MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Mayor A C Wharton faced a tough crowd Thursday as he spoke at the funeral for Officer Sean Bolton.
He spoke to a room full of police officers, many of whom were still reeling after the city cut their benefits and pension.
“Nobody promised me a rose garden. That’s a part of it,” Wharton said when WREG asked him about it the next day.
As soon as he started speaking Thursday, officer after officer got up and left.
We asked Wharton what went through his mind when he got up and saw them walking out.
“Really nothing,” he said. “I was looking dead in the eye of the Bolton family. That’s what it was about.”
WREG’s video showed the officers standing in the lobby waiting until the Mayor was done.
They then filed back in to hear Memphis Police Director Toney Armstrong.
“My only concern is the venue, the place they chose,” Wharton said.
Memphis Police Association president and mayoral candidate Mike Williams was also in the audience but didn’t walk out.
“A lot of the officers looked to me to see what I was going to do,” he said. “I did not want to make it into a statement. I don’t think that was my place at that time.”
Yet, he said he understood why his fellow officers did.
“For those that say it was disrespectful, the officers feel they have been disrespected for a long time now,” Williams said.
The story lit up WREG’s Facebook page with more than 4,000 likes.
“Disrespectful. Don’t use someone’s funeral as a platform to protest,” Berry Y wrote.
“Look at what Wharton has done to city employees. I would have walked out too,” J. Flynn wrote.
Wharton said it comes with the territory.
“I want people on the police department that have passion and some sense of conviction,” he said.
Wharton said he and Armstrong are willing to listen to officers and adjust things as needed.
We asked City Council members and mayoral candidates Harold Collins and Jim Strickland their take on the police walkout, but they had no comment.