City Mayor Indya Kincannon has caved in to the ultimatum of the radical leftists who have demanded school security officers be withdrawn from our school campuses. Kincannon sent a letter to Superintendent Bob Thomas, Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs, Sheriff Tom Spangler, Board of Education Chair Susan Horn and District Attorney General Charme Allen. East Knox County school board member Mike McMillan described Kincannon’s letter as “full of leftist virtue signaling” but acknowledged the end result was 16 Knoxville Police Department officers would be withdrawn from school campuses. The problem is Sheriff Tom Spangler doesn’t have 16 new recruits at the present time to make up the difference. Being the passionate lawman he is, I know Sheriff Spangler will work things out to protect the school children inside the city limits, but it will stretch things thin in the Knox County Sheriff’s Office. You see, words and actions really do have consequences and there is one thing NO public official can conjure up at will and that would be men and women wanting to become law enforcement officers. Those folks cannot be pulled out of thin air. It’s not that Indya doesn’t have the money – – – her new budget is larded with $50 million in new spending on welfare state goodies to appease the left. The city council incumbents are running around swooning over what a wonderful budget it is for Knoxville. Those candidates opposing the incumbent council-people would be wise to decry the actions of Kincannon and pledge they will vote to keep the City of Knoxville in the Memorandum of Agreement between the school system and the KPD.
Is it any coincidence Indya folded the day after a handful of little groups demanded school security officers be withdrawn from our schools until they could redesign the agreement to their own satisfaction? A letter was delivered to the board of education members from Lance McCold, who is a professional busybody who feels some compulsion to comment upon every policy before the Knox County Board of Education. According to Mike McMillan, McCold seems to think board members are eagerly awaiting his latest lengthy missive on the topic of the day. McCold purports to be representing SPEAK (Students, Parents & Educators Across Knox County), Stop School Push Out, the Latino Student Success Coalition, the Knox County Education Association, and Kindred Futures. Several members of both KCEA and SPEAK are already moving to disassociate themselves from McCold.
McCold’s letter was delivered after board member Daniel Watson brought up a resolution to reexamine the MOA, appoint a special committee, call in experts and so forth. Watson wasn’t around when the taxpayers of Knox County literally spent tens of millions of dollars hiring school security officers following the tragedy at Sandy Hook. At the time, the board convened meetings all over the county.
Since his election to the board of education, Watson has been quite the little social justice warrior busybody and doesn’t seem to realize Board members are elected by district. Evidently Little Dan believes he is the Board Member-At-Large and represents everyone. That being the case, folks have Little Dan to thank for this mess.
Last week’s city council meeting was disrupted by Constance Every and her merry band, which once again included Calvin Skinner. Kincannon and the council members sat there like knots on a log and allowed the protesters to scream and rant before enjoying a short recess. After the recess, Constance and Calvin finally were arrested by the KPD. That was long overdue. Constance, Calvin and company were less well behaved than they were when they revisited the county commission meeting after Sheriff Spangler had them arrested for disrupting the commission meeting. Imagine that.
Folks in Nashville are pushing back. The Tennessee General Assembly has passed a bill that will outlaw the teaching of Critical Race Theory in Tennessee schools. The Knox County Democratic Party has accused state Representative Jason Lafferty of rewriting history. If the 1619 Project isn’t rewriting history wholesale, nothing is or ever will be. I DARE any Knox County Democrat to denounce the 1619 Project for not being historically accurate and revisionist. That will happen around the same time Indya Kincannon and the city council members grow a spine. They’ll never do it. Of course we’ve entered a strange period where leftists simply change the meaning of words to suit their social justice agenda. Free child care, free college, free everything is now “infrastructure.” There is no “free” anything; somebody had to work for it.
Do you agree with Kincannon’s decision to withdraw the KPD officers from the schools? If not, you can let the members of the City Council know about it here: https://knoxvilletn.gov/government/city_council
There is no truth in agenda; there is only the truth and deception. Words and actions have consequences and we had all better keep in mind our failure to support those fine law enforcement professionals (and getting rid of those who are not professional) will cost us as a society more dearly than we can imagine. Think of the consequences when there aren’t people wanting to go through the harassment and plain crap some folks are heaping on law enforcement officers currently. Departments are going to be bare bones through attrition. With cuts to budgets, we are going to discourage even more young people from a career in law enforcement as veteran officers, tired of the abuse, take early retirement and quit the profession. Society will suffer from it; the most vulnerable classes, seniors and children, will be especially at risk. Keep in mind, as Indya Kincannon spins her woke decision to withdraw the KPD from the MOA with the school system, there have been a record number of murders in the City of Knoxville the last year. The truth has no agenda and that is absolutely, indisputably true. Crime is rising everywhere in the country, especially violent crimes, where the police are being denigrated and defunded. Can any reasonable human being be surprised by that? Do you suppose that is a mere coincidence? When that crime reaches you and your family, your back door, God help you because there’ll be fewer police officers to help you. In what world is it right for Indya Kincannon and the city council members to leave the children living inside the City of Knoxville unprotected? It’s not because of money; remember Indya and the Council are spending $50 million more dollars on an ambitious program of social welfare, as well as to pay for the defined benefits of city workers. Can you really trust these people to stand up for YOU and YOUR FAMILY when they won’t even stand up to a handful of loudmouth bullies?
School children inside the City of Knoxville are being left at the mercy of God knows what because city officials want to think about sustainable housing and their own version of the Green New Deal. They will spend millions of your tax dollars on social workers who can’t and won’t stop any violent crime. All they can do is comfort the living and those who have lost someone to violent crime that might well have been prevented had who done what was right.
Kincannon and the council members are too worried about hurting someone’s feelings than protecting families and their children. It is a complete betrayal of the majority of the people inside the City of Knoxville.
The truth is a call for the KPD to come to a school in a life-threatening emergency might well be too late; it’s a poor substitute for having a security officer on site. The tragedy is the next call might be to the coroner’s office.
