Metro Pulse/Ear to the Ground

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It Never Ends

Forget those promises of cooperation. Sheriff Tim Hutchison is looking daggers at the Knoxville Police Department again. Hutchison took umbrage after KPD spokesman Darell DeBusk was quoted in the March 29 issue of the News-Sentinel as saying, "It's hard to deal with a man who has been found guilty of multiple counts of contempt for lying to the court," in reference to the KPD-KCSD rift in the Cody Thomas murder case. Hutchison apparently understood the remarks as being directed at him and dashed off a letter to DeBusk, in which he calls DeBusk's comments "untrue," "malicious," and "slanderous," insinuates that DeBusk was prompted to make the comments by his superiors, requests a retraction, and threatens legal action if no retraction is forthcoming.

Hutchison's letter was passed to Mayor Victor Ashe's lawyer, City Attorney Michael Kelley, who sent an understated, but pointed response to the sheriff, which reads in part: "I hope by this point you are aware that Chancellor Daryl Fansler of the Knox County Chancery Court ruled...that you made six 'willfully false statements' to the Court and that 'the effect of these willfully false statements was to obstruct and interfere with the processes of the Court.' As a result, Chancellor Fansler found you guilty of contempt.... If this finding by the Court has somehow escaped your notice, I am enclosing a copy of it for your review."

Our Growing City?

When the newspaper formerly known as the Knoxville News-Sentinel formally changed its name to the News Sentinel, absent the hyphen and the reference to its hometown, earlier this year, there was a spate of harrumphing from readers, including Knoxville's mayor, who were not happy to see "Knoxville" removed from its name. Observers of the paper (who obviously don't have enough to do) waited to see if it would react to the criticism. It did, pathetically enough. Like all editions since the renaming, the March 31 issue bore the name, Knoxville, below the paper's massive title in the masthead, in a tiny headline typesize about 16 points tall. On April 1, the city name was increased to about 24 points in size. The change apparently wasn't an April fool's joke, as the bigger little-bitty Knoxville remains in place.

The Price of Freedom

For the last several years, Glenn Wilkins has run the Downtown Copy Center. His three-man operation has been well-known downtown for perhaps-unique practices of making free copies for school projects and for donating a quarter of their profits to charity, including police and veterans' groups. In his window is an American flag labeled "God Bless America"; it's been there for over a year.

However, Wilkins is finding he's at the center of a boycott because, for a few weeks, he displayed a No War On Iraq sign—and, among several other posters in his ever-changing window, a photocopied quotation from Hermann Goering explaining how to quiet pacifists. Explaining how quickly his party mobilized German civilians for war, the former Nazi reichsmarshall said at the Nuremberg trials, "The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism...."

Wilkins has taken the Goering quotation down, as well as the No War sign. He says he still opposes war, partly due to his parents' experiences with war, and partly due to his religious convictions. He says he prays for the safety of the U.S. troops. He also confirms that his business is off perhaps 10 percent due to the boycott.

He doesn't mention the boycotters, but several other sources confirm rumors that chief among them is Lewis King Krieg and Waldrop, a major law firm located near the center. Wilkins says the people who made the decision never objected to the sign while it was up; he learned about their objection only after the boycott was in effect.