MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Some people in Memphis told WREG they are questioning how much ‘black lives matter’ after, what they called, a lack of outrage following the deaths of two young girls.
Bullet holes and shattered glass littered the ground outside the home where 15-year-old Cateria Stokes was shot and killed while lying in her bed on Friday.
The shooting left many in the community wondering ‘where’s the outrage?’
“No. There hasn’t been nearly the amount of outrage and in the case of Black Lives Matter, the lives of those innocent kids should matter,” Buddy Chapman, with Memphis Crime Stoppers, said.
Chapman said it was hard to believe 7-year-old Kirsten Williams and Stokes were killed doing the things children do.
He was outraged no one was stepping up to solve the murders, including those in the neighborhoods where the shootings happened.
“We can’t make this a racial issue,” Pastor Keith Norman, President of the Memphis Chapter of the NAACP, said. “We can’t make this a blacks need to be alarmed. Law enforcement needs to be alarmed, government needs to be vigilant, communities need to point this out.”
Norman said although African-American people are not holding protests and marching down the street, they are still upset and vocal about what happened to the two little girls.
“It’s not that we haven’t seen the same outcry. The urban community has been upset about these types of things for many years — drive by shootings and violence in our communities,” Norman explained.
Norman said the violence in urban communities was rooted in a series of issues, including poverty, health and education.
The violence also had many people afraid to speak out or even call in tips.
“Unfortunately, we can’t do anything about these thugs that are terrorizing the black community unless the black community is willing to see something happen to them,” Chapman said.
A group of pastors said they are holding a conference to discuss issues in the community that often lead to crime and violence.
The conference begins at First Baptist Church on Broad Avenue Tuesday night at 8:00 p.m. and lasts through Thursday.