Early last month I wrote about a flash mob attack at a Memphis shopping mall that left three people in hospital. The perpetrators were Black youths. The victims weren't. It was racism at its worst, even though the mainstream media wouldn't comment or speculate on that. Political correctness forbids such honesty. Political correctness has also (to date) prevented any solution to the problem being implemented, because to be effective, it would inevitably focus on one race group in the city and send a large proportion of its young men to adult or juvenile jails. Local politicians won't allow that. It'd be bad for their image among the electorate, you know.
Now another incident in a nearby area has reinforced concerns.
Police said a large group of teens flooded the streets near Central High School Friday just before 10:00 p.m.
“Had I had been armed we would have had a lot of kids laying in the Bellevue street that night,” Sharon Mourning said.
. . .
“All of a sudden just bout 20 kids are on top of my car with about 40 more kids around my car and they kicking, they stomping, they jumping, you know they hitting the windows,” Mourning said.
The victims said the kids were all over the place wreaking havoc.
“They was just laughing and hollering, and doing what they were doing and having fun with it,” Mourning said.
Police reported a 51-year-old man was attacked in his car after honking his horn at the teenagers to move out of the way.
“They had done bricked his car, stomped his car, did the same thing,” Mourning explained.
Mourning reported seeing the teenagers beat an elderly man and another teenager, “I actually looked at the child. His face was bleeding. You know they had done beat him.”
Police confirm a 55-year-old man and a 16-year-old were assaulted in the area at that time.
. . .
Mourning told us a summons is not enough and claimed this is a problem on a bigger scale, “Memphis is going to burn if they don’t control these children.”
There's more at the link.
Uh-huh. Up to 60 kids described as being involved by victims . . . and the police issued just three 'juvenile summons' tickets and then let the perpetrators go home. That'll scare them straight . . . I don't think! Furthermore, if Ms. Mourning had been armed and used a gun that night, she'd have found herself in the sort of trouble I wrote about last month. No matter how justified your self-defense might have been, political correctness will still crucify you if you fire on a mob of teens, particularly Black teens. That's the way it is these days.
I've known of the crime problem, juvenile delinquency and racial tensions in Memphis for many years. Tennesseans talk about it much like people from Illinois talk about Chicago, or Michiganders talk about Detroit, or Louisianans talk about New Orleans. "There's [insert name of state] . . . and then there's [insert city name]." That's about the size of it. I've now reached a point, based on feedback from friends and acquaintances as well as news reports such as this, that I'm no longer prepared to leave the Interstate highway system in or near Memphis unless I absolutely have to - and that's happened only once in the last couple of years. I went armed and ready for trouble, and stayed that way until I was heading away from the city once more. (My reaction's fairly mild compared to one acquaintance, who now insists that if his family and friends in and around Memphis want to see him, they have to drive to meet him outside the city. He won't go to their homes at all.)
I guess the next (anti)-tourist slogan should be "Visit Memphis at your own risk". Perhaps they should change the name of Elvis Presley's home to 'Dis-Graceland' while they're at it . . .
Peter
16 comments:
Having been a former Memphian, I say stay away.
People go through Memphis not to Memphis.
Elvis is still dead and Beale Street still sucks.
Sorry if I sound rassist, but the quotes from Ms. Mourning make me think she might be of the same demographic as the yutes. If so, it can and will be used to prove this (these?) was not a hate crime but merely youthful enthusiasm.
stay safe.
Or start issuing M-16s at the city limits...
Sorry, but I'spect that if 20 or 30 "yoots" started pounding on my 5,000 pound SUV, I'd just keep driving and there'd be a lot of yoot pancakes ...
It's not just racism, it's crime. I know some black people who live outside of Memphis. They won't go there, either.
I have never stayed a night in Memphis with out hearing gun shots. Never!
Gerry
John Derbyshire is proven to be a prophet more and more every day.
Memphis is a good place to be -from-.
Spent 3 years there while I was in fellowship, and I enjoyed it, but I got out when I could, knowing it was the right choice at the right time.
It's a damned shame, but I still like Memphis enough to go there for the good stuff. I also like New Orleans and Detroit enough to go downtown.
Of course I also carry AND I maintain my awareness and know when it's time to leave.
Memphis has been a no go area for years.
There is nothing there worth risking your life for.
Will you die to see a tacky 70's era home? Will you die to see a few bars on a street that a few people think is famous?
Don't do it.
I brought the wife there a few years ago. She's a giant Elvis fan, and a road trip from Boston to Memphis was a great way to celebrate her becoming a citizen and see a little more of America.
Graceland was awesome, in it's tacky, green shag carpet on the ceiling sort of way. The rest of the city gave me the motivation for an elevated sense of situational awareness. More than anything else, the constant catcalls and approaches that my wife had to deal with, from black men of all ages, was outright startling. I confess that I got less and less tolerant as the days wore on, and was happy to un-ass from TN.
I called a hotel in Nashville this morning and canceled my reservations for next April's NRA Convention and annual members' meeting.
Yes, I realize Nashville is 200 miles from Memphis. Yes, I realize Memphis has "cultural" problems Nashville doesn't (yet). Yes, I realize Tennessee recognizes my carry permit from (redacted) state. Yes, I realize Nashville is a terrific, wonderful, delightful place, with lots of sunshine, bunnies and butterflies, and birds sing pleasant songs there year 'round because all the wonderful, terrific people who live in Nashville Have Said It Is So.
And, yes, I realize Memphis' "cultural" problems could very easily spread to Nashville.
And, yes, I'll accept that I am "racist", "shortsighted", "selfish", and whatever other adjectives one wishes to employ.
All that said, I'm staying home next April, or going somewhere else, and I'll read the After Action Reports in my NRA magazines and online. The money I would have spent in Nashville, and Tennessee, will be spent elsewhere because I do not believe the authorities in Nashville are any less infected with political correctness than those in Memphis. I know the authorities at my home location are similarly infected, but here I have resources to deal with it, including an attorney on speed dial.
Yeah, I don't go to Memphis. I've heard too many stories of people having to put their pistol training to good use in that town. This is an activity that I'll avoid if at all possible. I vote we call it "Wasteland."
As 0007 alluded to above, when you are at the wheel of any four wheeled vehicle you are armed with a multithousand pound bludgeon. All you then need is the will to use it.
Add Jacksonville, FL to the list.
Large section are no-go areas. Late one New Year's Eve my Smarter Half and I were returning home from her folks. Along I-95 tires had been stacked and set on fire. The smoke was drifting across the interstate. Proving true to her name the Smarter Half got into the far left lane and floored it through the clouds of smoke.
Weeks later we learned what few cars that stopped were swarmed my yutes, occupants robbed, and cars stolen. A Nat. Guard MP unit was called out.
There was, of course, no mention in any newspapers. This was in the early 1990s.
I wanted to go to Memphis for our anniversary last year {we first met in Memphis} - stay at the Peabody Hotel {THAT was a non-starter, their rates are horrendous !}, but did some checking and the crime rate was too high, and the honest reports indicated that crime was WAY disproportionately committed by blacks against whites .................. mmmmmmm, no thanks ................ we went down to Kemah for a dinner cruise instead ..................
Semper Fi'
DM
Post a Comment