It seems to us a group of Black ministers protesting the indictment of former Chattanooga Police Chief Celeste Murphy stood at the wrong door Monday morning.
Instead of making their point in front of the office of Hamilton County District Attorney Coty Wamp, who said she had nothing to do with the complaint against Murphy and will not be prosecuting the case because she properly recused herself, they might have stood in the doorway of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, which handled the probe. Or the office of Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly, who accepted the police chief’s resignation. Or the front door of Murphy — if they can find it — because it is her improper paperwork that led to her exit.
“In fact,” Wamp said, “when you do the right thing as the district attorney, and you take it completely out of your hands, you send it to a different agency outside of Hamilton County, who then requests a formal TBI investigation, it doesn’t matter because opportunists don’t care about facts. I cannot and will not comment on Chief Murphy’s investigation or indictment because I do not know anything about it other than what I’ve read in the news media.”
The ministers making their stand in front of her door were race-baiting, she said.
Murphy, who is Black, resigned Wednesday and turned herself in at the Hamilton County Jail on Thursday on 17 charges, including falsely filling out official documents, perjury, official misconduct and illegal voter registration.