Violence doesn’t take Good Friday holiday

‘ These are young folks,’ officer laments

When Memphis police Maj. Lambert Ross arrived at the Beverly Hills Apartments in Raleigh, it had already been a busy day for officers.

Investigators from his Allen Station precinct had investigated two other shootings in the Raleigh/ Frayser area, and a minor had been shot in Orange Mound.

None of the injuries was life-threatening, but violence on a warm and sunny Good Friday — a holiday for area schoolchildren — is a worrisome reminder of the crime police can’t predict.

“These are young folks and with that, there are a lot of things they only want to settle one way,” Ross said. “We’re trying our best to get them to look at things another way.”

Meanwhile, his officers are patrolling the neighborhoods and apartment complexes, being visible in the community and encouraging residents to keep their eyes and ears open.

“We’re doing as many patrols as we can. We’re trying to be in as many areas as we can. Our battle never ends. It’s day and night.,” Ross said.

It’s not a job the police can do alone.

“It takes a community to do what we have to do in this city to combat and fight crime,” he said.

Details on the three earlier shootings were not available Friday night.

At about 3:42 p.m., police received a shots fired call at the Beverly Hills Apartments, where they found a 20-year-old man in the parking lot who had been wounded in the hip area, Ross said.

The victim was taken to the Regional Medical Center in noncritical condition.

Neighbors at the complex would not comment on the crime in their community.

But A.C. Slaughter, 52, a Raleigh resident for four years, believes it boils down to a lack of understanding about respect — both how to get it and how to give it.

“I’m just funny about the way that young people think. They have an entitlement issue. Everybody owes them something, whether it’s their peers or someone else. Their parents owe them,” Slaughter said. “The first thing they say is ‘you don’t respect me.’ You don’t respect yourself. Respect is not given. You’re not entitled to it. It’s earned.”

And crime will not force her out of Raleigh.

“It is what it is,” Slaughter said. “You pray and you move on.”