Following 346 homicides in Memphis in 2021, officials consider what's driving the violence

In Memphis during 2021, a life was taken an average of once every 25 hours.

The first murder of 2021 occurred Jan. 2. Court documents describe a kidnapping scheme that ended in the murder of Broderick Moore, a Mississippi resident found inside a residence on Flowering Peach Drive.

The last murder occurred on New Year's Eve when a 17-year-old was gunned down in Southeast Memphis and rushed to LeBonheur Children's Hospital, where he died from his injuries. 

The majority of homicides in Memphis, 304, were classified as murders. The rest were ruled as justified homicides or involuntary manslaughter. In the vast majority of these deaths, a firearm was used.

In each instance, a set of circumstances aligned and resulted in a loss of life.

What those circumstances are, and what drives the resulting death, have different origins and solutions depending on who you ask. 

'Lack of conflict resolution skills' and ease of gun access

Memphis police, those usually on hand first to glean initial details of the crime, say gang-related violence is a minor factor. To the extent that is definitively known, gang violence accounts for roughly 13% of homicides in Memphis. 

Assessing the year-end known statistics, Memphis police Lt. Bill Kaiser said, "The takeaway is that most victims know their attacker. Gangs are not necessarily what is driving the numbers up. It is lack of conflict resolution skills."

Memphis Police Chief C.J. Davis, like her predecessor, has pointed to the ease of gun access as a driver of gun violence. By September 2021, more than 2,300 guns had been stolen out of vehicles. 

The county's top prosecutor, Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich, has previously characterized a lack of stiff sentences and low bonds as significant factors that help create repeat offenders who trace a path that starts with aggravated assault and escalates to homicide.

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"The criminal justice system needs to be tougher on those who commit violent crime —from the setting of bonds to truth in sentencing," Weirich said in a short statement to The Commercial Appeal in late December echoing what she has stressed at community forums.

Fair wages and who suffers without them

Others outside of the justice system want to see earlier interventions in the chain reaction of instigating factors.

Dr. Elena Delavega, a professor of social work at the University of Memphis has been analyzing poverty trends in Memphis and how those trends intersect with violent crime. She produces the yearly Poverty Fact Sheet for the university. 

Her research has laid bare Memphis' inequalities when it comes to fair wages and who suffers the most without them. In Memphis specifically, the majority of low-paying jobs are held by Black and Hispanic workers.

More relevant to the issue of unrelenting violence, Delavega believes nothing will substantially change without a substantial shift from the current economic state. 

"Anger created by poverty and inequality...it's an explosive mix," Delavega said. "Inequality hurts our cores as human beings. Someone may ask 'Why should I participate in a society that works so hard to exclude me?'"

Since she began her research around poverty trends more than a decade ago, she's noticed a significant lack of jobs that pay a true living wage, which the Massachusetts Institute of Technology defines as $26.49 an hour for one adult with one child.

During the course of the pandemic, Memphis lost a substantial number of jobs that pay a living wage, according to at least one Washington D.C.-based think tank that focuses on economic development for the lower and middle classes. 

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The Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity defines "functional unemployment" as being employed but not at a livable wage, or working part time at a job due to unavailability of full-time jobs with benefits. 

Using census data, the think tank found Memphis had one of the largest jumps in functional unemployment since the pandemic began — nearly 11%. 

A critical component to reducing community violence, Delavega said, is holding large employers that are heavily subsidized by tax breaks in Memphis accountable for providing jobs that ensure the employees receive equitable wages. 

Mental health is a top concern

The economic circumstances and a lack of any significant public transportation, Delavega said, have led to outright "desperation."

The word "desperation" was also used by the executive director of the Shelby County Crime Victims & Rape Crisis Center, Sandy Bromely, in describing the circumstances that have pushed an elevated number of violent crime victims and survivors through the center's doors. 

The center, Bromley said, has been operating at a "crisis level" during the last 21 months. Staffers, and social service providers in general, she said, are exhausted.

Bromley lists mental health as a top concern among the ongoing needs of communities in crisis. And, like Delavega and the police, she also notes the increase in access to firearms as a significant contributor. 

"It's not the firearms themselves that are bad, it's certainly not that people are bad, it's that combination of increased tension, poor mental health, and easy access to firearms that's just a bad combination," Bromely said. 

On the positive side, she said, the center is rethinking services and focusing on bringing mental health support to communities as opposed to waiting for victims and survivors to report to the center for counseling. 

"In 2022, we will be starting these frequent psycho-educational sessions on trauma. Anybody can drop in and learn about some of the self-help steps around coping with trauma. And we'll do it in any community center or church or any place that the folks want us to come out to," Bromley said.   

Meeting communities where they are with mental health resources is a start in a new wave of violence that Bromley believes is here to stay. 

The idea that community violence will subside when COVID-19 is no longer a major threat, she said, is a fantasy. 

"This is the new normal," she said, "And we need to be thinking 'What do we need to do differently to respond to this new normal.' "

Micaela Watts is a reporter for The Commercial Appeal and can be reached at micaela.watts@commercialappeal.com.