Tension in Memphis

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MARY REICHARD, HOST: Eight days into President Trump’s federal crime crackdown in Memphis, more than 270 arrests and roughly 70 illegal guns off the streets. We sent WORLD’s Myrna Brown to Memphis to find out what locals think about the crackdown.

MYRNA BROWN: Inside one of the city’s largest congregations, a local pastor issues a strong warning. Audio from Greater Imani Church in Northeast Memphis.

PASTOR: We don’t want to watch the news. But you better watch the news. You better stay aware of what’s going on. You better know. We’ve got troops in Memphis right now…

Last month, President Trump signed an order to set up a task force in Memphis, Tennessee. Sky high crime rates have put Memphis at the top of the FBI’s list including America’s most dangerous cities.

Republican Tennessee Governor Billy Lee supports the effort to crack down on crime, while Memphis mayor Paul Young is strongly opposed. Here’s Young on Fox just yesterday.

PAUL YOUNG: I didn’t ask for the national guard. That’s something that the president and the governor decided, and as mayor, that removes my ability to determine whether they come or not.

Like Mayor Young, some residents don’t like the idea, and think there are better ways to help the communities.

Standing in the morning sun, Mark Bell, a Memphis native, helps his wife unload the mini-van at the Greater Imani Church parking lot.

MYRNA BROWN: What did you think when you heard the National Guard was coming?

MARK BELL: I kind of had mixed emotions. Being a former veteran, I’m not a fan of the US military being deployed to municipalities and cities. I think things like providing something for our youth, programs and things like that would be better for us in the long term versus the national guard being deployed because right now they’ll be here. What happens after the six months when they deploy?

Another Memphis native, Grace Walsh, also has a question.

GRACE WALSH: We have been known to lock people up one day and they’re out the next, so how is that helping the crime?

Ralph Harrington believes both questions are valid, but he says there’s something more to consider when talking about the city’s high crime rate.

RALPH HARRINGTON: Actually I think it starts in the home. I think we need to talk to the parents and the parents talk to the kids and when it’s a stronger home, it’s a strong church. If it’s a strong church, it’s a strong community.

Harrington says what’s missing in Memphis and other crime-ridden cities is the church.

HARRINGTON: I think the role of the church is to lead. That’s what the church has always been about.

MYRNA: Not just this church but generally speaking, is the church doing that now?

HARRINGTON: I think we’ve got a ways to go. I think we once were but sometimes even churches get distracted.

About 15 minutes to the east, service at Bellevue Baptist Church is just ending. Audio from Bellevue Baptist.

AUDIO: [PASTOR PRAYING]

SOUND: [FEET SHUFFLING THROUGH PARKING LOT]

AUDIO: Good Afternoon

Outside, in the parking lot, Phil and Brenda Thomas are already in their car with their windows down.

BROWN: When you heard that the national guard and some of the other law enforcement agencies were coming. What did you think?

PHIL THOMAS: Hallelujah. We can always use the help. Is it the answer though? Christ is the answer. The Bible tells us that man’s heart is deceitfully wicked.

Tina Downey says she’s seen that evil in her own neighborhood.

TINA DOWNEY: Sycamore View and Pleasant View…that area down there, especially that hotel where prostitution and drugs are running rampant.

Downey says she and her family welcome the outside help.

DOWNEY: Four or five nights ago, my son was out on the back deck and he saw the helicopters going by. But he went out there and he was waving at them. He said alright.

Walking towards his car, carrying a backpack, 27-year-old John Knight says he was disheartened to see the National Guard in the city where he was born and raised.

JOHN KNIGHT: I mean respectively, I just feel like we all have a part to do. And not just in our city, just in general, people of the world if we did what was needed and what was right and what was just, this wouldn’t be called for. God has a plan for everything you know. And so, maybe this is for the Christians to wake up and to start praying more for our city. We’re just not handling business. And we don’t know how to act. So, that’s why there’s a need for this. So I feel like when we start acting like we have some home training, things will get better.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Myrna Brown in Memphis.

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