If you go to Memphis just remember you will be in The Mogadishu of the South. Your life will be under constant threat. If you visit the Overton Park Zoo you will not be out of danger until you are inside the zoo and then only inside the animal cages. Memphis today is not a place to take lightly. I was born near there and it used to be my old stomping grounds in the late 60’s and early 70’s. The wife and I drove to Nashville last June and I made sure I did not have to stop while passing through Memphis.
That’s utter rubbish. I am from Memphis and my Memphis roots are deep. I’ve lived in and around Memphis since the 60’s. My family arrived here on a riverboat in the 1870’s after fleeing New Orleans’ yellow fever epidemic. Sure there are parts of Memphis I avoid, but that’s true in every city in America. I know the city well and safely travel the streets here every day.
I was attacked by a black man with a butcher knife when I was 12, but that didn’t happen in Memphis. It happened in a small, majority white, and presumably safe, West Tennessee town. That experience impacted my life in more ways than you can imagine. I am highly protective of my family and I am extra sensitive to potential danger. If I thought Memphis was truly as you suggest, I would not let my teenage daughters drive on Memphis streets. I would also insist my elderly parents move away.
Memphis is no different from any other city. It has good parts, and bad. You can’t indict more than 1.3 million people in my community because a segment of the community act like animals. After practicing law in Memphis I can tell you the vast majority of the crime is black on black and it’s confined to certain parts of town anyone should recognize as unsafe. We live in a fallen world, so crime can reach out and touch us anywhere, but I do not live in fear.
Today my kids have a snow day (that was unnecessary), so I am about to take them downtown for lunch on Beale Street and to see the Peabody ducks.