‘Gangsta grammie’ put on City Hall risk list
Elaine Blanchard is an ordained minister and a proud graduate of the Memphis Police Department’s Clergy Police Academy. In the fall, she welcomed Police Director Michael Rallings as a guest for a Wednesday evening meal at Shady Grove Presbyterian Church.
“Our police officers have such a difficult job. They all need our help,” said Blanchard, who posted a photo of her and Rallings on her Facebook page.
She also officiated the wedding of a woman who works for Mayor Jim Strickland. The mayor was in attendance. “He seems like a nice man,” she said. Last week, she learned via Facebook that she is one of 81 people who can’t enter City Hall without a police escort. She also learned she’s one of 43 people barred from visiting Strickland’s home.
“This grammie is a gangsta!” the 5-foot-4-inch, gray-haired grandmother joked on her Facebook page over the weekend.
It would be funny, if it wasn’t so absurd.
Blanchard has never been arrested. She’s never been to the mayor’s home. She can’t remember if she’s ever been to City Hall.
How did she end up on City Hall’s list of security risks, or the mayor’s list of persona non grata? How did so many others? Why does such a list even exist? Police aren’t saying. The mayor says he didn’t know about the list — even though it bears his signature.
The mayor says he did sign an “authorization of agency” form Jan. 4 — a list of people he has ordered to stay off his personal property.
In December a group of protesters organized a “die-in” on his lawn and video showed some peeking through his windows.
But many, if not most, of the 43 people on the list Strickland signed did not participate in the “die-in.” That includes Blanchard.
“I would never have done that,” she said. “I felt sorry for the mayor when I heard about that one. It was wrong to do that at his home.”
Blanchard did participate in a public protest last year. That seems to be the only common denominator among most of the people on the list.
That might explain why there’s more than one list, as The Commercial Appeal’s Ryan Poe reported Friday.
The first list is dated Jan. 4 and names 43 people — including Blanchard — “barred from the premises” of Strickland’s home who “also have to be escorted while in City Hall.”
It doesn’t explain why. But those on the list have participated in one or more recent nonviolent public protests — at the Mississippi River bridge, Overton Park, Graceland, Valero refinery or elsewhere.
Strickland’s signature is on all four pages of the list. But three of the pages include Lt. Anthony Bonner’s handwritten note that those on the list “have to be escorted while in City Hall.”
It’s unclear whether the notes were
added before of after Strickland’s signatures.
The second list is dated Jan. 17 and names 14 people who “have to be escorted at all times while inside City Hall.” It also doesn’t explain why.
Seven of the names are listed as white females, six as white males one as a black female. The list was signed by Police Lt. Albert Bonner.
The third list seems to present some legitimate and specific concerns. It’s called “City Hall escort list” and it’s undated and unsigned.
It names 27 people and adds a brief description or reason why each person is on the list. Fifteen are listed as “former employee.”
A dozen others are identified with words like “threats,” “harassment,” or “disorderly conduct” and “vandalism.” One is identified as “Order of Protection.”
Why aren’t the first two lists more specific? Why are public protesters considered a security risk at City Hall?
“It implies that everyone on the list is somehow a threat to city officials,” said Jayanni Webster, a 27year-old honors graduate of UT-Knoxville. “It’s very upsetting.”
Webster, a community organizer, was one of six protesters handcuffed, detained and cited for blocking the road in front of Graceland last July.
Blanchard joined a demonstration outside Graceland in August. It was during the annual candlelight vigil for Elvis.
The next day, two local legislators — Rep. G.A. Hardaway and Sen. Lee Harris — complained that police kept black protesters behind barricades while allowing white protesters free movement. Blanchard told the press that she agreed. “I threw my leg over the barricade and a Graceland security officer came over and gave me a hand, lifted my elbow and helped me over the barricade,” she told The Commercial Appeal.
“The police could clearly see that a white woman who had been with the protesters was climbing over the barricade, and no one stopped me.”
Blanchard figures that her public complaint is why her name is on the City Hall security list.
She hadn’t thought about going to City Hall anytime soon, but now she feels sort of obligated.
Tuesday afternoon, she plans to attend a protest being called the “Weigh In at City Hall.” First she’ll have to find her way there. “I’m not even sure which building it is,” she said. “But once I get there, maybe they’ll show me around.”