MEMPHIS, Tenn. — There’s a warning for members of a Memphis gang: Get caught hanging around two apartment complexes, and you’ll go to jail.
Judge Larry Potter issued a nuisance order Wednesday against the FAM Mob after police testified tenants of two Memphis apartment complexes are terrified to go outside.
The FAM Mob gang has nicknamed the Ridgecrest apartments “Afghanistan.” They call the Greenbriar apartments, which are also in North Memphis, “Iraq.”
Members of the Multi-Agency Gang Taskforce say residents are hostages in their own homes.
“If you can imagine Iraq sitting in the middle of Memphis, Tennessee. That’s what the residence feel. They’ve been having to do endure that kind of criminal activity for years,” Lt. Darren Goods said.
Police say FAM Mob brags about crimes on Facebook and has tortured people in these apartment complexes for years. LC Graham says his brother was killed by the gang.
“It’s time for a change in the black community. We’ve had enough suffering. We’ve had enough pain. It’s time for us to come together and make a difference where our kids can have a place to grow up at,” Graham said.
The feds indicted FAM Mob leader James McCracken late last month. His gang has been tied to murders like that of nurse David Santucci in August 2013 on South Main Street.
Going after them one by one hasn’t worked, so a judge issued an injunction against them. If members of FAM Mob are caught hanging out at the apartments together, they’ll be arrested.
Potter told the courtroom, “This is not something you read about in the newspaper and say that’s New York. That’s not home. That’s not our city. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Memphis.”
After Potter issued the order, District Attorney Amy Weirich held a news conference on the property of Ridgecrest to make the announcement they will be enforcing the injunction.
Weirich said, “The good residents of these apartment complexes deserve better.”
Police say this nuisance order has worked to rid a lot of the gang activity from the Riverview/Kansas neighborhood. Instead of firing bullets into homes, some of those gang membes are now serving lunches at the local community center.
This nuisance program also offers help to those who want out of the gang.
The district attorney’s office says crime is down 23 percent in the Riverview area since the injunction was filed there and the area made a gang-safe zone.
