Sen. Chris Elliott, R-Josephine, reaches into his pocket on the floor of the Alabama Senate on March 31. 2026 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. Elliott last week said if elected governor, U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville would send the National Guard into Montgomery. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)
Montgomery reported 61 homicides last year. That was the same as in 2024, but fewer than the 73 that occurred in 2023.
To state the obvious, one homicide is one too many. The 61 lives taken in the capital city last year matter as much as the 88 in Birmingham, the 32 in Mobile and the 21 in Huntsville.
But Republicans are singling out Montgomery, a majority-Black city, as the target for their wildest fears and fantasies.
Sen. Chris Elliott, R-Josephine, recently said he tries to get rooms on the top floor of a hotel when he travels to Montgomery.
“I hope that when the random gunfire from the street erupts below, that the trajectory of the bullet that comes through the window might actually lodge in the ceiling instead of the wall,” he said.
Crime is serious, but this is nonsense. I’ve worked in and around downtown Montgomery for the better part of 20 years without ever feeling like I was at the Battle of Verdun.
But Elliott — who must walk the streets of Montgomery twisting his body like Keanu Reeves in “The Matrix” — says that Tommy Tuberville is elected governor, he’ll “fix” Montgomery by sending the National Guard in.
Sen. Will Barfoot, R-Pike Road, said roughly the same thing to al.com. Tuberville appeared to confirm it, albeit in the halting, message-stomping manner that last week led him to undermine GOP efforts to hold the U.S. Senate.
What led to this pile-on? On the surface, it’s the defeat of legislation sponsored by Barfoot that would have required Montgomery to hire a certain number of police officers or risk a state takeover.
Montgomery may need to hire more police officers. It’s trying, as Mayor Steven Reed and Montgomery Police Chief James Graboys have stressed, with increased budgets and a recent 15% pay raise.
But the city is hardly alone in its struggles. Police departments nationwide, including Birmingham, are straining to attract recruits. Some have even lowered standards to do so. If the shortages were affecting public safety, one would expect crime rates to increase.
They have not. All four of Alabama’s big cities — Huntsville, Birmingham, Mobile and, yes, Montgomery — reported drops in violent crime last year, part of a national decline following a COVID-era spike in crimes. Statewide, violent crime fell 29% between 2019 and 2024, even with the jump during the pandemic. Nor is it clear that hiring more officers would actually improve public order.
This doesn’t mean that everything is fine. Alabama’s homicide rate was the fifth-highest in the nation in 2024. Its firearm death rate was the fourth-highest. The weekend after Easter, four people were shot and killed in Montgomery.
State officials serious about public safety can do something about that. Like abandoning our juvenile attitudes toward guns. Unfortunately, in 2022 the Legislature ended permit requirements for carrying firearms, a foolish policy that law enforcement agencies in the state opposed, as it would quickly deliver guns to deeply irresponsible people. Barfoot and Elliott both voted for the measure.
Montgomery tried to impose a modest photo ID requirement for firearm possession. It was repealed amid threats from the Alabama attorney general.
Lacking genuine solutions, we turn to the National Guard. One can see Tuberville calling them out. It’s the kind of dumb, ineffective and racist policy the senator likes. President Donald Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops to Washington, D.C. did zilch for crime while costing over $330 million. But it did allow a white politician to attack a majority-Black city.
This posturing seems reflective of an unconscious strategy for Alabama Republicans in the 2026 elections: Pretend it’s 1985.
That’s where the president’s head remains, whether he’s ignoring long-term drops in crime or making poor choices about Iran. And from Tuberville on down, Alabama Republicans are joining Trump’s hatreds.
They’re viciously attacking Muslims. They’re baiting and attacking LGBTQ+ Alabamians; Republican attorney general candidate Katherine Robertson apparently thinks a transgender kid on a swim team is a far bigger problem than crime. And of course, they see a majority-Black city and want to send soldiers in. Despite evidence it won’t work.
Truly Reagan-era campaigns. But also a sign of a party with no ideas for the present. What did the GOP-controlled Legislature do this year to improve education? Shovel money to wealthy private school families and religious fanatics who see public schools as missionary territory. What did they do to address affordability problems? Schedule a two-month grocery tax holiday that ends right after the runoff election in June.
Inertia and straight-ticket voting could carry Republicans over the line this year as they have in the past. But there are hints of broader disengagement. What polls exist of the Republican races for attorney general and lieutenant governor suggest widespread meh-ness about the candidates. There’s more interest in the races for governor and U.S. Senate, but a good chunk of voters are sitting on the sidelines. Hard to blame them. The party isn’t offering anything but ancient cliches.
Which may be why lawmakers obsess over gunfire and do nothing about it. Lacking solutions, they seek enemies. Unable to step up to the moment, they want to pull us back to the past.
From Alabama Reflector Post Url: Visit
Author: Brian Lyman