Opinion: 1 year ago, they told Memphis to be afraid
Members of the National Guard stand watch on Beale Street on July 17. (George Walker IV/AP file)
John Covington
John Covington is a lifelong Shelby County resident. He spent nearly two decades teaching history at both the high school and college levels before entering law enforcement, where he has served in the Memphis Police Department for more than a decade. He is vice president of the Memphis Police Association, holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Memphis, and is active in local Republican politics.
A year after warnings of occupation, authoritarianism and terror, Memphis is safer — and the hyperbolic rhetoric deserves a reckoning.
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