Is it legal to enforce the law?
🚨 ICE comes to town · Mayor cools on public safety · Starbuck sues Meta · Local litigator tapped by Trump · Repeat Illegal Offender All Star · Much more!
Good afternoon, everyone.
Fifteen years ago, two days of rain on May 1st and 2nd set a record in Nashville and unleashed a hundred year flood that, in many ways, set the stage for the Nashville we know today. Broadway was a shadow of its current self, Karl Dean was mayor, and there were about 75 thousand fewer people here.
The record set in 2010 was 9.09 inches in a 24 hour period. By comparison, we received 8.43 inches of rain in April this year, which was a particularly wet month compared to the average of 4.72 inches.
Onward.
ICE hit the town early Sunday morning, making over 150 traffic stops and detaining anywhere from 20 to 100 persons deemed illegally present in the country. The details are scant at the moment, but an official statement from the Tennessee Highway Patrol on the operation revealed that state law enforcement coordinated with the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on a “public safety operation in Davidson County” focusing in particular on “areas with a history of serious traffic crashes and suspected gang activity.”
As you might expect, there has been a big response from local elected officials. Representative Aftyn Behn released a statement declaring, “Dragnet operations like this do nothing to improve public safety,” she writes. “What they do is terrorize families, disrupt lives, and shatter trust between law enforcement and the communities they are supposed to serve.”
The “this doesn’t improve public safety” line was repeated by just about every single person opposed to the enforcement of immigration laws. Mayor O’Connell’s statement–posted to Bluesky, but not Twitter–mirrored Behn’s language. “This type of federal enforcement action is not focused on making us safer,” he proclaimed.
O’Connell also made sure to protect MNPD from any blowback, stating flatly that “No MNPD personnel were involved in last night’s enforcement action.” This clarification faced much opposition from local NGOs and activists.
ReMIX Tennessee, one of those activist organizations that seems to emerge from the ether in situations like this, released a list of demands that includes “accountability for MNPD.” The most prominent NGO to take the issue to the mat is the lavishly funded Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition. Their statement echoed the common left-wing claim that these operations do not make us safer.
Similar to Stand Up Nashville, whose funding sources we exposed last week, TIRRC is similarly bolstered by significant capital from large, national non-profits. But they also benefit from generous Metro grants and Federal loan programs. For example, in 2022, Metro voted to appropriate $1.8 million in American Rescue Plan funds to TIRRC to “expand critical immigration services” in the city.
With budget season upon us, it remains a question whether Mayor O’Connell will follow up on his campaign promise to contribute more funding for immigrant legal counsel. As Megan discusses below, the mayor has all but completely abandoned public safety initiatives like the proposed license plate reader program and the much-ballyhooed Fusus contract.
Regarding all this, there will be a specially-called Health and Safety Committee meeting on Wednesday that we’ll report on. DAVIS HUNT
⧖⧗⧖ SHOW YOUR SUPPORT ⧗⧖⧗
If you want to support our work at The Pamphleteer, a recurring donation is the best way. We have a $10/month Grub Street tier and a $50/month Bard tier. Membership gets you access to our comments section and free access to upcoming events.
🖋️ Edited by Megan Podsiedlik.
🎥 Mixed Signals On Fusus and LPRs Two weeks ago, Mayor O’Connell seemed ready to back Metro Nashville Police Department’s License Plate Reader program despite council pushback and potentially continue conversations around other surveillance tools. “Within weeks of taking office, we started engaging the community to address concerns and we have a policy framework we're ready to run,” he said. “I think what you've seen upstairs in the Metro Council is they can't even get to consideration of a resolution asking us to bring LPR policy there.”
However, the mayor is now signaling that both LPRs and Fusus surveillance camera integration may be off the table. O’Connell says the Trump administration is to blame. “What we are still continuing to look at is conversations with council members who are rightly concerned about what appear to be erosions of the rule of law at the federal level,” he said when asked about Fusus during a media roundtable on April 18.
Mayor O’Connell’s proposed budget also lacks funding for the LPR program, something that caught the eye of Councilmember Courtney Johnston. The District 26 council member told News2 that his failure to fund the initiative could indicate that O’Connell has “no intention of moving forward with the contracts.” But the mayor assured the news outlet that it’s still a possibility. “If we can get our proposed LPR policy framework through the Metro Council, we believe we could fund that initiative,” said O’Connell. “And I think there would be many different opportunities. You’re not going to see a line item in there for it, but I think the capacity is there.”
⚖️ TN Litigator Tapped By Trump Last Thursday, President Trump nominated Whitney Hermandorfer to serve as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Hermandorfer has been serving under the Tennessee Attorney General as Director of the state’s new Strategic Litigation Unit. “President Trump has selected a lawyer's lawyer for this important role,” wrote Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti on X. “Whitney Hermandorfer's unwavering commitment to the rule of law, her exacting analytical rigor, and her unshakeable optimism will serve our country well.”
Skrmetti also touted Hermandorfer “as perhaps the single most credentialed lawyer in America, having clerked for a full third of the justices on the Supreme Court of the United States in addition to one of the country's most revered district court judges, and having honed her craft at one of the nation's most elite law firms before taking first chair in cases of nationwide importance.” President Trump also commented about her history as Co-Captain of the Princeton University Women's Basketball Team on Truth Social, and commended Hermandorfer as a “staunch defender of Girls' and Women's Sports.”
👾 Starbuck Sues Meta Conservative activist and 2022 Tennessee US Congressional District 5 candidate, Robby Starbuck, is suing Meta over artificial intelligence chatbot disinformation. “This all started with Meta’s AI falsely claiming that I was charged with a crime from January 6th but… I wasn’t even in DC that day (I was in TN) and I’ve never been charged with a crime IN MY LIFE,” Starbuck posted on X last week.
According to Starbuck, Meta was notified about the defamation issues last year, but nothing was done to address them until Meta’s Chief Global Affairs Officer, Joel Kaplan, apologized for the AI last Tuesday. "It’s too late to solve this with an apology,” Starbuck told Fox News Digital. “It’s been nearly a year. People doxxed my kids." The outcome of the suit is expected to have major implications for how the court handles the spread of disinformation and misinformation through artificial intelligence online.
DEVELOPMENT
- 🎙️ Nashville's legendary Ernest Tubb Record Shop to reopen after renovation (Tennessean)
- Live music venue moves forward for Arcade (Post)
- Van Leeuwen to take over Gulch ice cream spot (Post)
- German company to open office in The Nations (Post)
✹ REPEAT ILLEGAL OFFENDER ALL-STAR
We've got a two-for-one to start your Monday. Today, we celebrate the esteemed criminal career of illegal immigrant 44-year-old Walter Rivera Morel. Arrested for trespassing late last week, Morel was wanted on ten violent warrants, including one where he attempted to burn down a duplex while a woman and her three children were inside. Another incident involved a "vape-related" dispute that ended with him clubbing another man with a 2x4 and shooting at him as he fled. We wish Morel luck as he takes his skills international. It appears he is no longer being held by the Davidson County Sheriff's Department and is now in the hands of ICE. Bon voyage! (More Info)
THINGS TO DO
View our calendar for the week here and our weekly film rundown here.
📅 Visit our On The Radar list to find upcoming events around Nashville.
🎧 On Spotify: Pamphleteer's Picks, a playlist of our favorite bands in town this week.
👨🏻🌾 Check out our Nashville farmer's market guide.
TONIGHT
🎸 Gang of Four @ The Basement East, 8p, $38.54, Info
🎸 A Big Night For A Little Sister: A Benefit Show @ Brooklyn Bowl, 8p, $128+, Info
+ feat. Cage the Elephant, Kasey Musgrave's, Brothers Osborne and more...
🎻 Tennessee Youth Symphony Spring Concert @ Schermerhorn Symphony Center, 7:30p, Free, Info
🎸 Timbo & Lonesome Country @ Jane's Hideaway, 8p, Info
+ modern take on classic country, bluegrass & hillbilly Jazz
🪕 Val Storey, Carl Jackson, Larry Cordle & New Monday @ Station Inn, 8p, $20, Info
💀 Grateful Monday @ Acme Feed & Seed, 7p, Free, Info
🕺 Motown Monday @ The 5 Spot, 9p, $5, Info
📰 Check out the full newsletter archive here.
The Pamphleteer
The Pamphleteer
The Pamphleteer
The Pamphleteer
Today's newsletter is brought to you by Megan Podsiedlik (Nashville), Camelia Brennan (Local Noise), and Davis Hunt (everything else).