Clergy ask Memphis to show more resolve to end gun violence
Rev. Bill Adkins, head pastor of Greater Imani Church in North Memphis, stood in front of the Benjamin Hooks library Friday with an ask for all of Memphis: Get angry about the gun violence that takes lives on a near-daily basis in the city.
Adkins, wearing a dark suit in the afternoon sun, was flanked on each side by clergy representing half a dozen Memphis congregations. He called the public press conference after learning of at least two more minors that were shot and injured last night in Uptown.
He started his remarks by listing crime stats. In 2021 so far, he said, there have been 76 homicides, 63 of which are murders. Six of the homicides involve children, and of that number, four were murdered.
“To solve our problem, we should first be deeply concerned about it. We should make our feelings known,” Adkins said. For the next 20 minutes, Adkins made his feelings known, and asked everyone to join him in “righteous indignation of holy anger,” and he asked that Memphians levy their anger not only at systemic racism and police brutality but at the brutality committed by neighbor against neighbor.
“We exhibit anger towards police brutality,” Adkins said, “which we should. But, we should also be angry about the senseless murders, the homicides, the stray bullets that fly within our communities.”
In short, Adkins wanted to know why he could not sense the same level of anger about 8-year-old Jordyn Washington, who was struck and killed last year by a stray bullet while standing in her family’s kitchen, as he could about the homicides of Breonna Taylor or George Floyd.
In the backdrop of Adkins’ remarks, two significant developments are taking shape that will likely alter both the level of gun violence in Memphis and the response to it.
The former development comes in the form of the recently signed permitless carry, or “Constitutional carry” bill signed into law yesterday by Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee. Law enforcement officials in Memphis believe the new law will only lead to more gun violence.
Adkins called it, “the worst law ever, signed by the worst governor,” the state has ever had.
The latter development comes in the form of the ongoing search for the next director of the Memphis Police Department.
The current director, Michael Rallings, is set to retire on April 14.
Adkins is one of the community advisors the city tapped to help interview candidates. He met a couple, he said, that impressed him. Whoever is taking over the department has to be, in his words, “a very, very special person. Half sociologist and half police officer,” in order to understand the specific challenges and stressors of Memphis’ most socioeconomically vulnerable communities.
But even if the city selects the perfect candidate, the police cannot inject action into communities. The type of anger that inspires change, Adkins said, will have to come from citizens.