MEMPHIS, Tenn. — With a name like Memphis Gun Down, you expect results, and organizers say that’s what they’re getting.
Last month, WREG told you how Gun Down was targeting crime in Frayser and South Memphis, bringing in Midnight Basketball and Summer Night Lights to give kids safe alternatives. The 901 Bloc Squad program was also created to target wayward youth. They said the efforts led to fewer robberies, assaults, homicides, and non-domestic violence.
“In Frayser, we’ve had a 17.9- percent decrease in those crimes. In South Memphis focus area, we have had a 50 percent decrease,” Memphis Gun Down Director Bishop Mays told WREG last month.
At the Memphis City Council meeting Tuesday, Memphis Gun Down was shot a let down. It wanted $260,000 from the city to expand to the Orange Mound and Mount Moriah areas, but the City Council cut that by $62,000.
Councilman Harold Collins says there was good reason.
“We are paying for a program, but they can’t tell us the number of guns they have taken off the streets of Memphis,” Collins said.
Mays didn’t want to talk Wednesday, and is waiting to see the council’s final action. He said the money requested would fund salaries for a program manager and two employees.
Collins saidit’s still about results.
“On Monday and on Sunday, 14 shootings in our city with guns,” Collins said. “I venture to say ask the people in Frayser and these other areas, ask them if they feel safer.”
So we randomly asked people in Frayser if they’ve noticed a crime decrease.
“No, I haven’t. I haven’t noticed any difference,” Benjamin Jones, who has lived in Frayser for two years, said.
“No, ma’am. Everyday you are hearing gunshots. When I left my kids outside today, they came in because somebody pulling up, watching them,” Devion Hampton, who has lived in Frayser three years, said.
Memphis Gun Down officials have told WREG in the past that they don’t keep gun stats and leave that up to police. They contend their work is making a difference.
A Bloomberg Grant that funded the program runs out the end of this year.
City Council did still give the program about $200,000.
Memphis Gun Down is just waiting to see what happens on the council’s final vote.
