis.
I think that is a thing that's really got to
be fixed, and people have been talking about that for decades.
And yet also if you look at individual schools or
individual classrooms, you can find a lot of success stories.
And I think it's tough to report on that stuff
and focus on that stuff when there's so much trouble
and turmoil at the top of the system. So I
(43:48):
feel great about the city, but I think that's not
the same as saying everything's fine, we can just coast.
We should just strive to be the best Memphis we
can be.
Speaker 6 (43:57):
Eric Vibe, Ladies and gentlemen it's CEO of the Daily Memphian,
host of Behind the Headlines.
Speaker 5 (44:03):
It is good to see you. My friend has been
a while. Thank you for your insight.
Speaker 7 (44:06):
We're gonna get you on behind the Headlines. We just
talked about that be fun.
Speaker 5 (44:10):
I'll come clean the floor.
Speaker 7 (44:12):
No, stop it all right, Thank you man, thanks for
having me.
Speaker 6 (44:16):
All right, Eric Barnes, Ladies and gentlemen, let's take our
final break and want to come back. We will continue.
We're not done yet. Don't you go away, talk to
you soon.
Speaker 3 (44:30):
H If you like real Talk, here's the way you
can get involved. Do you have a show topic idea
or a suggestion I want to be considered a guest
or have a guest idea, Then send Chip a message
on his Real Talk show page and you can be
(44:50):
a part of the real Talk experience. So as he
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Speaker 2 (44:55):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 8 (45:03):
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in the search box and hit subscribe. Now back to
more Real Talk with Jim Washington's.
Speaker 6 (46:16):
And welcome back to Real Talking Memphis on this Monday evening,
Chip with you, and I'm really happy to have my
next guest. This organization that he fronts is an amazing
organization which produces an amazing group of future leaders and
has for a very long time. I'm really happy to
have him on the show. Please welcome doctor Bobby White.
(46:37):
He is the president and CEO of Leadership Memphis and
doctor Bobby White, it's good to see you.
Speaker 5 (46:43):
How are you, sir man, I'm great.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
Thank you for having me too.
Speaker 6 (46:46):
Well, listen man, thank you for taking some time to
come on to the show. And first of all, for
people who don't really know about who may have heard
of Leadership Memphis kind of on the surface, tell folks
what the organization and really is all about from your perspective.
Speaker 4 (47:04):
Yeah, So at first, I want to just say, you're
having me on the show. With the previous guests and
the heavy topic that you had, it kind of leads
to a perfect segue in my mind for what Leadership
Memphis is all about.
Speaker 2 (47:20):
You know.
Speaker 4 (47:21):
So our vision is like to promote a thriving and
healthy Memphis, right, the type of Memphis that we all
can be proud of, and you know, some of the
things that's happened sometimes we're not so proud of our city, right.
Speaker 2 (47:35):
But Leadership Memphis is that this arm of.
Speaker 4 (47:40):
Leaders professional development organization that provides leaders with the opportunity
to grow.
Speaker 2 (47:47):
Our organization consists of two traps.
Speaker 4 (47:50):
Our fast Track program, which are are emerging leaders folks
in the mid level of their careers. And then we
have our Executive program, which are our c suite folk
that are at the top of the tier as it
relates to their leadership. And so what we do is
(48:12):
we focus on four main pillars as it relates to
this training for these leaders. The first is we connect
leaders to civic knowledge and resources right. Secondly, we practice
collaborative leadership through community action projects. Community action projects and
(48:33):
talk a little bit more you'll understand what that means.
And we explore thirdly, exploring personal leadership pathways. Explore your
personal pathway towards leadership right. And for we facilitate opportunities
to learn and grow and be mentored by peers.
Speaker 2 (48:52):
So how the program works is folks go through.
Speaker 12 (48:55):
Our training and they are connected to different communities.
Speaker 2 (49:02):
In our city.
Speaker 4 (49:03):
So we know you have Orange Mound, you have Frasier,
you have Hickory, Hell, you have White Haven, you have
all these communities. They're connected to these communities and they
learn about the different things that are happening within that
community and then connected to the things that will afford
them the opportunity to be able to impact those communities.
(49:24):
So in the training sessions, in the professional development they
go through, they are taken through sessions around government, city planning, education, economics,
arts and culture, health and wellness. And the goal is
these folks who are leaders in our community are betting
better suited to lead because they have a greater understanding
(49:49):
of the communities where the people are coming from that
are working in and with them at the companies that
they serve.
Speaker 2 (49:59):
Is an example.
Speaker 6 (50:00):
No, No, I didn't mean to cut you off. I
was going to say, but it sounds to me as
if you're leading or you're setting up folks to lead
from the ground up, which visa v means community.
Speaker 5 (50:13):
But I didn't mean you go ahead.
Speaker 12 (50:15):
No, no, absolutely absolutely, But you got these folks are
already in leadership roles, right, but you got to think
about one of the things. Just say you're the CFO
of Kroger or FedEx.
Speaker 2 (50:29):
You're leading folks that work.
Speaker 12 (50:31):
That live in communities in and around Memphis.
Speaker 5 (50:34):
Right.
Speaker 12 (50:35):
If you understand those communities, you're then better able to
understand how to lead, with, manage and support the folks
that work with you because you understand the plight of
the community that they're in.
Speaker 2 (50:49):
Right.
Speaker 12 (50:50):
This organization was started years ago, over forty five years
ago by Fritz Smith and Pitt Hyde. Doctor Harrington was
a part of them.
Speaker 4 (51:00):
The first Class, the first Class, and they set out
to say the leaders in Memphis need to be more
connected to the community in a way to force some
opportunity to be able to understand the communities so that
they can impact the communities in a greater way. I
think it's a special, special organization and that many cities
(51:24):
are not thinking about that the executives who are leading
the organizations in our city and how they may be
so disconnected from the people that actually work for their companies.
Speaker 6 (51:38):
Yeah. Right, that's a great for that. That's that is
an absolutely wonderful philosophy. I mean, you're it's like you're
it's like ground floor stuff. It's like, you know what,
you may be in a position, uh, you know, of
leadership of authority in various places, but unless you're connected
to the root of the individuals that you teach and uh,
(52:00):
that you oversee rather on a daily basis, Uh, you know,
unless unless you understand their ground floor, uh, then you're
really not as successful as a leader.
Speaker 5 (52:09):
It sounds to me like.
Speaker 4 (52:10):
You know, you're I mean, it's challenging to lead when
you don't know the people that you're leading.
Speaker 5 (52:15):
There you go, you don't know the community, the.
Speaker 12 (52:18):
Community that you are are are a part of, and
and and and so the the other arm of our
organization is volunteer members, right, right, So what ends up
happening is this alumni network over four thousand people now
since it's been this organization has been in existence for
(52:41):
over forty five years.
Speaker 2 (52:42):
Yes, sir, this alumni network then are connected to all of.
Speaker 12 (52:48):
The volunteer opportunities too that are speak to their passion, right,
And so once folks leave.
Speaker 2 (52:54):
Our program, they are.
Speaker 4 (52:57):
Always updated on volunteer opportunities so that they are able
to continue on with the work. Not just so you
got I'm familiar with the folks that work with me,
the communities that they come from, but now I'm also
connected to the volunteer piece of the things that happen
in our city. I find it people don't know that
(53:20):
we are.
Speaker 12 (53:21):
A part of the Red Cross and if there is
an emergency in Memphis, then.
Speaker 2 (53:28):
They reach out to us.
Speaker 4 (53:30):
We then, with a four thousand alumni that we have,
are able to reach out and say we need your
support with this emergency that we have.
Speaker 2 (53:38):
This is it is.
Speaker 4 (53:39):
A powerful organization and I'm not sure if we have
like tapped into the power of the alumni base. And
that's my major goal with me being on the job
six months now, is to activate the alumni network.
Speaker 12 (53:58):
Everyone in Memphis. Who is body has been a part
of Leadership members.
Speaker 4 (54:02):
Mary Young like like, I can just go down the
list of all of the who in Memphis, They've all
been a part of Leadership members. And so we have
this powerful network that are connected to volunteerism and connected
to civic engagement and and understanding of what our city needs.
And I just see as now as as we move forward,
(54:23):
as us being the conduit to support any all of
the challenges that we have in our city with the
brains and the and the minds and expertise that the
alumni base has.
Speaker 6 (54:36):
Well, Listen, man, I tell you what uh this is.
You're you're you're leading it the right way. I mean,
because you're you're certain this thing. Look if you're if
you if you don't know the people you're leading, it's
it's kind of hard to lead. And of course that
with the volunteer component makes for a more complete city.
Uh and and and and and the people that you're
(54:57):
grooming uh in these in these positions and moving forward,
are going to be making even greater impact. Doctor Bobby White,
Ladies and gentlemen, she's the president and CEO of Leadership
Memphis and Volunteer Memphis. Uh, doing a great job, Bobby,
that they got they got the right one, and I'm
appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (55:16):
I appreciate that. Some days I'm not so sure.
Speaker 5 (55:18):
That's all right.
Speaker 6 (55:18):
Yeah, I know that feeling too. But thank you for
taking some time to come on the show, my friend.
I really appreciate you.
Speaker 5 (55:23):
Man.
Speaker 6 (55:23):
Thank you so much. Thank you guys too, my friend,
Thank you so much. Hey go, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 5 (55:29):
You can't look. You can't lead if you don't know.
You got to get to know folks.
Speaker 6 (55:32):
And and if you if you're in a position of leadership,
you need to get to know the folks that you
are leading.
Speaker 9 (55:37):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (55:38):
That makes it uh uh an even more complete circle.
So congratulations to Bobby, Bobby White and all those folks
at Leadership Memphis. And as Bren plays us out, it's
been a great show tonight. I hope you had a
chance to check it out. If you didn't have a
chance to check it out live, Uh, it will be
on my page. It's on Facebook Live, and it's a podcast,
(55:58):
so you will be able to hear the showing this entirety.
Of course, once you posted in the next couple of days, meantime,
don't touch that child, because up next to our own
very own Bren Butler, ladies and gentlemen host Event Horizons
is a right around the corner and Brin will take
you on a magical musical ride for sixty minutes from
(56:21):
seven to eight o'clock. Please check him out, Please support him,
because when you supporting him, you support all of us.
So thank you again for being a part of what
we do each and every Monday evening. If you like
what we do, go out and tell a friend. In
the meantime in between times, please be safe, Please be careful,
watch out for yourself and watch out for other folks
and for all of us here at Real Talk Memphis
(56:42):
for Lovely Lola, for a brand host of Event Horizon
and yours truly. Take care, be safe, and we are out.
Talk to you soon.
And it's real talk with your main chip washing it
when it comes to information, the main guy in Austen
and bring you up to speed with what you need.
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It's real tough, it's a real talking, it's real cop.
Speaker 5 (01:15):
And here we go.
Speaker 6 (01:16):
Here we go on this Monday evening in the city.
It is May twenty twenty five, six o'clock pm, straight up,
which means it is time for an all new and
live Real Talk Memphis. I am your humble host. My
name is Chip Washington. Glad to have you with us
this evening. Yeah, we've seen a lot of rain here,
(01:36):
kind of off and on all day long. But I
think the rain is finally moving out and the sunshine
is moving in and yeah, and everything is going to
be okay. Glad you can make it for this evening show.
We have a three great guests in studio with us
this evening. Actually two of them are actually in studio
(01:57):
and the other one will be joining us at Zoom
on Zoom a little bit later on. We'll get to
all of that in just a few minutes. Of course,
if you're listening to us now, you're listening to us
on ninety one point seven FMWYXR that, of course, you know,
our flagship station. You can also find the show on
the WYX app. We are on the tune in app
(02:19):
as well, and we are live streaming this evening on
Facebook Live, so you can check out the show if
you to do so now.
Speaker 5 (02:26):
The next day or two, once the.
Speaker 6 (02:27):
Show is posted a little later on this week, you
can hear us on YouTube. We'll be on YouTube, and
of course, as the show is a podcast, you can
catch us wherever it is you get your podcasts there
you go. Plenty of opportunities plenty of options available for
you to check us out, watch us, see us, and
(02:49):
the whole nine yards. We do have a good show
for you tonight. We are going to be speaking just
a couple of minutes here with our DRA Chevy County
DA Steve Molroy on me in studio. Of course, we
are all still reeling from what happened last week in
the estate trial of Tyree Nichols. We're going to talk
(03:10):
to our DA about that, and yeah, it is you know,
I mean for many of us, including him, a bit
of a shock as to what the jury did. But
we'll have that conversation in just a few minutes. A
little bit later on, we're going to be talking to
the CEO of the Daily Memphian. I'm sure many of
you know what that is, and his name is Eric Barnes.
(03:32):
He will be joining me just a little bit as well,
and he's also a host of Behind the Headlines by
the way.
Speaker 5 (03:38):
And a little bit.
Speaker 6 (03:39):
Later we will be talking to the President and CEO
of Leadership Memphis. His name is doctor Bobby White. So yeah,
we have a loaded, loaded show for you this evening,
and again, thank you all for being with us, and
we hope that you can stick with us for the
next sixty minutes because I think, as always, you will
learn something. I like to think that people learn a
(04:00):
few things when they watched this broadcast or listen to
this broadcast, So that's a good deal as well. Before
we get into all of that, we will do what
we always do, which is shout you out. You know,
it's an another month, another month of birthdays and another
month of celebration, and you know, we like to do
(04:22):
this little thing called the shout out, which is what
we do. And of course we shout you out across
the country, let people know that it is your birthday,
that you made another trip around the sun, and we
are glad about that. But I can't do that until
I say hit bran, Happy birthday, Happy birthday, Happy birthday.
(04:43):
Going out to the following shows. Lisa Lee celebrating her
birthday today. Happy birthday to Harriet Walters, long time, long time,
my wonderful friend of mine celebrating her birthday today. Happy birthday,
Tracy Jeffries, I see you, Jeffrey, celebrating your birthday on
this day. Happy birthday to Judy Tate, to Brenda Dillard,
(05:06):
Audrey Eleon.
Speaker 5 (05:08):
Celebrating her birthday today.
Speaker 6 (05:10):
Happy birthday to you, Gail Rose, to Michael Stephen Moore,
Happy birthday Monica Smith and Chuck Wedding Mister, all celebrating
birthdays on this May the twelfth. From all of us
here at Real Talk, Memphis, we are very happy that
you made it another trip around the son and celebrated
(05:33):
your birthday.
Speaker 5 (05:33):
I hope it's been a day full of fun.
Speaker 6 (05:35):
And love and laughter, and of course all of us
hope to be with you next year as you celebrate
your next trip around the sun.
Speaker 5 (05:44):
Somebody told me the rumor hans it dead.
Speaker 6 (05:47):
My birthday is a sometime this month, back today, but
sometime this month, so hopefully I can be around here
to celebrate that.
Speaker 5 (05:54):
Between them now and the end of May.
Speaker 6 (05:58):
All right, well, let's take a look at some news
and notes on this day, of course, since we last
saw you or last spoke to you last Monday evening.
Of course, UH, the state trial UH is now over
of Tyree Nichols and all three former officers were declared
not guilty by UH the jury on all charges.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
UH.
Speaker 6 (06:22):
The next phase will be the sentencing in the federal trial,
which I believe should happened, uh sometime next month, and
then after that, uh there will be uh the uh
the the monetary aspect of the trial uh as well.
So for a lot of us, very surprising uh verdict, uh,
(06:46):
you know, and and and very stunning, and a lot
of us, you know, are going through a myriad of
emotions about all of this. Yours, your yours truly included
uh in reference to it. And as I said, if
you just joined, if you just not clicked the radio
on our d kind enough to join me this evening,
Steve Morerare will be talking with me in just a
couple of minutes. Say hello to the new pope, ladies
(07:08):
and gentlemen. The first American born pope in the history
of all of this was selected last week. His name
is Robert Prevost, but you can call him Pope Leo
the fourteenth.
Speaker 5 (07:21):
That is the name that he chose.
Speaker 6 (07:23):
And he is the first pope, as I said, ever
to be elected from the United States of America. He's
a Chicago native and he's also a Peruvian, a citizen
where he served for over twenty years there. So yeah,
he was a bishop there for a very long time.
A lot of folks seemed to be very pleased with
this selection, and he is. He's in there now, and
(07:45):
he's sixty nine years old, so he's younger than the
last two or three popes that were selected as well.
So congratulations to him, Pope Leo the fourteenth. All right,
many of you will probably oh and by the way,
way not to dampen any of this right now, but
I hope that all of you mothers were celebrated in
(08:09):
the way you should have been celebrated yesterday, as yesterday
was Mother's Day, and I hope that you had a
lovely time when your family took you and spoiled you
and showed you just how much you mean to them,
with all of the love and everything that goes along
with that. I hope you all had a wonderful, wonderful,
wonderful Mother's Day, a celebration some folks who are a
(08:32):
bit shook up yesterday afternoon in reference to all of this,
of course, I'm speaking about the shooting that happened to
Jay Alexander's restaurant on Germantown Parkway yesterday about six thirty
or so. Man walked in displaying a gun, approaching his
ex girlfriend displaying a weapon. There was some words exchanged
(08:52):
between some other folks that got into it, and the
man did not fire a shot, thank god. But he
walked in. Everybody saw the gun. He was holding the
gun by a side, so there you go. He was
announcing himself and apparently at some point everyone resorted to
getting under their tables at that restaurant. I can just
imagine how that was, how all that went on yesterday.
(09:15):
No one was hurt, thank god, thank god, thank god.
The suspects there was a male and a female suspects
that the police are looking for right now.
Speaker 5 (09:22):
They escaped.
Speaker 6 (09:24):
But yeah, that was that was kind of a tough deal.
And let me just it was just some shooting out. Congratulations.
Here a couple of more. First of all, to all
of those who are belonging to the class of twenty
twenty five, the graduates, whether you graduated high school, whether
you graduated college, or however you graduated, if you graduated
(09:45):
this year, shout outs and kudos from all of us
here a real talk menference to you on your hard
work and your accomplishments. In reference to all of that,
you know it takes a lot of hard work getting
through school, and so we salute you the class of
twenty twenty five. I'm to understand that the University of
Memphis had the largest doctoral class in the history of
(10:06):
the school graduate this past Saturday, which is a very
very very big deal. And again, you know, we salute
you and congratulate you on all the hard work and effort.
Now get out there and find the job, right, that's
what's the next. And finally, shout out to our folks
at Central High School.
Speaker 5 (10:24):
Why you ask why?
Speaker 6 (10:25):
Indeed, well, they are the winners of the international jazz
band competition that was held in New York City over
the weekend. They went up there and just blew get it,
blow music blow. They blew everybody away, and they came
out with first prize.
Speaker 5 (10:42):
And yeah, we are just extraordinarily proud.
Speaker 6 (10:45):
See, I don't ever say things good things don't come
out of Memphis, Tennessee. So shout out to Central High
School and all those affiliated with their jazz band who
won that international competition in New York City over the weekend.
They came back home today triumph, fintend. We are so
proud of each and every one of them. That is
(11:05):
a brief look at news and notes. I am going
to take a break and we will prepare for our
first guest. Our District Attorney Steve Moore Roy is here.
You are there, I'm Chip. You know who you are.
We're gonna take our first break. We'll be right back.
Don't you go away.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
If you like Real Talk, here's the way you can
get involved. Do you have a show topic, idea or
a suggestion. Want to be considered a guest or have
a guest idea? Then send Chip a message on his
Real Talk show page and you can be a part
of the Real Talk experience. So as he always says,
go out and tell somebody, We'll be right back.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
It's real.
Speaker 7 (11:56):
It's.
Speaker 8 (12:00):
Support for WYXR comes from IRAM Memphis, dedicated to advancing
the knowledge and professionalism of real estate managers through education, networking,
and advocacy. More information at Iramdashmmphis dot org. Support for
WYXR comes from Playhouse on the Square presenting Chicken and
(12:21):
Biscuits May ninth through June first at the Circuit Playhouse.
Two sisters attempting to set their differences aside while attending
their father's funeral service, a story of family dynamics and secrets.
More information and tickets can be found at playhouse on
the Square dot.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
Org, get Real Talk on the tune in mobile app
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(12:56):
you can also catch a rebroadcast on YouTube. Just put
wyx SORRY in the search box and hit subscribe. Now
back to more Real Talk with Chip Washington's.
Speaker 6 (13:14):
And welcome back to Real Talk Memphis on this Monday
evening in the city. Of course, Chip Washington with you.
Glad to have you with us this evening, and we
are very happy to have with us this evening. Our
district attorney, the Chelby County District Attorney, Steve Molroy, is
in studio with me this evening, and mister Dia, it
(13:35):
is great to see you again and great to have
you here. Thank you for taking time, really appreciate you.
Speaker 7 (13:38):
Always happy to do it ship well.
Speaker 6 (13:40):
Thank you sir, and of course many of us still
talking about and thinking about the state trial just ended,
uh in the Tyree Nichols murder case.
Speaker 5 (13:51):
Three officers, of course we're on trial.
Speaker 6 (13:54):
In reference to that, the jury decided that none of
these individal jewels in their eyes were guilty, so we
had each of them facing seven counts seven fourteen twenty
one counts all not guilty. And I guess my first question,
the natural question I would ask is in reference to you,
(14:15):
as the chief prosecutor in the case, how did.
Speaker 5 (14:18):
You feel when you heard that determination?
Speaker 9 (14:22):
Well, we were obviously very disappointed. I was very surprised.
I mean, it's really hard to understand, I think, having
watched those videos, how the jury would have quit on
all charges, not even on official misconduct or official oppression,
the lower level charges. And we have to respect the
(14:44):
jury's decision, obviously, but I don't mind telling you we
all strongly disagreed with it. We were very surprised, very disappointed.
It was a bitter pill to swallowship.
Speaker 6 (14:55):
Yeah, for a lot of us, so who sort of
witnessed this. And you know, one of the things about
it is uh you know when you when you see
what we saw, and we know the jury came from Chattanooga.
It was an all white jury that came from Chattanooga.
And we'll talking about that in a minute. But for
many second third generation Native Memphians, I'll just say people
(15:16):
who live some life here and or were around back
in the days of the fifties and the sixties when
uh Injustice uh ran downhill at a pretty good pace
around here. This reminds folks of of of a dark past.
This reminds folks of a dark time, uh, you know,
when folks were put on trial, you know, and and
(15:37):
in certain instances, uh and and found not guilty uh
by by some of these juries. And a lot of
people are are are sort of the older folks who
have been been around here for a while are sort
of thinking this is the.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Ken to that.
Speaker 6 (15:49):
And and it really hurts on another level because it
begs the question for all of us, what does justice
look like, you know in our city now?
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Yeah?
Speaker 9 (15:59):
Yeah, no, I mean, of course hurts just a kick
in the gut to anybody who cares about this kind
of stuff, you know, the need for people to be
treated humanely and not have those who are sworn to
uphold the law being the ones that are violating the law.
I can tell you that, you know, the prosecution team
had a challenge going in because the two most culpable
(16:22):
of the five officers had already pled guilty right and
were earned weren't on trial, and so that allowed the
remaining defendants to point the finger and say, oh, it
was really them. Now, I still think there was plenty
of evidence even as to those three defendants that were
on trial, but that was a challenge. I think, you know,
maybe the one thing that's a bit of a consoling
(16:43):
factor is that all five of them have been convicted
over in federal court, right and they will all be
sentenced next month in federal court. So I you know,
the idea that they completely escaped justice is wrong. But
obviously you know that that state jury verdict hurts.
Speaker 6 (17:02):
So you know, in a reference to the decision that
was made by the jury, it was decided that you
went out of Chevy County and kind of worked your
way east throughout the state to find a jury. We
had eight men, four women, all white, and they're from
Hamilton County around Chattanooga. And I guess for me, and
the lingering question that I have in reference to all
(17:23):
of this is when they were chosen. I'm pretty sure
that there were folks that looked like me that live
in Chattanooga, and I guess I was trying to figure
out why the makeup.
Speaker 5 (17:33):
Of the jury was the way it was in reference
to this case.
Speaker 9 (17:36):
Yeah, so the jury pool on Chattanooga was about ten
percent black. There were about a half a dozen black
potential jurors who got seated in the juror box and considered.
All of them happened to have excuses reasons, you know,
school work, health, while they couldn't serve, and the judge
excused them. Now, the judge, who himself is African American,
(17:57):
excused plenty of white people too who had similar reasons.
At the end of the day when the jury was picked,
there was one black person and I think one other
person of color who were actually on the jury. Came
to Memphis and sat and listened to the testimony. But
over the course of the trial, each of them at
various times ended up developing health issues and were excused.
(18:19):
And so when the dust settled, you had an all
white jury. Now, obviously that's not ideal in a case
as racially fraud as this one, but really, Chip that
shouldn't have mattered because the evidence was really compelling. In
my view, if you take a look at that video
evidence and you listen to the testimony, there should have
been convictions of at least some of those charges. So
(18:40):
you know, again it's it's it's hard to take, but
at least all of them are facing some sort of justice.
Speaker 5 (18:47):
Over in federal court.
Speaker 6 (18:49):
Yeah, and that is true, and I think that I
guess that that is the saving grapes. But when you
think about the family, mother, and of course the step father,
mister Wells, and everybody affiliated and associated with that family,
I mean, again, I mean, just an absolutely stunning verdict.
When you saw the jury, the makeup of the jury,
(19:10):
the final makeup of the jury, were you anywhere in
the back of your mind thinking to yourself, I mean,
I mean, there could be something here one way or another.
Or did you just feel like, as you said earlier,
that the evidence was compelling enough for them to even
be able to see and make any decision.
Speaker 9 (19:28):
I mean in the back of my mind. Sure did
The thought never cross my mind once that it would
have been better had we had a more racially diverse jury.
Of course it did. But nonetheless, given the overwhelming nature
of the evidence, I thought there was, you know, every
chance that we would get convictions on at least some
of those charges. And when even the e felonies, even
(19:49):
the official oppression and official miscontact ended up not guilty,
I was genuinely, I was genuinely astounded. And you know,
you mentioned the family. I got a shout out to
the family. They showed extraordinary grace throughout this process as
much of an ordeal as was and and you know
that day in the courtroom, they were stoic when they
heard the verdict, and you know, and their remarks you know,
(20:11):
the next day at that rally in front of the
Civil Rights Museum, I thought, you know, they went out
of their way to praise our trial team. You know,
I mean, they they could have pointed fingers, but they didn't.
They said, they understood, we did our best, We tried.
You know, the trial team gave it their all. You know,
they obviously had a problem with the jury and the
jury the decision uh that they made, but they weren't
(20:33):
pointing fingers at us. And I appreciated that.
Speaker 5 (20:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (20:36):
Absolutely, they had high praise as matter of fact for
the prosecution team. They said, you all worked and you
did your You did absolutely the best that that you could.
Speaker 5 (20:45):
In terms of all of this.
Speaker 6 (20:46):
And and and you know, when you when you when
you think about all of this, and one of the
things that people have been talking about the you know
now that this has past us is the number of
individuals that were called this witnesses, the prosecution. I think
at seventeen that's the prosecution. The defense team at seventeen
and you all had five. What was what was the
(21:08):
thought process there?
Speaker 9 (21:09):
I mean, you know, you don't anybody who's done jury
trials knows you don't just add it up that way.
You don't say, oh, they had more witnesses, so they
had the stronger case. Remember there were three different defendants,
three different defense teams. Each of them called a couple
of witnesses, and so when you added it all up,
they got to seventeen.
Speaker 5 (21:26):
You know, we.
Speaker 9 (21:28):
Called the number of witnesses that was necessary in the
view of the trial team to prove the case and
no more. You know, the strategy of you know, over
in federal court they had lots of witnesses and they
got a mixed result. Yeah, so you know, the state
chargers were different. The trial team decided to keep it simple,
show the video, provide witness testimony from the TBI and others,
(21:53):
and then also use the defense's own experts on cross
examination to get them to acknowledg and admit over and
over again that what you were watching on those videos
was unnecessary and excessive and unjustified, over and over again
at every stage of the video and got them to
admit that any officer who was present and saw that
(22:17):
had an affirmative duty to try to stop it, and
they would be in violation if they didn't. And despite that,
the jury went a different way. It's it's it's hard
to figure out.
Speaker 6 (22:28):
You mentioned the federal case, and of course, even when
the verdict came down in the federal case in terms
of charges, I remember you saying you are a bit surprised,
as were.
Speaker 5 (22:39):
The rest of us.
Speaker 6 (22:40):
It's some of the some of the things that we
thought would be, you know, added into all of that, weren't.
Speaker 5 (22:46):
So it's a funny.
Speaker 6 (22:48):
It's just a I don't know, it's not funny in
a way, but it's funny in the dynamics of how
these trials really work, isn't it.
Speaker 5 (22:55):
Yeah, I mean it.
Speaker 9 (22:57):
I think it makes me concerned and makes me think
we have a long way to go in this country
to understand what the duty to intervene means in law enforcement,
and that it really is the case that you know,
even if you're not the one actually throwing the kicks
and throwing the punches, if you're the one that's holding
on to the victim while those kicks and punches are
(23:19):
being held. If you're the one that sees it and
never says anything and never tries to do anything to
stop it, and you don't adequately report to medical personnel
exactly what happened, that's that's the basis for liability too.
And the law is clear on that. I wish it
was clear in the minds of the jury.
Speaker 6 (23:40):
You know, one of the things that you have been
fighting for and talking about for a long time is
this situation. You know what, we've seen an increase in
criminal activity in our in our city here recently, and
a lot has to do with these young folks. But
in terms of bail and in terms terms of you know,
(24:01):
assigning bail to particular cases, I know that's something that
you've been talking about for for a long time now.
The parody in all of this, Yeah, do you think
that we are starting to hint in a right direction
or is that a fight that you are continuing to
fight in terms of you know, who stays in jail
depending on the charges against them and how all of
that goes.
Speaker 9 (24:19):
Now, I think there's room for improvement, but I think
there are improvements that are being made. You know, I
want to point out once again, I respect the jury's decision,
by the way, when I was talking earlier, you know,
I can disagree with it but still respect it. Sure,
But with respect to the bail situation, you know, first
of all, we've had six consecutive quarters of crime coming
down in Memphis and Shelby County, double digit percentage decreases
(24:42):
across all categories. It's still too high, but at least
we're going in the right direction, knock Wood. You know,
let's pray that that positive trend continues. So that's something
we need to acknowledge. And then with respect to bail,
there were a couple of outlier decisions last year that
we disagreed with and we appealed. But you know, most
(25:04):
of the time, I think the judges are trying to
do the right thing and doing the best thing. There
have been some positive developments. You know, I cooperated with
local law enforcement and the judicial commissioners and the pre
trial services to get better information to the judges and
judicial commissioners so they can make better bail decisions. So
information from law enforcement like gang affiliation and difficulty and
(25:29):
apprehending them that might lead to risk of flight. We're
getting more comprehensive information about the criminal records of those defendants.
You know, we did that last year in cooperation with
Mayor Harris. And now there's you know, an ability for
us to use juvenile court records as well in adult
court when we're setting bail. So I think there are
(25:49):
positive trends. We're all working on it, and you know,
I'm hoping things will continue to improve.
Speaker 6 (25:55):
A man that I guess you'd called it one time,
your friend Senator Brent Taylor, who had been coming after
you for quite some time now, uh, you know, he
he took this thing to a higher court. In the
higher court said uh, nothing nothing to see here, and
I guess I wanted to get your take on on
that situation. Of course, he has some things to say
(26:15):
about this trial as well. But I mean in terms
of that situation, and last time you were you were saying,
this is an assault. This has been an assault on
DA's across the state.
Speaker 5 (26:23):
Absolutely. But but but in reference to across the country, yeah.
Speaker 6 (26:27):
Yeah, yeah, And and but in reference to that, you
must feel good about the fact that Okay, well, you know,
take to whatever level you take it to, and you
see what happened to know.
Speaker 9 (26:35):
Do I feel vindicated, Yes, I feel vindicated. I I
note that, you know, Senator Taylor boldly promised last summer
and last fall that he was going to have the
legislature remove me and investigate me, you know, and he
was relentless. And yet his bill to have the legislature
investigate and me for possible removal didn't advance at all.
(26:55):
I didn't even get a hearing in committee on either
the House or the Senate side, and that's because he
couldn't get the votes. And then towards the end, he
pivoted with this, you know, face saving bit of window
dressing where he said, well, we're going to do a
non binding resolution asking the Supreme Court to investigate me
in two other das. And that really was a bit
(27:16):
of face saving window dressing from a guy who couldn't
get the votes in the legislature to do what he
had so boldly promised he was going to do.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
You know.
Speaker 9 (27:25):
And on top of that, you know, his ethics complaints
that he keeps filing against me keep getting dismissed. He
had all these complaints supposedly about our finances, and yet
the Controller General did a financial audit and gave us
a clean bill of health. The U of M did
a study on bail which I think vindicated my views
on bail and showed that his signature bail statutes didn't
(27:48):
really accomplish all that much. And there was a comprehensive
study of the Shelby County criminal justice system by the
Controller General's office that didn't criticize us at all. So
I think when the dust settles been vindicated, and he
spent a lot of time, you know, wasting my staff's
time responding to his requests, distracting my office, making it
(28:11):
harder for us to do our job, I don't think
these last ten months have made us safer, in fact,
quite the country.
Speaker 6 (28:19):
Last question before I let you go in the aftermath
of the state trial of Tyree Nichols and how folks
are feeling, and probably including yourself obviously, as you stated,
what is your message to all of us as citizens
of Memphis and Shelby County. He asked pertains to law
(28:39):
and order and to fight to and the fight to
do what's right.
Speaker 9 (28:44):
So a couple of things, but by way of consolation,
first of all, the people of Shelby County have to
know that this District Attorney's office is going to vigorously
prosecute any violations of the law by those who are
sworn to uphold the law, and we are not going
to be discouraged by this hard to understand verdict. And so,
(29:06):
you know, please be assured that we will be on
the case to make sure that we prosecute all cases
of excessive force, police brutality, other types of police misconduct,
just as we will vigorously enforce violations of the law
by those who are not police right. But I think
if there is any other silver lining that we can
(29:26):
derive from this essentially very dark cloud of not only
the offense itself, but this most recent jury verdict, it's
that we have to recommit ourselves to the cause of
police reform. And you know, the city of Memphis has
set up this committee managed or shared by former Judge
Bernice Donald, who have a lot of respect for I
(29:47):
think she's well respected, and I think we need to
redouble our efforts to make sure that there are systemic
reforms that are put in place going forward to make
it less likely that tragedies like the Tyree Nichols killing
will ever have.
Speaker 6 (30:00):
And again, well listen man, thank you so much for
taking the time and coming in and visiting with this
us this afternoon in our audience. I've been, I've been.
You know a lot of us have been bothered by it,
and I know you have as well. The fight continues.
What you have to say, fight continues. Chelby County District
Attorney Steve Molroy. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you sir for
(30:21):
coming in and being with us this evening. I really
appreciate your time. Like always, thank you, Hip, take care
of you too. There you go, Ladies and gentlemen. DA
Steve Molroy talking to us about this, about this trial
and some other things as well. Really appreciate his time
and thank you so much for coming. Let's take another break.
When we come back, we will prepare for our next guest.
This is Real Talk Memphis.
Speaker 5 (30:41):
I'm Chip. You know who you are. Don't go away,
We'll be right.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
Back if you Real Talk. Here's the way you can
get involved. Do you have a show topic, idea or
a suggestion. Want to be considered a guest or have
(31:07):
a guest idea? Then send Chip a message on his
Real Talk show page and you can be a part
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go out and tell somebody, We'll be right back.
Speaker 5 (31:18):
It's it's it's real.
Speaker 10 (31:24):
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(31:46):
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Speaker 3 (31:55):
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into our local arts community to teach, uplift, unite, and
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Speaker 6 (32:05):
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Get Real Talk on the tune in mobile app under WYXR,
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Real Talk with Zip Washington.
Speaker 6 (32:38):
It's Hey, Welcome back. To real talk Memphis on this
beautiful turning out to be a beautiful Monday evening in
the city.
Speaker 5 (32:52):
Chip Washington with you.
Speaker 6 (32:53):
Glad to have you with us out there as well,
and glad to have my next guest. You know, I
haven't we haven't seen each other or really talk to
each other. He's been on this show before, but it's
been a minute. But I am so happy that he
was able to find some time this evening to join us.
Speaker 5 (33:07):
He is Eric Barnes.
Speaker 6 (33:08):
He is the CEO of The Daily Mifian and of
course he's also the host of Behind the Headlines and
of course you know he he gets right to the
heart of the matter with a lot of politicians, decision
makers and folks out there who make this city run.
Speaker 5 (33:24):
Mister E is great to see you.
Speaker 7 (33:26):
How are you, sir, I'm good, I'm great.
Speaker 6 (33:28):
Thank you for having me man, thank you for taking
some time to be with us today. So uh you
you you know h d A.
Speaker 5 (33:34):
Malroy pretty well? And then yeah, yeah.
Speaker 7 (33:41):
He was on the show last week.
Speaker 5 (33:43):
I think, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, oh your show.
Speaker 7 (33:46):
Yes, I just saw him walking out.
Speaker 5 (33:49):
Yeah, absolutely that.
Speaker 6 (33:50):
So I'll ask you as a as a as a journalist,
and someone who keeps up with what is going on
in our community. What was your take on the verdict
in the Yeah Tyree Nichols case last week?
Speaker 7 (34:02):
I mean, my initial reaction was less journalistic than just
as a human and you know, so my adopted home
of almost thirty years now was shock and it's still
a level of shock. As I stepped back and thought
about it, I think, I mean, I don't do a
lot of I'm not a calmnist, you know, I try
not to give too much of my opinion, but this
(34:23):
is sort of my take on it was. I had
to step back and remind myself that it was only
three of the five police officers, right, that all of
them had been convicted on federal charges and still have
to be sentenced. And I got the point that the
I think the DA made, and certainly in a statement
after it that you know, the way the legalities work,
(34:48):
and I'm not a lawyer, was they could sort of say, well,
these two were the clearly the biggest offenders, and these
two were just standing by.
Speaker 5 (34:54):
Right.
Speaker 7 (34:54):
What I can't really get my mind around is, at
a minimum, the idea of what was it official misconduct?
And there were two or three charges of official misconduct
who were found All three were found not guilty of them. Yes, I,
as a lay person, don't know what official misconduct would
be if not standing around watching that happen. Because I
(35:18):
had to watch those videos of the body cam video
and the telephone video, the pole video many many times
as part of our coverage. Didn't want to, but I had,
you know, I had to, as we did. We did timelines,
you know, second by second timelines. I was honestly surprised
that more people in the vicinity weren't charged. I know
many were reprimanded or lost their jobs or all that. Sure,
(35:41):
it doesn't I don't undertan. I guess the law is
poorly written. If you give the law a break, how
can at a minimum there not have been official misconduct
as this young man was beaten to death and these
people stood nearby. That's the part I still can't get
my mind around.
Speaker 5 (35:57):
Yeah, you know, I was.
Speaker 6 (35:58):
I was thinking, I mean, it does matter if I
didn't put my hand on anybody, if I saw somebody
just getting beat to death, which was exactly what happened,
and I didn't do a thing about it, and I
just stood there and watched the man lose his life.
There has to be some accountability for that. From my perspective,
I would just say it like that.
Speaker 7 (36:17):
Yeah, as a non right, as a human, as a
non lawyer, as somebody who's around these kind of people.
If you look at the statements from say CJ. Dayton,
that statements, I mean, I hadn't just show two three
months ago on behind the headlines her talking about how
horrified she was when she saw that, the mayor saying,
the former mayor saying, all these people saying, I mean
to watch it was to be horrified. The DA said that,
and it I think the fact that the official misconduct
(36:41):
at a minimum wasn't guilty. Memphis and Shelby County handled
that as best they could once it happened, in terms
of coming forward, no sweeping under the rug, making charges,
firing the police officers. They did it for a horrific
situation about as best as they could. And it took
that away that the system didn't to me, and I'm
(37:03):
been editorializing too much, but I just I don't think
in my mind around that the law is that week
on what is official misconduct? We got to change the law.
Speaker 6 (37:11):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely that So you you run. You run
a pretty uh, pretty tight operation over there at the
Daily Memphian. What what is what is news gathering? Uh today?
What is the fundamental philosophy in terms of you overseeing
this operation? Y uh and in news gathering on a
daily basis in and around Memphis and Chevy County in
(37:33):
your in your estimation, I mean.
Speaker 7 (37:35):
You know, we're actually May first was my seventh anniversary.
That was employee number one of the Daily Memphians. We
launched about four or five months after that, So September
will be our seventh anniversary from launch. And you know,
we're now the biggest newsroom in the region. We're got
just under forty people. When you you know all the
freelancers and stuff. It's never enough people. So that's one thing.
(37:58):
And and forty is a lot if you look at
peer cities compared to Memphis, US, having forty people in
a newsroom is a lot. While also there are still
four TV stations, there are radio stations. The commercial appeal,
although much smaller than it was, still has some really
good journalists over there, Business Journal Fly or MLK fifty
Tri State Memphis has a lot of independent and corporate media. Again,
(38:21):
maybe none of it is staff the way we would
want in terms of the number of people, but there's
a lot of competition. I think that makes us all
much better. So that's one thought. The other thought that
has really come to light for me over the last
couple of years is that people really, so many consumers
of news really expect their news to draw an opinionated conclusion.
(38:46):
And I think a lot of that comes from It
started with cable TV, where when you watch whichever it is, CNN, MSNBC,
Fox News, whatever you watch, there's so much of a
take or an opinion built into the coverage, and we
try very hard not to do that. It's hard to
be perfect about that unless we're doing an opinion piece
(39:08):
so Otis or Dan Conaway or Candas you know, people
can have opinion pieces and what happens is we'll get
The fascinating thing for me is when we get criticism
for someone who says you didn't say X, y Z
person was wrong, that means you're taking the other person's side.
And for us, we're a little old school that way
that we try to kind of reflect the various opinions
(39:30):
of various people and put it all out there, and
we might do an opinion piece where someone has an opinion,
and we might do an opinion piece so someone has
a different opinion, but the reporting is meant to be
Give voice. Xai is a good example. Give voice to
the protesters, give voice to Justin Pearson, give voice to
the chamber, give voice to scientists, give voice to MLGW,
(39:53):
and not conclude this is good or bad. And that
drives a certain number of people nuts because I I
think they expect if you don't take an opinion, you.
Speaker 6 (40:04):
Support the other side in your estimation, whether it be
the Daily Men, few and commercial apeo or whomever, and
even on your TV show behind the head lines, Are
we doing enough in your perspective, from your perspective in
holding individuals accountable period?
Speaker 7 (40:23):
Probably not, because there are enough people, you know. But
I think we try. We try to put shine a
light on everything that's going on with the most important
stories that we can get to, while also doing the
stuff that entertains people and informs people and is not
necessarily the most serious stuff going on, but that people
want to know that a restaurant opened and a restaurant closed,
and a concert is happening and a play is being performed,
(40:46):
and high school sports happen. So we devote a fair
amount of resources to things that aren't about accountability. And
I know some people would just like us to do accountability,
but other people they want to know who won the
basketball games, you know, they want to know, So we
have that big mission. I remember Louie Graham, who was
one of the editors up until about twenty seventeen twenty eight.
(41:07):
He was an editor of The Commercial Payer, only been
there for decades. And I got to know Louis before
we launched Daily Memphian, and he did some kind of
informal He was just kind of advisor, and he said,
I was complaining that we weren't gonna have enough people.
We weren't gonna have enough people, and he and we
launched with only twenty five people and we're about forty now.
And he said to me, Eric, you know what, twenty
(41:29):
years ago at the CAA, we had two hundred and
fifty people and a million dollar freelance budget every year,
which in twenty years ago would buy you a lot
of articles. And he said, Eric, you know what, we
always said we don't have enough people. You'll never have
enough people, But we really don't have a lot enough
people now, and I think that so we try to
hold people accountable. We tried to hold government leaders, business leaders, people,
(41:49):
and authority, but it's tough to balance all that, and
accountability for us is not the same as saying somebody's
It's about shining a light on them and letting people
draw their own conclusions with enough information.
Speaker 6 (42:05):
Finally, let me ask you this, in terms of the
direction of our city, of our county, as we continue
to move forward day after day, a year after year,
where do you think we're headed as a community from
your particular purview.
Speaker 7 (42:23):
I mean, like I was saying, I mean, Memphis is
my adopted home. I love it here. I've raised my
kids here. I don't ever want to live anywhere else.
I love it here, for all its imperfections. I've lived
in lots of other places before I moved here, and
I've traveled a ton. Everywhere I've ever been and I've
ever lived has problems, right, And I think sometimes we're
a little too hard on ourselves about our problems. That said,
(42:44):
I mean, the last years of a spike in crime
was really hard, first and foremost on the individuals who
are victims of crime, but on the kind of psyche
and the mood and the belief in the city and
that it is good to you just have the DA on.
And the crime numbers are going down. They're still too high,
(43:04):
but they are going down, and I think that is
a huge issue. And then the education. You know, Memphis,
Shelby Kenny Schools, like virtually every I mean again, this
is where we're too hard on ourselves. Virtually every public
school system and every medium or large city in this
country is not that great. Rural schools and a lot
(43:26):
of places not that great, but we're focused just on Memphis.
I think that is a thing that's really got to
be fixed, and people have been talking about that for decades.
And yet also if you look at individual schools or
individual classrooms, you can find a lot of success stories.
And I think it's tough to report on that stuff
and focus on that stuff when there's so much trouble
and turmoil at the top of the system. So I
(43:48):
feel great about the city, but I think that's not
the same as saying everything's fine, we can just coast.
We should just strive to be the best Memphis we
can be.
Speaker 6 (43:57):
Eric Vibe, Ladies and gentlemen it's CEO of the Daily Memphian,
host of Behind the Headlines.
Speaker 5 (44:03):
It is good to see you. My friend has been
a while. Thank you for your insight.
Speaker 7 (44:06):
We're gonna get you on behind the Headlines. We just
talked about that be fun.
Speaker 5 (44:10):
I'll come clean the floor.
Speaker 7 (44:12):
No, stop it all right, Thank you man, thanks for
having me.
Speaker 6 (44:16):
All right, Eric Barnes, Ladies and gentlemen, let's take our
final break and want to come back. We will continue.
We're not done yet. Don't you go away, talk to
you soon.
Speaker 3 (44:30):
H If you like real Talk, here's the way you
can get involved. Do you have a show topic idea
or a suggestion I want to be considered a guest
or have a guest idea, Then send Chip a message
on his Real Talk show page and you can be
(44:50):
a part of the real Talk experience. So as he
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Speaker 2 (44:55):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 8 (45:03):
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in the search box and hit subscribe. Now back to
more Real Talk with Jim Washington's.
Speaker 6 (46:16):
And welcome back to Real Talking Memphis on this Monday evening,
Chip with you, and I'm really happy to have my
next guest. This organization that he fronts is an amazing
organization which produces an amazing group of future leaders and
has for a very long time. I'm really happy to
have him on the show. Please welcome doctor Bobby White.
(46:37):
He is the president and CEO of Leadership Memphis and
doctor Bobby White, it's good to see you.
Speaker 5 (46:43):
How are you, sir man, I'm great.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
Thank you for having me too.
Speaker 6 (46:46):
Well, listen man, thank you for taking some time to
come on to the show. And first of all, for
people who don't really know about who may have heard
of Leadership Memphis kind of on the surface, tell folks
what the organization and really is all about from your perspective.
Speaker 4 (47:04):
Yeah, So at first, I want to just say, you're
having me on the show. With the previous guests and
the heavy topic that you had, it kind of leads
to a perfect segue in my mind for what Leadership
Memphis is all about.
Speaker 2 (47:20):
You know.
Speaker 4 (47:21):
So our vision is like to promote a thriving and
healthy Memphis, right, the type of Memphis that we all
can be proud of, and you know, some of the
things that's happened sometimes we're not so proud of our city, right.
Speaker 2 (47:35):
But Leadership Memphis is that this arm of.
Speaker 4 (47:40):
Leaders professional development organization that provides leaders with the opportunity
to grow.
Speaker 2 (47:47):
Our organization consists of two traps.
Speaker 4 (47:50):
Our fast Track program, which are are emerging leaders folks
in the mid level of their careers. And then we
have our Executive program, which are our c suite folk
that are at the top of the tier as it
relates to their leadership. And so what we do is
(48:12):
we focus on four main pillars as it relates to
this training for these leaders. The first is we connect
leaders to civic knowledge and resources right. Secondly, we practice
collaborative leadership through community action projects. Community action projects and
(48:33):
talk a little bit more you'll understand what that means.
And we explore thirdly, exploring personal leadership pathways. Explore your
personal pathway towards leadership right. And for we facilitate opportunities
to learn and grow and be mentored by peers.
Speaker 2 (48:52):
So how the program works is folks go through.
Speaker 12 (48:55):
Our training and they are connected to different communities.
Speaker 2 (49:02):
In our city.
Speaker 4 (49:03):
So we know you have Orange Mound, you have Frasier,
you have Hickory, Hell, you have White Haven, you have
all these communities. They're connected to these communities and they
learn about the different things that are happening within that
community and then connected to the things that will afford
them the opportunity to be able to impact those communities.
(49:24):
So in the training sessions, in the professional development they
go through, they are taken through sessions around government, city planning, education, economics,
arts and culture, health and wellness. And the goal is
these folks who are leaders in our community are betting
better suited to lead because they have a greater understanding
(49:49):
of the communities where the people are coming from that
are working in and with them at the companies that
they serve.
Speaker 2 (49:59):
Is an example.
Speaker 6 (50:00):
No, No, I didn't mean to cut you off. I
was going to say, but it sounds to me as
if you're leading or you're setting up folks to lead
from the ground up, which visa v means community.
Speaker 5 (50:13):
But I didn't mean you go ahead.
Speaker 12 (50:15):
No, no, absolutely absolutely, But you got these folks are
already in leadership roles, right, but you got to think
about one of the things. Just say you're the CFO
of Kroger or FedEx.
Speaker 2 (50:29):
You're leading folks that work.
Speaker 12 (50:31):
That live in communities in and around Memphis.
Speaker 5 (50:34):
Right.
Speaker 12 (50:35):
If you understand those communities, you're then better able to
understand how to lead, with, manage and support the folks
that work with you because you understand the plight of
the community that they're in.
Speaker 2 (50:49):
Right.
Speaker 12 (50:50):
This organization was started years ago, over forty five years
ago by Fritz Smith and Pitt Hyde. Doctor Harrington was
a part of them.
Speaker 4 (51:00):
The first Class, the first Class, and they set out
to say the leaders in Memphis need to be more
connected to the community in a way to force some
opportunity to be able to understand the communities so that
they can impact the communities in a greater way. I
think it's a special, special organization and that many cities
(51:24):
are not thinking about that the executives who are leading
the organizations in our city and how they may be
so disconnected from the people that actually work for their companies.
Speaker 6 (51:38):
Yeah. Right, that's a great for that. That's that is
an absolutely wonderful philosophy. I mean, you're it's like you're
it's like ground floor stuff. It's like, you know what,
you may be in a position, uh, you know, of
leadership of authority in various places, but unless you're connected
to the root of the individuals that you teach and uh,
(52:00):
that you oversee rather on a daily basis, Uh, you know,
unless unless you understand their ground floor, uh, then you're
really not as successful as a leader.
Speaker 5 (52:09):
It sounds to me like.
Speaker 4 (52:10):
You know, you're I mean, it's challenging to lead when
you don't know the people that you're leading.
Speaker 5 (52:15):
There you go, you don't know the community, the.
Speaker 12 (52:18):
Community that you are are are a part of, and
and and and so the the other arm of our
organization is volunteer members, right, right, So what ends up
happening is this alumni network over four thousand people now
since it's been this organization has been in existence for
(52:41):
over forty five years.
Speaker 2 (52:42):
Yes, sir, this alumni network then are connected to all of.
Speaker 12 (52:48):
The volunteer opportunities too that are speak to their passion, right,
And so once folks leave.
Speaker 2 (52:54):
Our program, they are.
Speaker 4 (52:57):
Always updated on volunteer opportunities so that they are able
to continue on with the work. Not just so you
got I'm familiar with the folks that work with me,
the communities that they come from, but now I'm also
connected to the volunteer piece of the things that happen
in our city. I find it people don't know that
(53:20):
we are.
Speaker 12 (53:21):
A part of the Red Cross and if there is
an emergency in Memphis, then.
Speaker 2 (53:28):
They reach out to us.
Speaker 4 (53:30):
We then, with a four thousand alumni that we have,
are able to reach out and say we need your
support with this emergency that we have.
Speaker 2 (53:38):
This is it is.
Speaker 4 (53:39):
A powerful organization and I'm not sure if we have
like tapped into the power of the alumni base. And
that's my major goal with me being on the job
six months now, is to activate the alumni network.
Speaker 12 (53:58):
Everyone in Memphis. Who is body has been a part
of Leadership members.
Speaker 4 (54:02):
Mary Young like like, I can just go down the
list of all of the who in Memphis, They've all
been a part of Leadership members. And so we have
this powerful network that are connected to volunteerism and connected
to civic engagement and and understanding of what our city needs.
And I just see as now as as we move forward,
(54:23):
as us being the conduit to support any all of
the challenges that we have in our city with the
brains and the and the minds and expertise that the
alumni base has.
Speaker 6 (54:36):
Well, Listen, man, I tell you what uh this is.
You're you're you're leading it the right way. I mean,
because you're you're certain this thing. Look if you're if
you if you don't know the people you're leading, it's
it's kind of hard to lead. And of course that
with the volunteer component makes for a more complete city.
Uh and and and and and the people that you're
(54:57):
grooming uh in these in these positions and moving forward,
are going to be making even greater impact. Doctor Bobby White,
Ladies and gentlemen, she's the president and CEO of Leadership
Memphis and Volunteer Memphis. Uh, doing a great job, Bobby,
that they got they got the right one, and I'm
appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (55:16):
I appreciate that. Some days I'm not so sure.
Speaker 5 (55:18):
That's all right.
Speaker 6 (55:18):
Yeah, I know that feeling too. But thank you for
taking some time to come on the show, my friend.
I really appreciate you.
Speaker 5 (55:23):
Man.
Speaker 6 (55:23):
Thank you so much. Thank you guys too, my friend,
Thank you so much. Hey go, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 5 (55:29):
You can't look. You can't lead if you don't know.
You got to get to know folks.
Speaker 6 (55:32):
And and if you if you're in a position of leadership,
you need to get to know the folks that you
are leading.
Speaker 9 (55:37):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (55:38):
That makes it uh uh an even more complete circle.
So congratulations to Bobby, Bobby White and all those folks
at Leadership Memphis. And as Bren plays us out, it's
been a great show tonight. I hope you had a
chance to check it out. If you didn't have a
chance to check it out live, Uh, it will be
on my page. It's on Facebook Live, and it's a podcast,
(55:58):
so you will be able to hear the showing this entirety.
Of course, once you posted in the next couple of days, meantime,
don't touch that child, because up next to our own
very own Bren Butler, ladies and gentlemen host Event Horizons
is a right around the corner and Brin will take
you on a magical musical ride for sixty minutes from
(56:21):
seven to eight o'clock. Please check him out, Please support him,
because when you supporting him, you support all of us.
So thank you again for being a part of what
we do each and every Monday evening. If you like
what we do, go out and tell a friend. In
the meantime in between times, please be safe, Please be careful,
watch out for yourself and watch out for other folks
and for all of us here at Real Talk Memphis
(56:42):
for Lovely Lola, for a brand host of Event Horizon
and yours truly. Take care, be safe, and we are out.
Talk to you soon.
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