Top athletic recruits should leave state if police oversight limited, advocates say
NASHVILLE — Following Tennessee House Republican leadership’s introduction of a new bill Monday to limit police oversight, Nashville’s Community Oversight Now wants to hit them where it hurts.
And where the advocates say it hurts for Tennessee is money and sports.
Community Oversight Now, a local coalition that pushed for Metro’s newly formed oversight board, announced their “Don’t Play Where You’re Not Welcome” campaign ahead of Tuesday’s city council meeting.
The effort encourages the state’s top high school athletes — classes of 2020 and 2021 — to withdraw their support of in-state colleges and universities by playing elsewhere.
The campaign hopes that if even a few players decide to take their talents out-of-state, the potential loss of revenue to Tennessee collegiate programs and their surrounding businesses would have a lasting impact.
“The recruitment of top-ranked athletes is the bread and butter of Tennessee’s sports economy,” Sekou Franklin, an organizer with the group, said to about 50 people chanting “Hands off COB.”
“The withdrawal of support means we are making a vigorous effort to steer these athletes away from Tennessee institutions and to accept athletic scholarships elsewhere.”
The campaign came a day before National Signing Day, when high school seniors commit to a university and its athletic program.
Franklin said campaign will extend nationally, with outreach to potential out-of-state recruits. “We will inform them about the Tennessee General Assembly effort to make Tennessee and unsafe environment. This is a public safety issue.”
GOP accused of targeting Nashville
Tennessee House Republicans filed House Bill 658 to strip police oversight boards in the state of their subpoena power. The move would significantly hinder the Nashville board’s ability to investigate alleged officer misconduct.
Leaders of the Republican-dominated legislature have a history of intervening in the affairs of Democratic-dominated Nashville. But bill sponsor Rep. Michael Curcio, R-dickson, denied that the legislation was a direct response to Nashville’s recently established oversight board, repeatedly telling reporters Monday that the bill would “broadly set” parameters for any oversight board in the state.
“There are presently no guardrails in state law that define how they are to be created, who can serve on them and what their specific function is,” Curcio said. “We feel like this is just something that needed to be brought.”
Community Oversight Now isn’t buying it.
“We were very intentional about how we crafted this,” said DJ Hudson, an advocate with the group. “We know this is 100 percent an attempt to neuter our COB and render it if not essentially powerless, token, symbolic and not at all what the people of Nashville 100 percent voted for.”
The Metro Council last month elected 11 diverse members to its community oversight board, which voters approved by referendum in November through an amendment to the city charter after recent shootings of two black men by white police officers in Nashville.