Heartland Journal Podcast
Heartland Journal Podcast EP235 Police Chief Bryan Morris & More 8 1 24
Joining us is Chief of Police and interim city manager for the City of Millersville, Tennessee Bryan Morris. The goal of his department is to positively impact the quality of life throughout the community by delivering professional and courteous services, preserving the peace, enforcing the law and Constitution, protecting property and providing a safe environment for all citizens. We will be discussing his work and that of his department along with ongoing question related to the Covenant incident. For more go to https://www.cityofmillersville.com/ If you like what you hear make sure to subscribe to the show and share it with your friends. You can find us at http://heartlandjournal.com
- Duration:
- 1h 3m
- Broadcast on:
- 01 Aug 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
(upbeat music) - Welcome to the Heartland Journal's podcast. With your host, Steve Abramowitz, editor-in-chief of heartlandjournal.com. - Howdy y'all, welcome back to this show, and welcome to August, August 1st, episode 235. I'm Steve Abramowitz, and this is the Heartland Journal podcast. We're focusing on a nation today with always an interesting person, making a positive change in their community. Welcome to our People in the News, where I interview people who are making an impact and are lovers of truth. Today we are talking with special guest, Millersville Police Chief, Brian Morris. (upbeat music) ♪ What you gonna do and what you gonna do ♪ ♪ Yeah ♪ ♪ Bad boys, bad boys ♪ ♪ What you gonna do ♪ ♪ What you gonna do when they come for you ♪ ♪ Bad boys, bad boys ♪ ♪ What you gonna do ♪ ♪ What you gonna do when they come for you ♪ ♪ When you were baby and you had bad dreams ♪ Millersville, Tennessee is under new management. As commissioners voted to make police chief, Brian Morris, their new interim city manager, short-term interim city manager, Tina Tobin, made sweeping changes earlier this year and fired Millersville Police Chief Rob Rickman, who spent just over a month on the job before being fired. Also fired Chief Brandon Head and 17 fellow firefighters walked out in support, all but one, and the city attorney. Tina has been on this show. Commissioner Alyssa Holing nominated police chief, Brian Morris, who was recently hired by Mrs. Tobin. Our guests said at the time, "I'm happy that they put a lot of faith in me, but it's an interim title. I'm pleased to do it because I wanna make sure that the progress we've already made since January continues." Morris said, "He's got a hard job ahead of him. Let's talk to him about it." Hello, Chief, how are you holding up? - Busy, busy, but doing well. - All right, you're gonna be one of those one word answer kind of guys, I get it. All right, it's good thing you got a lot of questions. Courtroom testimony class. You answered the question directly and don't embellish. - There you go, you've been trained up, I get it. It's a tough job and anything you say can and will be held against you even in social media, but I'm glad you're doing well. So Millersville, Tennessee population 6,247 was 5,300 back in 2000, so 19% growth in 23 years. If I got my math right there. An 1878 map of middle Tennessee, the area where Millersville currently sits was labeled as Tiwapeti, or Valley of the Cool Waters. I probably pronounced it wrong, sorry, Native Americans. In 1981, Millersville was incorporated into a city estimated per capita income in 2022, 33,163 estimated house value in 2022, $280,999. Just shy of Tennessee's average, $284,800, about 30 minutes drive to Nashville. Tell us about Millersville and why you call it home. - I've been here, I guess now for the past 20 plus years. I actually came from Cheetam County, where I was born and raised, came out here, have raised, well, our two sons. I have one son that's been raised here his whole life. So he just turned 22 last week. And then we have our other four year old son that's still in the house with us that we're raising in this area too. So this is my home. I've lived here for a long time. So I'm pretty vested. I was out here at this department back in the early 2000s, for about 10 years before I left, I went to a neighboring department for a while and then ended up coming back here. Okay, small, but making a lot of news. So when asked about fire chief head, someone said to WKRN must have been a good person for that many to walk out because of that. So actually 17 of the 18 guys on fire, probably Engal's quit, only one stayed on. So chief, what happened at fire? The fire department was and I'm not over that department, so I can't speak to specifics. But the reason for the chief being let go was several different things. And that was actually Tina that did that at the time. But there were some inconsistencies with some things he had been telling them. I think the straw that actually brought the camels back with letting them go was we have a video system throughout the whole building, including the police department and the evidence room that we needed access to. And he was the only one that had the access and he would not give the access up. And he had been asked many times for a login to the camera system which he wouldn't provide. So I think that was kind of the last straw for the city manager at the time. That's what I was told, so. - Any idea what he didn't want people to see? - Well, I did gain access to it and there are some things on there that don't look right, but they're still kind of under investigation. So I can't say a whole lot more about specifics, but yeah, there were some things on there that didn't work good. - Something general to say like, you know, whatever was being done during that timeframe of those cameras were seeing things that should not be done on company time or something more felonious than that. - More on lines of things leaving the office. - Ah, okay, okay, potential theft, I guess, or something like that. All right, Sumner County EMS said, due to the decreased number of responders in the city of Milligerville, EMS has put specific standby protocols in place to help cover the void with the loss of Milligerville's first responders, this will inevitably lead to increased response times and lack of resources. It's been a little while now, a few months, is there a huge problem that there are only one person in fire to cover the whole town? - No, and you know, that's one of the things that I have not, I can't wrap my head around because the fire personnel that we had here were never, they were never EMTs. They weren't paramedics, you know, they were just first responders. They're, you know, they had just a little more medical training than a police officer does. So anything that EMS would have went to anyway, they still go to. It's not, I don't think there are any calls here that are not being covered. You know, the steps that Sumner County EMS took with, you know, their press releases and everything I think was way overboard. We own, you know, going back and looking at, 'cause we were paper call for the volunteer side and there were only really three people that were ever answering calls out of those 17 anyway. So, you know, this just is something, in my opinion, it just got totally blown out of proportion for whatever reason. I know that, you know, the fire chief that was here before had a lot of ties to, you know, the EMS people that are in this area. And I think it was more of a backlash from him being let go than anything else. - Interesting, okay. Well, that's why we have this show is to be able to flush out from your perspective, all of these things that the media probably didn't really do their homework on, who knows? But so when it came to police department, city attorney Brian Croll said determinations were related to a larger investigation. Said head had deleted information off of his city issued cell phone, quote, this includes issues about police commissions, which has been an issue here at the city for some time, also includes issues about withholding information. We've got issues with destruction of files that have happened here, including destruction of city property and deleted cell phones. So this is all part of our investigation Croll said. - Yeah. - For the record, the fire chief's termination letter obtained by News 2 didn't have any mention of cleared cell phones. So Croll also said the city was investigating so-called police commission cards. Such cards allow someone to work as a part-time reserve officer, however Croll said the cards could be used to surpass certification or training in certain security jobs. What can you tell us about all this? - So what that is, and that is 100% accurate, the commission cards that they were using here at the time are, they were made here. They actually, the machine is actually setting right over here, it's unplugged. We took it out of the fire department. The fire chief at the time was making the commission cards for the police department, of which he did have one as well. And what happens in the state of Tennessee is you can be a reserve officer at a department, say Miller'sville, for example, has had a reserve, you know, program for years back when I was here back in nearly 2000s, I helped run it. And they're great programs if they're run correctly. They, you know, they help support small departments, especially that have limited staff. Like if I had back in the day when I was here, there were many times I worked alone at night shift, you know, by myself, if we had reserves, they would come in and ride. So you'd have a two man car instead of one guy out there by self. But in saying that a reserve can only work with a full time officer. Now in the state of Tennessee, what has happened is to be a reserve in the state of Tennessee, you have to have 120 hours of training in your first year of being a reserve. That has to be documented and sent into post. Once you do that, every year after that, you have to have 80 hours of training, which has to be documented and sent into post. What was happening here was people were coming in and they were saying, hey, you're a reserve. Here's you a card. They weren't doing their 120 hours of initial training, which voided everything. So even if they would have done, you know, year two, if they'd have done their 80 hours, it wouldn't have been okay because they didn't do their 120 initial hours, which they weren't doing the 80 either. But, so the program basically was being run to furnish people with commission cards so they could go work side jobs. So if you have, these are our cards now, that's what they look like. - Okay. - This is a actual government issue that the cards that they had here before were just paper and they were laminated and it said, so and so is a police officer for the city of Millersville. And then they would take that card and go to work for a security company in downtown Nashville and make $30 to $60 an hour as a police officer. And so when we came in here and started doing that investigation, they would not give us access to the card machine, which we ended up just taking it and we actually had to pull the ribbon out of it because the computer that was hooked up to it had been deleted and erased. - Wow. - So we pulled the ribbon out of it and off the ribbon we got over 200 commission cards that had been printed because it's a heat transfer. So we had the negative of all these cards and you know, most of these cards were issued to people who had never been a police officer, never been through the training academy, hadn't done one hour worth of training, weren't in post or at the cadence as a police officer but they were given cards and most of those people were working for, to be honest with you, Solarian risk management out of Nashville. - Isn't it against a lot to impersonate a police officer? - It is. - So that those 200 names are probably gonna need some lawyers. - I mean, you would think if you could get somebody to actually prosecute. - Okay, that's it. - You know, and you probably know this but your audience may not. It's not up to the police to prosecute. - Right. - We charge you the DA's prosecute you and if the DA's not willing to prosecute you, you don't get prosecuted. - We'll get to that in a second. - He also said if anybody has a police commission card from the city of Millersville, if they turn it in within the next 48 hours, they'll be granted immunity. There will be no prosecution, no questions asked, Kroll said. Did anyone take advantage of that offer and use those 48 hours to come out? Not a, not a one. - Not one, not one. - Okay. All right, well, anything else you want to tell us before I move on to the next section? - I mean, that, you know, to me, that it's, it is just, in my opinion, it's, it's, I can't even think of the word, of the word I'm looking for, of hell. - Criminal is a good word. - Yes, but it's just, it's bad. You know, when, when you have a department that has been run as poorly as this one has, for so many years, it's been run to support security companies. That's, and it was like that when I was here the first time. That's one of the reasons why I left here. You know, it was a different chief. You know, they've been through many, many chiefs, but back then that chief ran a security company. - And just to be clear, so the fire chief was doing it with the machine, but the police chief whose job you now have was fired as well. Were they, supposedly, maybe looking the other way, complicit, somehow, together on that, like why did they decide to just carpet bomb the entire authorities in town? - You know, I don't know the whole background of Richmond, the chiefs that I replaced. I don't, I don't personally know him, never worked with him. I mean, he's from Texas, so I have no idea. I'm not sure, other than they wanted, they, you know, what I was told is they wanted somebody that they knew would do the right thing, and they thought that was me. You know, I'm not gonna say I've always done the right thing. I don't think everybody always does the right thing. I do my best, and I try to do what I think's right. And I had ran a neighboring department where we had some ethical problems with things I was asked to do that I would not do. And it made the news, and I kind of got a good reputation of doing what needed to be done and doing the right thing. So I think that, you know, I don't know if it was something he did, but I know they wanted, you know, me for that specific reason, so. - Was that the COVID era you're talking about? - It was before that. - Oh, okay. So you were asked to do something, you didn't want to do it, took a stand, made the news. I didn't catch that, what was that? - Oh, that was, that was when I was a chief of place at Ridgetop Police Department, which actually touches Miller'sville here. - The mayor and some of the commissioners at the time had told me that I had to produce so many tickets a month to meet budgetary needs. And I said, you know, that's illegal. I'm not going to do it. And, you know, I was told if you don't do it, we're going to take officers away, we're going to cut pay or cut your budget or whatever. And I'm like, you can't do that, that's illegal. And so it kind of, it came out and I took a stand and. - Is that a county council, mayor type of pissing match or who in the world would try to tell a chief of police to do that? - Well, you know, as the chief of police, you always have a boss, which people don't realize either. And at that department, I was a chief, but you serve at the pleasure of the board. Here as a police chief, I serve at the pleasure of the city manager. I just happened to be both. But if I wasn't both, I would be working for the city manager. So they get this thing in their head, you know, I'm the chief's boss, which they are, but they're not trained in police matters, but they want to tell a chief how to run a department. You can technically, if you want to get technical about it in the state of Tennessee, you know, to be a mayor, oh, you have to be as 25 years old and live in that city for a year. You don't have to have a degree. You don't have to have a high school education. So think about how scary that is. You could have somebody with no education whatsoever. As long as they're 25 years old, they live in the city, they get elected and they can then tell the police department how to conduct business. - I guess the city manager would be not much different then. - It wouldn't, but the city manager, and I've been in both forms of government, were one that is run by a mayor that only has the mayor and commissioners. And I've been at this one, which is a board of commissioners and a mayor, but it's ran by a city manager. So the only person here at this city that can hire or fire anybody is a city manager, but he serves at the pleasure or she of the board. So, but the stipulations for a city manager are a little more than a mayor. You know, it does require education. It does require some training, whereas being a mayor does it. - Just have to be elected. Okay, well, all right, well, that's good. I think we're getting a good framing of the system that you have been thrust into to try to correct. News channel five said a month ago, TBI expands investigation of Millerville police looking into misuse of government data. District Attorney General Ray Whitley of Gallatin signed off on that. What's the expansion looking for? It says allegations that officials may have used sensitive law enforcement data to investigate their political enemies. Is that just the former employees or current as well? - You know, I would love to answer that question honestly, but I still have not heard anything from the TBI. I don't know of any investigation that is going on. You know, somebody asked me this the other day and I said, you know, this could be just as simple as somebody going to the D.A. Ray Whitley and saying, hey, I think this is going on and him saying, I'll have the TBI look into it. And now we have a TBI investigation, but they have not contacted me or the city in any capacity to say that there is any investigation whatsoever into anything. - Wow, okay. - I can tell you right now that any investigation we've done has been above board and 100% legit and I would, you know. - Yeah, well, I want to hear the TBI knocking on the door right now. - And Channel 5 put their reputation on the line, but Whitley told them the TBI brought the info to him. So were they working with the department and city attorneys before accusations were released or you just have no idea? - I haven't heard anything. I mean, we have ourselves as a police department with some of the things we are working on have went to the TBI and said, hey, this is what we've got. What do you guys think? But we haven't had a lot of help out of the TBI. We haven't had a lot of help out of the district attorney. - And District Attorney General Robert Nash of Clerksville authorized a TBI investigation into Miller'sville handling of a child predator sting back in May that members of a non-profit group Veterans for Child Rescue, hosed online as a 12 year old girl for the sting despite a state law that requires sworn law enforcement officers to do the posing. Weird, because it was a good bust. Well, you tell us about that, Mess. - Oh, well, see. - The person that Channel Five used for that news story, the one that apparently was blowing the whistle was actually being looked at by the FBI right now for criminal misconduct. - FBI. - Yes, not TBI. - For theft, yes. For theft, she apparently had tried to extort that group, the Veterans for Child Rescue group. - Oh, gross. - They told her to go kick rock. So I'm assuming she got in contact with Phil and said, "Hey, I've got this stuff." And what you see in those is just snippets of video that she took, which we had a, you know, a non-disclosure that all those people were under, not to release any information from that sting. Because, you know, some of it is sensitive information, but she apparently snuck a phone in there and, you know, recorded, whatever. But I had two detectives that worked that were there the whole time that were the ones. You know, we actually have video of them doing the texting and sending the messages. So I don't, again, I welcome anybody to come look at it. - So maybe they're making a story out of something that was just normal police work and because-- - 100%. - I'm not sure what Channel Five specifically Phil Williams has against us. I have no idea. He hasn't talked to me. He's only come up to me once in a meeting and asked me if I would comment on a specific situation which I couldn't. But he's then broadcast that he's tried to get in touch with me, I think, five times and I've turned him down, which is absolutely not accurate at all. He hasn't emailed me, he hasn't called me. The only time he's tried to interview me was at the city meeting where he stuck a mic in my face and asked me to comment on a specific instance that I could. - Yeah, so I don't think he talked to the veterans for child rescue either. I know that you can go online and see the interview with the gal who you're talking about. I didn't write her name down. But so there was a preliminary hearing in Robertson County for one man arrested in that sting, Millisville detected Todd Doris testified under oath that he and another detective were the ones doing the online work. That's who I think you were talking about, filming the texting. So are they accusing you all of entrapment or something? Like why do they even want to investigate this bust? - I don't know. I don't know what her other than monetary gain. I don't know what her in-game is or what Phil Williams in-game is. I really don't know. I think what they were trying to say is, is that per what they call state law, we are the ones that have to actually be doing the texting. It can't be a third party. And I think what they're trying to say is that we didn't, but that's not accurate. - So what, I mean, who cares? I mean, you busted a guy of 17 people who were trafficking and children. And Millersville straddles Robertson and Sumner Counties. Robertson Counties is in the 19th Judicial District for which Nash, who I mentioned, serves as the district attorney. Sumner County is in the 18th Judicial District where Whitley is the elected DA. Where were the kids rescued? - We were in, actually in Robertson County. - Okay, so that would be like I was describing Nash's district. So why would Whitley, the elected DA of Sumner, I just don't understand why these people are the names in this suit? - I don't know. I wish you could tell me. - I would love to know. - Only you would know. - Okay, well, channel five and your assistant chief, Sean Taylor, have made the news. He had a podcast, so it's all out there, public, and said some wild, but interesting things. I have a podcast, I say interesting things, sometimes wild, yet to be proven or disproven. What can you tell us about the media and Sean's battle? - You know, when Phil came up and started accusing Sean of saying this and saying that, and what really bothered me the most was the school shooting that we had here and Sean, him saying that Sean said that it never happened and all of this. So, to defend someone, of course I took Sean's word for it, but I go back and I watched it. I watched every bit of it a couple of times. And at no point in time did Sean ever say, "No, that did not happen." Which is what Phil Williams is saying, Sean said, and it just absolutely didn't happen. I don't know if you've watched it in its entirety or not. - I did, I did, and I could only liken it to what they did to Alex Jones, where he officially tried to say that the shooting, I'm blanking on the name of the school, never happened and it cost him a billion dollars in a lawsuit, you know, what's all that? - That's Sandy, Sandy Hook, right, right, exactly. Whereas this happened, we know that six people died at Covenant. I think you're talking about Covenant. Sean did not say to the extent that Alex Jones said, it's a conspiracy, it's fake, it's fake blood, it never happened, and then you have to apologize. And apology wasn't good enough. They got him for a billion dollars and took all those equipment and business. So, I think that's what's kind of the attack, but you're saying, no, it's nowhere near that egregious of a First Amendment comment, let's just say, I don't even know if he was under a police department at the time he was doing that. So, just a citizen who can say whatever they want, you know, we have a right to be stupid if we're stupid. It's not that he is, not that you are, but you can say anything you want, it's the First Amendment. But now when you're working on the police department, it's a different story, like you say, you know, I can't say this where we have a trial going on or something legal and I don't want to blow this guy's cover or whatever, got it. But how in the world can they do that to him? But ethically, let's just go there. - Again, I wish you could tell me, I don't know. I don't know how the news media gets away with a lot of things they do. I mean, specifically Phil Williams. I don't know, if he was my employee, I would have fired it. And I'm talking about Phil Williams, because-- - Channel 5. - You know, a lot of the stuff he has put out has just been an outright lie. It's 100% not true. - Do your lawyers, I think Brian Knoll is everybody's lawyer. It sounds like I've got other information about that, but has he considered suing for libel or for anything like that? I mean, Scripps owns Channel 5. It's not as if it's just a private entity. - I don't know. I haven't really talked to him about specifically going after him. I mean, if you want my opinion, I would definitely like to. I think he needs to be held responsible for a lot of the things he's done. I mean, I think a lot of the negative attention that he's bringing to the police department as well as, you know, some of these investigations is, I mean, I won't say it's criminal, but it's definitely hurting a lot of people. - It's certainly interesting because this is the case he's decided to make a case out of as opposed to the things that we've just been talking about about the city manager being fired and the fire chief being fired. I mean, that's not the news that they ran with. They went with this after you guys had made the bus. So an attorney for Taylor, Brian Knoll again, he told, I think he told Miller'sville City Commission, he's their lawyer too, that they should not question Sean's theories or psychological fitness because his client, Sean Taylor, could sue his other client, the city, political viewpoints or political speech will violate the First Amendment rights and thereby expose the city to significant legal liability. Of course, there's always a cost to this with the lawyers, but that's a tough place to be. You're gonna need more lawyers, basically. What do you make of that? - Well, you know, Bryant has represented Sean in the past and he is still representing him in a lawsuit from five years ago, but it has nothing to do with this city. Bryant had represented some people that did sue officers that did sue this city in the past. And when I was asked by a citizen why I would want Bryant Croll here as the city attorney because he sued the city and won many times, my response was I would love to have the guy that actually sued me and won on my side 'cause he's not gonna do it again. And he's a hell of a lawyer, to be honest. So I'm, I think we're fortunate to have him. But yeah, I think Bryant wasn't actually representing Sean or saying he was representing Sean when he made that statement. He was making the statement to the commissioners of, you know, you guys are really treading in dangerous territory right now by demanding that Sean be brought in and questioned by you. Because these statements that are even in question, like you said, he was not a police officer at the time. He wasn't working for anybody. It was a podcast. I don't even think of his, his that he was home. He was on somebody else's podcast talking about these things. And like you said, you know, he's a private citizen. He can say whatever he wants to. - Yeah, even off duty. So city commissioner David Gregory urged his fellow commissioners to demand that Sean apologized for a 2023 podcast in which he had questioned the official story of Covenant. - What is the official story? And since we haven't seen the evidence from the killer, how does Gregory know Sean is wrong or right? - Right. Well, I mean, and that's a good point too. I think he was, David was trying to, to make this something that it wasn't. Again, like we talked about with the San Diego thing, it was, you know, they were, they were, you know, making it look similar to that, where, you know, they were saying Sean said that this never even happened and blah, blah, blah, which, you know, that was David himself said that many times. He said this didn't happen and it's horrible. And I'm like, David, that's not what he said. I mean, I'm in a city meeting home recording saying, he never said that. Did you watch it? And, you know, of course he told me he did watch it, which I know can't be true or he wouldn't be saying what he's saying because I did watch it and he never said that. - No, but he likes to run the headline that's called the conspiracy cop, right? So it's as if it's a foregone conclusion that he's a conspiracy theorist, even nobody knows if it's a theory or fact because they want to see the manifesto or any of the evidence at all. - Yeah, which is odd. - It is odd. It's been a while now too. There's still six people dead, right? And they don't have justice 'cause we don't have information. And we're not gonna prevent any repeat offenders because we don't even know what kind of psychedelic she was on, what kind of painkillers, what kind of anything or training to handle a weapon like that. We don't know anything. - Yeah. - Attorney Noel also represented Mayor Omi Long who faces accusations of misconduct in an ouster suit. Plus he's the personal attorney for you and Sean in the lawsuit against the city of Ridgetop. We just talked about that. He's a busy guy. How's that suit going for the mayor or the ex mayor, I guess? - Are you talking about the mayor here? - Tommy Long, yeah, that-- - Yeah, yeah, he's still the mayor. - And so, accusations of misconduct trying to oust him. - As far as I know that suit was dropped. - Dropped. - It was actually kicked out, yeah. - Okay, so another maybe trumped up thing or something that just didn't have legs. - Yeah. - All right. Channel five said a key player in that child predator sting says the lead detective on that operation lied under oath. It is the prosecution of that bust at risk because of this? - No, I mean, if he had lied, yes. Anytime you have a detective or any police officer for that matter that lies under oath, they would, you know, giggle you on, which means your testimony is never good again. If you lie once, we can't ever trust you again. So had that been the case, yes, it would be in jeopardy, but he didn't lie, so no. - So channel five said that he did and they're lying technically. - They are 100%. And my problem again is they're getting their information from a lady that is under investigation from the FBI. I don't understand why he's, you know, the people that he's using as these witnesses that you can look up and see, they have pending, you know, criminal charges and he's using them as-- - Not credible. - Yeah, it's amazing. - Yeah, there is supposed to be journalistic ethic and that is not okay. What did the city attorney do that got fired? What did that person do? Same alleged stuff or something more wrongdoing? There were three, if I'm not mistaken, three firings. The chief of police, the chief of fire and the city attorney. - Yeah, well, there was also the city, the first city manager. - City attorney, okay, I'm the city manager. We talked about, so there was a city attorney, what did that person do? - You know, I don't know. I don't know. I wasn't here when that happened. I came in right after that and I'm not sure. And I haven't really looked into what he was doing. - 'Cause Tina also placed the city recorder and assistant city recorder on administrative leave. I mean, that basically just gutted the entire place. Today is election day in Tennessee. Are there any people on the ballot today that will be involved in the city stuff going forward? Maybe taking some of these seats back? - Not today, no, not today. And, you know, the city recorder and the assistant city recorder, if you want me to speak on that, I can. - Sure. - Somewhat. They, the finances here were a mess. Financially, the city's doing well. But the books were a mess. Like we had literally 22 different bank accounts. We, the city was run, just to give you an example, you have a checking account, right? And you have a savings account. So you don't really use your savings account to write day-to-day checks, right? - Nope. - You use your checking account. So in your paycheck probably gets deposited into your checking account, not your savings account. Now, a small portion may go there, but this city's operating the exact opposite. Like they're paying bills out of the savings account. They're moving money from the savings account, reserve account, to the checking account to pay bills because they're having deposits go into the reserve account instead of the general fund. It's just absolutely insane the way that this, this was being run. So I think Tina's thinking at the time was let me, let me stop this, let me let them, you know, go home for a while till we figure this out and see what was going on. And I don't think a lot of it was nefarious. I think a lot of it was just, it had always been done that way and back when this city was incorporated in 1981, they probably had three accounts and it was all done by hand and it just, you know, Holly had been here for 28 years. So in that 28 years, she just added on and added on and added on and did it the way she knew how to do it, but it didn't make sense to anybody else, you know? So it was just, things needed to be, we're paying, you know, a ton of money, 50 to $80,000 a year for a software program that should run the city. You know, your payroll, your debits, your deposits, everything should be run through this software which is Tyler. And once you set it up properly, your biggest worry every day should be, what are you gonna have for lunch? Right, 'cause it does everything for you. None of it was set up. Like out of the 100% of the software, we were using about 8% of it. Ouch. Yeah. So, and again, I don't think it was anything intentionally, maliciously, but it was just so bad. It needed to be fixed. Well, if I had this. Elisa Holling won a special election to become the fifth member of the Millersville City Commission. She was sworn into office on January 23rd, right around the time of Tina's job and just minutes later voted to fire city manager, Scott Avery. Some residents are signing up to have a more direct say in who gets to be the city's mayor. At present, citizens of Millersville vote on city commissioners and then the commissioners elect one of their own to serve as mayor, but a petition circulating now could help change that. Has changed, has been made since I found that little piece of information. No, so. Still the same way it was. OK. Elisa hasn't changed it yet. No. And, you know, the city manager. I'll speak on that if you'd like. Sure. Because since I've been city manager, I've often wondered what the previous city manager was doing. You know, Tina Blesser had a monumental task of not knowing anything. I mean, I feel so bad for her because I couldn't have done it. She came in alone and had to start doing all these things. And, yeah, I feel really bad for her. I love what she did because she did the right thing, but it had to be tough because it had to be hostile here. But going back to what I was just saying, the first thing after Tina left and they appointed me, you know, the right out of the gate, I got a letter from our insurance provider that said, hey, we're dropping you in, you know, a month and a half. Good luck. And I'm like, what? The city's insurance? Yes. Public entity partners was our provider for our liability insurance. So they were dropping it. So I'm like, oh my gosh, what's going on? And the public got wind of this. So then some of the news media and some of the other commissioners said, well, this is all else fall. You know, they're dropping us because of you guys. I'm like, oh, Lord, let me look. So I log in to public entity partners after getting the password and everything and come to find out there hasn't been anybody owned that since three city managers ago. Nobody's even bothered to look at it. And on this website, it shows you all your lawsuits and every bit of money that you've paid out and what it's went for and all this. So I start looking at it and then I start going back through all the emails because I have all the old emails and come to find out this has been two years in the making. They've known for two years that public entity partners were threatening to drop them. And in this last last year with all these last lawsuits that were prior administration before teen ever got here were the straw that broke the camel's back. I mean, you can't have, we were paying $165,000 a year for insurance, for this insurance policy. The past five years, they've paid out at least 300,000 up to half a million dollars every year. Now, what insurance company is going to keep you? - And just to remind everybody, 6,000 residents up from 5,000 20 years ago. - Yeah. And every one of these, I printed them out. I printed out all the lawsuits all the way back to the 90s and gave it to all the commissioners because they wanted to know some of them had accused us of the reason for the loss of insurance. So I printed everything out and I handed it to them at one of the commission meetings. I said, this is why you're losing your insurance, just so you know. And it's 100% because this city's been running to the ground really by the front office administration. The city manager and the police chief. - There you go. - All of these lawsuits can be attributed to most of them to be perfectly honest with the 75% were police department generated lawsuits. And they were from bad pursuits, wrongful terminations. I can't remember what all of them were, but they were bad. It was bad. - It was bad. - There's like 30 of them. - All right, so I only have time for one more. Let's see if I can spit this one out. According to TBI data, which we all know TBI is taking over what it's worth. 500 to 600 kids go missing each month in the state of Tennessee and more than half of those are minorities. There's a target on the backs of our black and brown boys and girls said, Derica Wilson, co-founder of the Black and Missing Foundation. While not exhaustive on TBI's list of Tennessee's missing kids, 30 of the 35 kids listed are black, Hispanic, or biracial. The U.S. Department of State has also acknowledged the connection between race and human trafficking. Quote, traffickers in turn factor these racial biases and stereotypes into schemes and strategies aimed at reducing their own risk of getting caught while increasing the risk of law enforcement in properly penalizing the victim, the State Department website states. Let's not forget under all the mess and the top, you still made a good bust, all right? Resulting in the rest of 13 men accused of seeking illicit sex for minors and Nicholas and Jamie Sharpton, we're selling hard drugs that kill people, crack, and meth, will they stick and do you think the press is downplaying your police work to cover for criminals because of their soft on crime bias? And maybe now to add to that, since you just said it, knowing that your treasury is a bit low and you can't really defend yourself, making you an easy target for the press to come after you. - Yeah, you know, I can't, I don't know. I can't figure it out. I can't figure out why things don't get prosecuted that should get prosecuted and why some things that probably shouldn't be looked at or looked at. We've talked about people looking into the police department and I think we're doing great work here. We're trying to do the best we can and we're getting looked at but we go and beg the DA or beg TBI to look at some of these other things and we get told there's just not enough there. - Well, they are trying to take the DA out of Memphis, Shelby County. So, you know, Senator Taylor is. So maybe that's the real issue is right there at the decision maker level. We'll have to keep an eye on all that. Well, gosh, I wish I could go on but Chief Morris, thank you for your time. Please tell everyone how they can follow you besides the news and maybe if you have social media or whatever village it builds up to. - Well, we have started a new police department page. We had another one that we could not gain access to that was started by other people that left here. But I mean, we're kind of light on social media right now. - Okay, well, just do the job as you're supposed to and I hope to have you on again sometime. It's been great. Thank you for taking on the big job. - I appreciate you having me. - My name is C. Richard Archie. I am the West Tennessee director of the Tennessee Firearms Association and I'm live on the Heartland Journal podcast. - There we go. (upbeat music) - I'm sure you had a fake ID, but it wasn't for bars. It was to get jobs in bars on Broadway that pay a ton as off-duty cops. Well, as a good story, it's fast. Unfortunately, it is reality and the world is not perfect yet. But let's move on. Clip number one, please. - Well, Bubba, these are those moments that we love. Speedy secondhand embarrassment for you coming up. - Yeah. - Yeah, I mean yum. - Being interviewed on CNN, Bubba being interviewed on CNN, she was asked by the CNN reporter who's just enamored with her reports. Who does she think the best rapper alive is? Here we go. And then, best rapper alive. Tupac. (laughs) - He's not on the line. - You say he lives on. - Not the line. - I know, I keep doing that. (laughs) Listen, West Coast girls think Tupac lives on. I'm with you, I'm with you. So Tupac before-- - I'm trying to save you. - I keep doing that. - Yeah, since you started hanging out with Joe, is it catchy? Is there something in the water? What do you think? - They asked her who the best NASCAR driver alive was. She said they'll earn it. (both laughing) - How did she end up saying, by the way? - She never answered it. She said there's a lot of good ones out there. - All right, he was gunned down 20 years ago. Okay, she's fake, right? Fake enough to make a Southern accent in front of a Southern crowd. Let's listen. - And you all helped us win in 2020, and we're gonna do it again in 2024. (audience cheering) - Yes, we will. - So let's get right. So in this campaign, I will proudly put my record against his any day of the week. (audience cheering) Any day of the week. Including, for example, on the issue of immigrations. - All right, so drink a little drink, smoke a little smoke. I kick back, give the blues spin, and break out the wine, forget again. Thank you, Eric Church. But, let's go to clip number three, and I'll bring it all together real quick. - Well, Harris' comments from her radio interview with the Breakfast Club are sparking controversy. - Have you ever smoked? - I have. - Okay. - And I inhale. - And I inhale. I did inhale. (laughing) It was a long time ago. - Harris explains her pro-pot stance, and admits that she indulged in the substance while in college. Then, this exchange happened. - What does Kamala Harris listen to? - What were you listening to when you was high? (laughing) - What was on, what's on with you? - Oh my goodness, oh yeah, definitely Snoop. (laughing) - Tupac. - For sure. - People quickly jumped on what they saw as a contradiction, given that Tupac and Snoop Dogg were not producing music while she was in college. Harris graduated from Howard University in 1986, and later got her JD from the University of California in 1989. Tupac's debut album, Tupac lip's Now, came out in 1991, and Snoop's first album, Doggy Style, followed a few years later in 1993. So, if you're just listening to this piece on the radio, it sounds like Harris' memory is mixed up. Or maybe she lied about what her stoner jams were in an attempt to sound cool, at a time when more and more Democrats, and even a few Republicans are on board with legal weed. - Nah, well those allegations are not from me. They're from staffers, and some other ones are saying that she was an escort in San Francisco for judges, politicians, and powerful businessmen to sway court cases. I can't prove that, but they will if they come forward. But here's what she's not fake. She's running as a straight laced prosecutor now, fake and fraud. Check this out. Up until 2017, communism was illegal in California, okay? My whole life, and since 1953, until a few years ago, in a 40 to 30 vote to overturn the ban, the Dilworth Act was on the books, allowed school boards to fire communist teachers. CalGov Code 1027.5, clear and present danger of world communism movement. Keep all that in mind for a minute. The motto of my show is don't California your Tennessee? Well, it used to be. This is why. I have way too much info on the timeline for you today, but timeline is on my Twitter at Heartland Journal, but my listeners, I really want you to know this. This is CPUSA, Communist Party USA, which is illegal in California, by the way. I was in school there at the same time as Kamala, 40 miles away, so I know this stuff pretty intimately. The long marks through the institutions is over, and now we might get their president and her cabinet picks. They had the DOJ, remember, while Attorney General Eric Holder backed off the case against the new Black Panthers. He had participated in armed takeover of former Columbia University ROTC office. Holder was then among the leaders of the student Afro-American society, S-A-A-S, which demanded that the ROTC office be renamed the Malcolm X Lounge. The S-A-A-S also actively supported the Black Panthers and the Black Power Movement out West. That was 1970, at a time, the same things for kids like my age were really volatile. California school desegregation and busing. Westmont High School in Montreal, Quebec, is where she went 1977 to 1981, but Thousand Oaks Elementary School in Berkeley, as part of Berkeley's comprehensive desegregation program, it was 95% white, but became 40% black because of busing, and it sparked protest and political movements, and led to white families fleeing from Los Angeles Unified School District. In California, school segregation was part of a broader integration effort, including the elimination of redlining, which kept black people and members of other minority groups from living in white neighborhoods. She was part of a other minority group because her father was born in Jamaica and her father was born in Jamaica, her mother was born in India. They were here on student visas, so she is not African American. She would be Jamaican half, something, I don't even know, but a little girl in California, who was part of the second class to integrate her public school, and she was bused to school every day, and that little girl was me. Remember that? Harris said that to Joe Biden on the debate stage during the 2022 campaign for president, while which she got zero votes in. While that was her time by day in her book, she talks about afternoons spent at the Rainbow Sign with Nina Simone and Black Panthers. Remember Reverend Jeremiah Wright for Obama? This was her radical indoctrination home. Rainbow Sign was somewhere between a black nationalist headquarters and middle class social club, allowing it to make comrades of a white spectrum of individuals, including members of the Black Panther Party and Warren Widener, Berkeley's first black mayor. Huey Long and Bob Seale, Khalid Al Mansour, leader of the Afro-American Association. Father, her father was a Marxist professor at Stanford, and his heroes were Adele Castro and Chai Rivera. If the FBI did a background investigation on Kamala Harris, she never would have passed because of her 40-year close ties with Marxist, Communist, Maoist, and Communist China. Harris would never have been approved for acceptance to any of the five military service academies, been appointed to a US government sub-cabinet position, or would have been approved to fill a sensitive position for a high security defense contractor. Yet, since Joe Biden was elected, Harris could be a heartbeat away from being president. Right now, as we speak, Kamala Harris's sister, Maya Harris, was a student activist at Stanford University. She was a close associate with Steve Phillips, one of the leading Marxist-Leninists on campus and a longtime affiliate with the League of Revolutionary Struggle, a pro-Chinese communist group. When she was elected to the US Senate, I told you this yesterday, Kamala Harris appointed a pro-communist Senate chief of staff, Karine Jean-Pierre. Jean-Pierre was active with the New York-based Haiti support network. The organization worked closely with the pro-communist China, Communist North Korea workers' world party and supported Jean-Bristid Eristad, the far left communist former president of Haiti and the radical Lavales movement. Willie Brown, Jr., Brown's political campaign were supported and funded by Dr. Carlton Goodlet, the owner of the Sun Reporter and several other pro-communist newspapers. I used to see that sitting all over the ground in San Francisco. Brown was elected as mayor of San Francisco and strongly endorsed Harris's Marxist political philosophy. He guided Harris's political rise in California politics, leading to her election as California's attorney general. Scary, Willie Brown, Jr. is a well-known longtime communist sympathizer. Willie Brown, Jr. was initially elected to public office with substantial help of the Communist Party USA. Remember that illegal party I told you about? Today, Willie Brown is widely regarded as one of the Chinese Communist Party's best friends in the San Francisco Bay Area, while serving in San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris mentored a young San Francisco radical malist activist, Latifah Simon, who was a member of the Storm Revolution and honorary movement. Simon currently chairs Bay Area Rapid Transit, Bart Board. Simon has always been close friends with the founder of Black Lives Matter Marxist domestic terrorist Alicia Garza, as well as Storm member and avowed communist Van Jones. Remember him from CNN? Harris has been openly and aggressively supporting Black Lives Matter Marxists. Kamala Harris is still closely associated with Maoist, Latifah, Simon, and Marxist Alicia Garza. Harris's husband, Doug Emhoff, works for the law firm, actually still does, works for the law firm DLA Piper, which boasts nearly 30 years of experience in communist China with over 140 lawyers dedicated to its communist China investment services branch. He was just appointed to professor at Yale to school future lawyers in the fine points of communism. Affirmative action, this is a quote, quote, "affirmative action has been an issue since segregation practices." Eric Holder said, "The question is not when does it end, "but when does it begin? "When do people of color truly get the benefit "to which they are entitled? "Which is, that's today's DEI, that's desperate impact, "defund the police, racial profiling at stop signs "and all the rest?" We're gonna see a lot more communism in this country going forward, I'm sorry to say. I'll be watching out for you. Stay tuned for my last thoughts of the week. I'm David Seale, and I'm glad to be here on the Heartland Journal podcast. (upbeat rock music) ♪ Sing about the way you're good man ♪ ♪ The words until the day light's gone ♪ Time for my quotes for the day. Before I share it, or mind everyone, subscribe, subscribe, subscribe to theheartlandjournal.com so I can keep this thing going and ad free. Police officers prayer. O almighty God, whose great power and eternal wisdom embraces the universe, watch over all policemen and law enforcement officers, protect them from harm in the performance of their duty to stop crime, robberies, riots, and violence. To protect and to serve, the official motto of the police academy, which is kept in mind by officers in training as the purpose of their profession. Policing in the 21st century, "The test of police efficiency "is the absence of crime and disorder, "not the visible evidence of police action "in dealing with them." By Lee P. Brown. Lee Patrick Brown is a politician, criminologist, and businessman African American. In 1997, he was the first African American to be elected mayor of Houston, Texas. He was re-elected twice to serve the maximum of three terms from 1998 to 2004. What else do I have? The toilet at a local police station has been stolen. Police say they have nothing to go on. Ravering is not the absence of fear, but action in the face of fear. In preparation for the upcoming August, Democratic National Convention in Chicago, former mayor and 1968 riots observer Richard Bailey said this, the police are not here to create disorder. They're here to preserve disorder. Federal troops and national guardsmen imposed a strict curfew, worked riot control, patrolled the streets, guarded looted stores, and provided aid to those who were displaced by the writing. They continued to remain after the writing had officially ceased to protect against a second riot and further damage. We'll see how this month's convention goes. That's it for this episode. Thank you, Brian Morris, for doing a Herculean job that nobody else would probably want to do and clean up a city in disarray. Good luck, sir. This is goodbye for now. I'm your host, Steve Abramowitz, editor-in-chief of heartlandjournal.com. See you all in two weeks. Peace in our time and definitely glory to God. We're off next week to check the princess into college down in Alabama. Been a while since we've missed a week. Please subscribe to the show and you'll get notified when the next one comes out so you don't forget us. Otherwise, see you August 13th and 14th and hopefully Vincent will come out with one. Let's take it home with a little two pack. You'll get the joke, mama-la, dear mama. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] Any of you's or opinions represented on the podcast are personal and belong solely to the creator and do not represent those of people, institutions or organizations that the creator may or may not be associated with in a professional or personal capacity unless explicitly stated. [MUSIC PLAYING]