Is this the Memphis you want to live in?
As the city waits for the National Guard, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Department of Homeland Security… to arrive in the city, I think that’s the core question.
Some will answer ‘yes,’ for bad faith reasons. (One might argue the whole idea is built on bad faith.) Some in the community, weary of violence, will also answer ‘yes.’
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To be clear: the president’s actions are not motivated by ending crime. He wants to make a point about the “radical left.” But city leadership is interested in lowering the crime rate. And folks in Memphis want the same. They aren’t wrong.
But the usual approach — overpolice and mass incarceration — works, but only temporarily. It doesn’t address the biggest crime: poverty, or its many co-conspirators, like underfunded schools and unaffordable housing. Under this strategy, we’ll still be living with a legislature that passed a law allowing guns to be stored in cars (where they’re most often stolen), another that allowed most people 21 and older to carry a handgun openly or concealed without a permit. In 2024, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations, 92.4% of murders involved a firearm.
Once upon a time, there was a discussion in the city about taking a public health approach to gun violence in Memphis. It seemed promising, to ask the community what it needs, get all of the local agencies on the same page and focus more on rehabilitation and reform, rather than mostly on crime and punishment.
That balance is key. Baltimore has rightfully earned praise for its drop in crime by using a public health approach. (Is it a coincidence that Shelby County’s former health department head, Michelle Taylor, went there?) I wanted to know, though, how it was going from the community’s perspective. So I reached out to Lisa Snowden-McCray, the editor in chief and cofounder of the Baltimore Beat.
She said the conversation is more nuanced than what mainstream news has offered. “Even as Mayor Brandon Scott has been lauded for the drop in the murder rate, Black folks are still dying at the hands of police, and the police still command a great deal of our city’s budget.
“That money could go to other ways of making our community safer.”
That is why I side-eye the mayor’s insistence that the federal agency collaboration will ultimately be a good thing. Let’s be as demonstrably committed to community collaboration.
You’ll remember that in August, there was a push to build a new Shelby County Jail, which it turns out we don’t need. But, before that was known, the commissioners were willing to pay $350,000 to develop a master plan and between $900 million and $1.3 billion to build it. What would happen if city leaders were willing to spend that much on, say, food access and job training?
I think everyone contemplating the Memphis they want to live in really wants the same Memphis. But some folks only want it for themselves. MLK50: Justice Through Journalism wants a Memphis that everyone can live and thrive in, a Memphis with joy and art, a Memphis that’s safe for all of us.
So the next question is: What will you allow to get there?
Adrienne Johnson Martin is co-executive director of MLK50: Justice Through Journalism. Contact her at adrienne.martin@mlk50.com
This story is brought to you by MLK50: Justice Through Journalism, a nonprofit newsroom focused on poverty, power and policy in Memphis. Support independent journalism by making a tax-deductible donation today. MLK50 is also supported by these generous donors.