By Yvonne D. Nelson The first 2019 meeting of the North Shelby County Democrats organization was held on Tuesday, January 8, at Olympic Steak and Pizza in Millington, TN. The featured guest was Sheriff Floyd Bonner. Since Sheriff Bonner was called outside of Shelby County on important business, Shelby County Sheriff Public Information Officer, Lt. Anthony Buckner, came in his place. The meeting was well attended by both members of the North Shelby County Democrats and visitors. Lt. Buckner was very informative and addressed each question posed by the audience. His personal agenda included discussing various topics including youth education and the Tennessee Department of Corrections, about which Lt. Buckner said an was extremely huge fact seeing TDOC officers performing compliance checks while Shelby County Sheriff officers were conducting operations in the field simultaneously. A question arose regarding a personal issue regarding a resident living in Northaven who was experiencing slow response time when calling the Sheriff’s department for assistance. “One thing that I can tell you about the Sheriff’s office,” replied Lt. Buckner, “Your ZIP Code doesn’t matter. You get the same level of service and I’m disappointed to hear that , so I want to make sure that I give you my number and I want to connect with [this person] to make sure [they] they are dialing the right number. I have to do some leg work to figure that piece out because we’ve got to fix that. That’s a broken system. It’s problem if she’s calling the wrong number and that’s an easy fix.” Another person asked for the chance to defend that statement by saying we have the Sheriff’s Department out here all the time. The person bringing the complaint restated the issue suggesting that maybe the person was conservative, or maybe felt that she needed to investigate whether there really was a problem or maybe just a conceived problem. The discussion turned to Officer Maurice who has recently returned to the Northaven community and had been extremely responsive in the area in the past. Another member stated that they had lived in the area for a number of years and had not had a problem using the non-emergency number and getting timely responses. Lt. Buckner continued to discuss additional topics and the conversation turned to new crime strategies and moving more towards predictive analysis. “There is a difference between data smart policing and predictive analysis,” stated Lt. Buckner who described predictive analysis as. “inventing programs that would help predict where the next crime may be committed. I understand that it is not an exact science, but he [Sheriff Bonner] is looking more towards predictive analysis, that’s something he’s charged all of us with. So hopefully in the next year or so you’ll see us launch some initiatives that will address that particular issue. Our crime is trending down and we’re happy about that. About a month or so ago I reported a significant decrease in crime, about 31 percent and that’s huge! That kind of tells us that we’re doing the right thing, we’re on the right path.” paramount importance to us in those days. The last one I remember was an electric blue Pontiac Grand Ville coupe, 1975 or ’76 model when they were really fly. We moved to Whitehaven shortly after that, but I got a hell of closer for you before we bring your mindset into the present day. South Parkway East was always famous for two things, the so-called big-time Negroes inhabiting the gorgeous houses it’s lined with and that dern train track at Willet. But it could be really cool sometimes because very often after concerts at the Mid-South Coliseum you’d hope you got caught by the train headed home because back then you could easily wait for what sometimes seemed like hours for the train to clear, as it would regularly stop and sit for uncountable minutes on end. On pretty nights everybody would get out and mingle, talk about the show and other things, or do some smooching if you were lucky. On one famous night, according to my friends Ed and Revis, off all people Elvis got stuck by the train one night. Revis stayed right near the tracks, and Ed further east on Kyle. They were walking back to Rev’s from Ed’s house and there was a long line of cars waiting out the train. So they were shucking and jiving with the people in the cars when they came up on a limousine. They thought it might have been one of the stars from the show, so they didn’t go knock on the windows, they just stood and stared. After a while they said the back window rolled down and a white man’s hand came out and waved them over to the car. Limo struck, plus with all the people in the world around, they didn’t hesitate, and they swore the rest of their lives it was Elvis and he kicked it with them, gave them both $100 bills to keep quiet and went on his way like everybody else when the train moved on. Call it a lie if you want to but Revis’s mother confirmed it to me and he and Ed would argue you down if you said a bad word about Elvis in front of them, and they grew up to be real gangsters for quite a long time. So I’ll close with this. If Elvis was a racist he suffered the irony of instant karma, as he became the pop era’s biggest victim of racism. Success ate Elvis alive, and the only true joy you could see in his art was when he performed music, and the few good movie roles he had. And for anybody that wants to say the man was a thief, I dare you take a look at one of those early Elvis clips. May favorite one is him dancing across the stage on on one leg, getting to the other side, grabbing one of his legs like it had just broken, plopped it down like he was resetting it, and continued busting it out on stage. You can’t teach that. That was pure soul. Tony Jones has written for several Memphis publications since high school and has worked independently as a publicist and media director for national concert tour productions. He is currently completing a memoir of State Rep. Barbara Cooper and in pre-production of his play about the social impact of Stax Records. Shelby County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer, Lt. Anthony Buckner (center standing), was the featured guest speaker during the January meeting of the North Shelby County Democrats held January 8, 2019 in Millington, TN. 12 25
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