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Gangs in Memphis, Tennessee

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Memphis, Tennessee serves as the Southern headquarters for Tennessee based street organizations in the Southern United States. According to the Shelby County Sheriff’s Department in 2010, there were approximately 182 gangs with 8,400 gang members in the county.[1][2]

Gangs in the Memphis area are concentrated in high crime neighborhoods like College Park, Hollywood, Hickory Hill, Parkway Village, Westwood, Raleigh, Frayser, Orange Mound, Whitehaven and Binghampton; their presence is also felt in the suburbs of Tipton County, Tennessee.[3][4]

After a series of gang related robberies at Tom Lee Park on the river bluff in downtown Memphis, the Memphis Police Department said that "they often feel powerless to control these out-of-control teens."[5] In May 2013, high school students warned Memphis City Schools against a proposed school merger of Booker T. Washington High School and Carver High school. "It's like putting the Crips and Bloods together in a national convention."[6]

In 2013, Memphis City Council and Memphis Mayor A C Wharton cut funding for Blue CRUSH, the gang division of the Memphis Police Department.[7]

Sex trafficking

In 2013, the FBI arrested Gangster Disciples Folk Nation members[8] on charges of sex trafficking and forced child prostitution.[9]

Neighborhoods

According to the Governor's Public Safety Forum on Tennessee Gangs, gangs operate in Memphis' rural communities like Millington, Mason, and Northhaven, and in low income neighborhoods of North Memphis, South Memphis, Raleigh, Frayser, Whitehaven, Binghampton, Orange Mound, Hickory Hill and Riverside.[10]

Famous Memphis gang activity

  • Craig Petties, brother of DJ Paul, was on the U.S. Marshals 15 Most Wanted Fugitives list before being captured in 2008.[11] He was a member of the Gangster Disciples and allegedly the biggest drug dealer in the history of Memphis, getting drugs directly from Edgar Valdez Villarreal of the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel and funneling millions of dollars to the Black Mafia Family.[12] In 2011, Petties pleaded guilty to 23 counts of violent crime and racketeering after working with the Sinaloa Cartel to build a drug trafficking empire in five states.[13][14]
  • In the 2008 Lester Street Murders, a gruesome mass murder in Binghampton, Memphis, Jessie Dotson, a member of the Crips, killed his brother, Cecil Dotson, a member of the Gangster Disciples and his family.[15]
  • In 2010, Lorenzen Wright, a Memphis basketball star with a connection to drug kingpin Craig Petties, was found dead after being shot multiple times.[16]
  • In February 2013, the Grape Street Crips announced their partnership with Bradley Jenkins, the Imperial Wizard of the United Klan of America, a branch of the Ku Klux Klan in Atlanta, to protest in a planned rally in Memphis.[17]
  • In 2014, a mob of 100 to 125 teenagers attacked people at random in a Kroger parking lot during a knockout game-style challenge.[18] They shouted "Fam Mob," the name of a Memphis-based gang.[19] The incident was captured on video that went viral. Eleven people were arrested. According to the police, it was "a flash mob that got out of control."[20]
  • In 2015, the cousin of Shelby County Sheriff Bill Oldham was targeted in a robbery/homicide. On May 29, 2015, a group of Gangster Disciples murdered a recent graduate of Memphis University School. During this time, an over two-year undercover operation by a multi-unit task force was taking place under the name of Operation 38 Special. The multi-state operation was brought to a close on May 4, 2016.[21]

In mainstream culture

Music styles that originated from Memphis gangsta rap culture include Southern hip hop and crunk, made famous by Three 6 Mafia, Project Pat, and Hypnotize Minds. In the 2000s, the music genre gained acceptance after winning an Academy Award for the song "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" from Hustle & Flow.

See also

References

  1. ^ Ludlow, Candice (November 2, 2011). "Think Gangs Are Only In Memphis' Poorest Neighborhoods? Think Again". WKNO FM. Archived from the original on 23 July 2013. Retrieved 12 August 2013.
  2. ^ "ICE works with local law enforcement to arrest 26 gang members in Memphis". Ice.gov. Retrieved 31 December 2019.
  3. ^ "Gangs are making their way to the suburbs". America Now News. 2013. Archived from the original on 2 June 2013. Retrieved 12 August 2013.
  4. ^ "Mississippi School District To Clarify Gang Policy As Part Of Settlement Of ACLU Lawsuit". American Civil Liberties Union. February 9, 2011. Retrieved 12 August 2013.
  5. ^ Hall, Sabrina (April 23, 2013). "Police Say Teens Hard to Control In Mob Robberies". WREG.com. Retrieved 12 August 2013.
  6. ^ Orozco, Jackie (May 1, 2013). "Fear of Gang Wars if Memphis High Schools Merge". LocalMemphis. Retrieved 12 August 2013.
  7. ^ Dries, Bill (January 10, 2013). "Blue CRUSH Cuts Point to Larger Divide". Memphis Daily News. Archived from the original on 3 March 2013. Retrieved 12 August 2013.
  8. ^ Warren, Beth (August 13, 2013). "Prosecutors: Female defendant bit, punched, scratched and spit at Memphis guards". Commercial Appeal. Retrieved 13 August 2013.
  9. ^ "Three Charged with Forcing Child into Prostitution". Wreg.com. 28 July 2013. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
  10. ^ Goggans, Louis. "Memphis' Gang Problem". Memphis Flyer. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
  11. ^ "Sentencing set for Craig Petties, head of Memphis-based drug gang with ties to Mexican cartel". Associated Press. July 25, 2013. Archived from the original on 8 September 2013. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
  12. ^ Grouchy Greg, Grandmaster (February 23, 2012). "DJ Paul's Half Brother Craig Petties Linked To BMF". All HipHop News. Retrieved February 23, 2012.
  13. ^ "Cousins on trial in Memphis as hit men for Sinaloa Cartel and Craig Petties". Borderlandbeat.com. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
  14. ^ Connolly, Daniel (June 27, 2010). "Blood Trade: The Story of Craig Petties". Commercial Appeal. Retrieved 27 June 2010.
  15. ^ "TN Court of Appeals" (PDF). Tsc.state.tn.us. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
  16. ^ "Ex-NBA player Wright's death remains mystery". Espn.go.com. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
  17. ^ Holliday, Marcus (February 25, 2013). "Gang Member Teams with Klansman to Protest Memphis KKK Rally". LocalMemphis. Retrieved 12 August 2013.
  18. ^ "Mob of Teens Knockouts Three In Kroger Parking Lot". Uptownmagazine.com. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
  19. ^ Goggans, Louis. "Three People Beaten by Mob of Teens in Kroger Parking Lot". Memphisflyer.com. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
  20. ^ 10 teens, 1 adult charged in brutal Kroger parking lot attack
  21. ^ "Forty-Eight Alleged Members of Gangster Disciples Indicted on Federal Racketeering Charges". Justice.gov. 4 May 2016. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
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