CRIME FORUM:
Sheriff calls for officers to attend
Shelby sheriff fears event will turn political, calls for backup.
Shelby County Sheriff Bill Oldham is bothered by what he perceives as a change in direction for a Thursday night crime forum and asked law enforcement personnel to attend the meeting in a sign of solidarity.
The 6 p.m. event at the Bert Ferguson Community Center in Cordova is designed for residents to discuss recent crimes with the two top law enforcement leaders in the metropolitan area. The shooting death of a woman in the driveway of a Cordova home she was visiting and robberies at automated teller machines are among crimes that have left the community on edge.
But Oldham is concerned the meeting will stray from an informational session to a political event. The sheriff posted a social media message over the weekend saying that after he and Memphis Police Director Toney Armstrong agreed to participate in the forum with the understanding it would provide citizens details about their departments’ relationship on crime prevention, the focus of the meeting changed.
Oldham said one change is that
several politicians are expected to attend the forum. Oldham said Monday that if each politician wants to speak, it could take away from his and Armstrong’s time to discuss their work in fighting crime.
But County Commissioner Mark Billingsley, host of the town halltype forum, emphasized he has no intention of letting politicians speak and take time away from citizens interacting with the director and sheriff.
“I can’t prevent them (candidates) from coming,” Billingsley, who represents the South Cordova area, said Monday, “but I can prevent them from taking it over.”
Billingsley said he assured Oldham the format will be as originally announced in an Aug. 21 press release with a theme of “Working together to fight crime.”
But Oldham also noted it is time for those same politicians to understand the benefits they are taking from officers, particularly those who have retired. He said officers across the country are dying in the line of duty, and, at the same time, local police are losing benefits they were promised. With his concerns about politicians at the event, Oldham asked colleagues and supporters to mobilize for the forum.
“I am asking for all of my brothers and sisters in Law Enforcement to attend this event in solidarity,” Oldham wrote in the Facebook post. “I am asking all of the people who support those men and women, who on a daily basis stand in harm’s way to protect our citizens, to come and show your support.
“We need to ask these politicians, where they have been in the last nine days when SEVEN Law Enforcement officers have been killed in the line of duty? And where they stand on restoring the wages of MPD officers, Fully funding their pensions and providing the health care EARNED by their retired employees?”
He closed the post by saying: “If you care about Police Officers and Sheriff’s Deputies show up!”