|
Training of MHA Security Officers AddressedSecurity guards who patrol the Memphis Housing Authority have the same power to carry guns and make arrests as police officers. They ought to have the same training and certification, says Robert Bryden, president of the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission. “I think it’s something we have to fix in terms of legitimizing in the POST [Peace Officer Standards and Training] commission’s eyes that this [MHA Security] is a police agency,” Bryden says. “We want people who are carrying guns and enforcing the law to be POST-certified.” Bryden plans to study the issue and then confront the POST commission, which certifies police officers in Tennessee. Last year, the state legislature passed a law giving police powers to MHA officers, who are called investigators. Since then, however, the commission has steadfastly refused MHA’s requests to certify them. When state representative Kathryn Bowers introduced the legislation, she says she did so because she thought that MHA would only hire POST-certified officers who worked for or were retired from another police agency of the state. But last week a Flyer cover story revealed that the majority of investigators on MHA’s 65-person security force are not POST-certified and have not been through the minimum 320 hours of training required of police officers. Moreover, some have criminal backgrounds that would probably prevent them from being eligible for POST certification, according to POST guidelines. MHA board chair Ricky Wilkins says he wasn’t aware so many investigators hadn’t been through POST training. He says Clyde Venson, MHA manager of security, will make sure every investigator gets the training that’s required. But Wilkins says MHA would only get behind the effort to POST-certify investigators if someone else initiated it. “You’re putting a great deal of
value on POST certification,” he says. “If there is a move by Ms. Bowers or Mr.
Bryden to expand the scope of officers the POST commission certifies, MHA would be
supportive of that.” U of M Change Won’t Affect Shelby FarmsThe University of Memphis’ successful park-ranger training program is now dormant after the departure of director Steve James, but the Shelby Farms ranger program – also taught by James – will continue. Shelby Farms superintendent Tim Martin says James, who now teaches at Slippery Rock State University in Pennsylvania, is still under contract as a consultant and will fly back to Memphis occasionally to conduct two-day training sessions for reserve rangers. About 50 people have signed up for a session that was slated for September 26th and 27th, but the class has been postponed until October to accommodate James’ schedule. Hundreds of James’ former students now serve as rangers in national parks across the country. James reportedly left the U of M because of low pay and because certain members of the geography department – where the ranger program is arbitrarily located – were pressuring him to obtain a geography degree, even though he already possesses a Ph.D. in his own field. The U of M has acknowledged that replacing James will be difficult. “It will cost the university more to search for a replacement than it would have to keep him here,” says Martin. The reserve ranger program is more
important than ever at Shelby Farms, where visitation has increased to almost 1 million a
year. In addition to 42 unpaid reserves and 18 part-time law-enforcement officers, the
park’s 1998-99 budget includes three new full-time employees, and three more have
been approved for the following year. – Debbie Gilbert Memphis 200 Race Fills Motorsports ParkBucking a trend in the Memphis sports market, the Memphis 200 drew more than 15,000 people last Sunday for the first NASCAR national event ever held in Memphis. The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at Memphis Motorsports Park drew a standing-room-only crowd and raves from visiting NASCAR officials. “We couldn’t have asked for anything better,” says Memphis Motorsports Park spokesman Rob Stallins. “We had an enthusiastic crowd and it was a heck of a race. I think everyone left feeling they had seen something really special.” Ron Hornaday Jr. (right), the all-time leading winner on the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, won the race. Stallins expects the event to return next
year. African-American Police Group GrowsAfter years of apathy, the Afro-American Police Association (AAPA) is on a campaign to reinvigorate itself as a legal organization and civic group within the Memphis Police Department. AAPA president Tyrone Currie, a patrol officer at the Westwood mini-precinct, says his group has enlisted 62 new dues-paying members since he and vice president Latanya Able were elected last June. The organization now has 284 officers. The group is sponsoring a golf tournament this Saturday, to be hosted by Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway. The predominantly black police officers association does not have the collective bargaining authority of the Memphis Police Association, but it can legally represent an officer who is being sued in a court of law or is being disciplined internally, Currie says. Many black officers felt alienated from the Memphis Police Association earlier this year when the union endorsed the ouster of state Supreme Court Justice Adolpho Birch, Tennessee’s only black justice. Currie, however, doesn’t want to stress differences between his group and the police union. Instead, he emphasizes his organization’s two-part mission: to act as both a civic organization that will reach out to the community, specifically to at-risk children, and as a group that will represent its dues-paying constituents. The new president also says the AAPA’s standards for representation will be high, not just a knee-jerk reaction to protect cops from criticism and potential punishment. “We plan to stand up for what is right
and what is true,” Currie says. “That’s our basis. If [police officers
accused of misconduct] are right and they are truthful, we’ll stand by them. We
won’t support them [otherwise].” – Phil Campbell Prince Mongo Link Raises Concerns About New Clubby Mark Jordan Downtown Memphis’ newest nightspot is open for business, despite concerns from some of the area’s leading citizens that the new business could signal a return to the spot’s old shady practices. Offering the “best in urban-contemporary dance” music, Club C.H.A.O.S., located at 60 South Front, opened its doors on Friday, August 28th. The building it occupies is one of two adjacent properties though to be owned owned by Bernard Hodges of Newport News, Virginia, who leases it to his brother, well-known eccentric and perennial mayoral candidate Robert “Prince Mongo” Hodges. It is that Mongo connection that almost kept the club from opening. When C.H.A.O.S. owner Latrice Gardner appeared before the Memphis Alcohol Commission on August 5th in a routine hearing on her application to sell beer in the establishment, she found herself being opposed by state senator and attorney Steve Cohen, representing a group of concerned downtown citizens that included high-profile developer Henry Turley and advertising agency head Ward Archer Jr. Both Turley and Archer are stockholders in TheMemphis Flyer’s parent company, Contemporary Media, Inc. At issue for Cohen and his clients was whether Gardner’s club would signal a return to the rowdy days of the early ’90s, when Mongo operated a nightclub at that location that was notorious for selling alcohol to minors. Prince Mongo’s Planet – later called Saint Mongo’s Planet though the sign outside never changed – was cited numerous times for serving alcohol to minors. Last year a $15 million wrongful death suit against Mongo, over his responsibility in the 1992 deaths of two underage boys who were allegedly drinking at his club, was withdrawn when attorneys for the two boys’ families determined they had insufficient evidence to go to trial. The attorney for one of the families has since refiled the suit, which could come to trial next year. Prince Mongo’s Planet was ultimately shut down twice in 1995 for nonpayment of state taxes and violations of the county’s building codes. The alarm sounded by Cohen and his clients may hardly have been necessary, since alcohol commissioners are already wary of any application that comes before them with even the slimmest of connections to Mongo. “We pursued [Gardner’s application] very in-depth,” says commissioner John DeBerry Jr. “In the past we’ve had people come before us who didn’t have the financial resources for such an enterprise and who couldn’t prove a real separation between themselves and the building’s owners.” Mongo has been suspected of using others as fronts for his business operations in the past. In 1995, at the height of controversy surrounding the club’s beer-selling practices, the city council subpoenaed Saint Mongo’s Planet’s owner of record, Tony Lay, to appear before them. Under oath, Lay, who listed his address as a Front Street parking lot, asserted that he was the sole owner of the club, which he had started with a personal loan from Mongo, his former employer at the latter’s Highland Street pizza parlor. And in 1996, alcohol commissioners rejected an application from Mary Neely for a beer application at another Bernard Hodges-owned property, Ashlar Hall at 1397 Central in the Central Gardens historic neighborhood. Despite similar initial concerns about Gardner’s application, alcohol commissioners granted Club C.H.A.O.S. a permit after she presented a sound business plan and a history of business experience. “We’re not trying to keep businesses from going into business,” says DeBerry. “But we want people to obey the law – to not serve alcohol to minors, to not serve alcohol after hours. “I told [Gardner] it was nothing
personal, and a lot of people felt it was guilt by association. … But I cautioned her
she has a very active and visible group watching her, and if she is honest and forthright
she shouldn’t have any problems with them.” |
– Jacqueline Marino 