At least 46 people in Memphis have been shot and 16 people have been killed and Mayor Paul Young is instead focused on fighting blight and making the city beautiful.
A man was gunned down on Beale Street early Sunday morning, the most recent murder in what has been a violent month.
Just the other day, a street fight in South Memphis resulted in four people being shot, including an 11-year-old child.Tamara Plummer, a mother of three, was killed in the shooting. Video of the fight has since gone viral on social media. It showed a wild scene as adults filmed the fight. At one point a man armed with a machete showed up. More than a dozen shots were fired during the melee. You can watch video of the fight below.
Meanwhile, Mayor Young’s weekly newsletters have all but ignored the violent crime. His most recent newsletter addressed efforts to beautify local neighborhoods.
“Blight impacts the psyche,” the mayor said.
He also used one of the newsletters to set the record straight on a recent meeting he held with gang leaders across the Bluff City.“I asked for the meeting because we have to engage the subjects of our discussions if we really want to find sustainable answers to the problems we are facing,” the mayor said. “If we are talking about youth crime and we aren’t talking to the youth engaging in criminal acts, we are missing a piece of the puzzle.”
He accused local news organizations of getting the story wrong — dismissing reports that he asked the gang leaders for a cease fire.
“I did ask what it might take to get a 7-day cease-fire and what it would take to turn around some of their negative activity, especially as it related to their youngest members. And they were honest,” he said. “They said they could agree to a cease-fire, but they would have to know that their rivals were in agreement, too. They expressed that they would like to see me and other leaders in their community speaking with them more often.”The gang leaders said the reason why their young members were stealing cars was “because they were bored, and stealing cars was fun,” the mayor said.
“They told me that this epidemic of car thefts, a central portion of our crime problem, is being fueled by kids who are looking for a bit of fun. As a father, that hits hard,” he said. “As a Mayor, I know we have to do something radically different. We will continue to engage and find ways to change the outcomes in our City.”
