MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Memphis Police Director Toney Armstrong stayed silent after a bloody weekend in Memphis.
More than a dozen people including a baby, were shot, and one person was stabbed.
The infant who was shot was grazed.
Three people died.
City Councilwoman Wanda Halbert was shocked by those numbers.
“It’s very high. It’s shocking,” she said. “It’s disappointing.”
Memphis Police said this weekend alone there were 17 people shot during 8 different incidents, scattered all across the city.
“One shooting, one killing is one too many. So, when you get 15, 16 in one weekend, we are way past time for a need to discuss this,” Halbert said.
Director Armstrong would not talk to WREG about the violence Monday.
Mayor A C Wharton would only go on camera saying, “It is totally unacceptable.”
Later, he sent WREG a long list of what the city’s doing to combat crime, including increasing the police budget and starting neighborhood programs.
Halbert, on the other hand, said there was only so much the city could control.
“We can put a million Police Officers on the street, but will that change what’s inside of our hearts? I’m not sure how that stops us from making the decisions to carry out these types of actions,” she said.
However, that does not mean she didn’t have ideas on changes the city can make.
“We have a responsibility to literally go into the neighborhoods, into the community and talk to some of these individuals, even the individuals who are committing these crimes or allegedly committing these crimes,” she said. “We need to get to the root of how can we get you to turn your life around and make different decisions.”
Halbert said she wants to discuss this weekend’s violence at the next City Council meeting and hopes Council members can come up with more ways to stop crime.
