MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The recent weekend left Memphis with another set of violent crimes to deal with. Around 36 aggravated assaults from December 16-20 has some leaders wanting to share the accountability.
Mayor Strickland said he’s willing to take the fall for the violent crimes happening across Memphis, as long as other city and county leaders are also held responsible.
“I want these neighborhood activists [to] hold me primarily responsible, I welcome it,” Strickland said. “But also ask the District Attorney’s and the judges and the judicial commissioners and the people who run our state prisons. Why are they letting these people out so quickly? That’s the problem.”
ABC24 spoke with the District Attorney’s office and D.A. Mulroy was unavailable Tuesday, but provided a statement saying “Violent crime has been steadily rising for the last decade. Reducing it is DA Mulroy’s number one priority. While the DA’s office is working to make the system fairer, we are working equally hard to make it effective so that we can prevent crime and help victims. During DA Mulroy’s 100-Day Address tomorrow, he will discuss in detail what the DA's Office is doing to reduce violent crime in Shelby County.”
Mayor Strickland insists the courts need to do an all-around better job. “You oughta talk to the court system, what are they doing about crime?” Strickland said. “I’ll tell you what they’re doing, they’re letting criminals out on the street violent criminals back out on the street, low bonds.”
While he said he’s more than willing to take a portion of the blame, he also said some of these issues fall directly on parents’ shoulders.
“Where are parents on these issues?” Strickland said.
“We’ve doubled the numbers of summer jobs that we have offered. We’ve doubled the amount of programming in our libraries and our community centers so that young people can do more. Why aren’t parents entering their kids into more after school activities? Why did we have a ten-year-old and eleven-year-old out car jacking with guns? Why aren’t parents checking their backpacks, checking on their kids – where they are. Parents need to step up.”
He said the criminal justice system isn’t helping.
“I believe the criminal judicial system is broken,” Strickland said. “There are some success stories on rehabilitation but overall, our criminal judicial system is broken and it’s putting people’s lives at risk.”
Mulroy said reducing crime in Shelby County is a top priority and he will be addressing it on Wednesday during his 100-day address.