MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Mixed messages from top officials here in Memphis just after multiple murders and shootings.
At a public safety awards banquet officers and deputies across the city celebrated the fact that crime numbers are down.
Police Director Toney Armstrong said frankly, “There ain’t a damn thing wrong with law enforcement.”
In fact, the police director gave himself and his team a pat on the back.
He said they are doing a phenomenal job.
Some people think that was insensitive in light of this weekends violence, and the fact that no one has been arrested for two murders and multiple shootings.
District Attorney General Amy Weirich explained, “It’s really hard to talk about the numbers being down after the horrific weekend that we had.”
Weirich said she doesn’t think the police director meant to be insensitive when he brought up dropping crime numbers, but admitted his timing wasn’t great.
The police director didn’t stop there, adding “I think I’ve done a phenomenal job!”
He gave himself and his team lots of credit for those dropping crime rates at the same time we’re seeing a drop in police officers.
“We are still trying to accomplish the same thing with 2100 officers this year that we did with 2,500 officers five years ago,” Armstrong explained.
Police have yet to make a single arrest in either murder or the shooting in Tom Lee Park.
Weirich said the drop in crime is factually correct, but admitted they have a long way to go with violent crime.
“A lot of the aggravated assaults that are committed today, turn into next weeks murder, robbery, kidnapping, whatever,” she said.
Armstrong admitted this weekend was a lot of reactive work.
“We had an awful weekend. On all accounts,” he said.”I’m not downplaying that at all, we had an awful weekend.”
But Armstrong said his team doesn’t get enough credit for the good work they do every single day, and yet they always catch the blame.
“When things start to go wrong, people start to point fingers,” he added.
