(Memphis) Shelby County Commission Chairman James Harvey says he wishes he did more to stop Henri Brooks controversial comments earlier this week.
Harvey said, “I don’t care if they’re African-American or white, or some other class. Right is right and wrong is wrong.”
Brooks got into a heated dispute over race relations with a Hispanic business owner at Tuesday’s meeting, and lashed out at other commissioners, referring to Caucasian member as “the man in the sheet.”
Harvey told me it’s not his job to “police” other commissioners, but a few of them told him Brooks’ comments offended them. Even for her, this was too much.
WREG commentator Otis Sanford says Brooks may be trying to pander to her voter base since she’s running for Juvenile Court Clerk.
Sanford added, “This is very diverse community and you cannot play one against the other and that’s what she did and she did it in a very insulting way.”
The message in Memphis is about coming together as one, but some say comments like the ones Brooks made do the exact opposite.
Harvey said, ” We would be remiss by saying we should forget the past but we can learn from the past and not be crippled by the past.”
Sanford says her behavior is insulting and shameful, and she should apologize on her own and not have to be asked to.
“I just hope that the whole community sort of says enough of this I mean we’ve had the Donald Sterling stuff we’ve had an operational animosity going around both locally and nationally to last a lifetime.”