I don't mean to imply that Memphis does not have a crime problem. It certainly does have one, and on scale, is worse than many other cities in America. However, as a law enforcment officer from a family of law enforcement officers (with over 100 years total law enforcent experience in Memphis), I can assure that Beale Street, Mud Island, and downtown Memphis are for the most part very safe areas. If it weren't, thousands of people would not go to Beale Street, Peabody Place, and other areas downtown every weekend to have a good time. The homes on Mud Island wouldn't have the highest cost per square foot in Memphis if part of the price was the gurantee that your wife would be raped or you would be robbed or murdered. The crime that does occur is very high profile and very highly reported, but much less frequent and severe than in other areas of town. Most crime is strictly black on black and confined to the ghetto areas that border downtown. There is crime in the area, but it is quite inaccurate to say that the area is the most dangerous in Memphis, much less in the whole USA.
As for rape, it does appear to occur at a high rate in Memphis. Most of these rapes are acquaintance rapes that turn out, after investigation, to not be rape at all, but rather a simple way to punish your boyfriend/lover/baby daddy for mistreating you in some other way after consensual sex. Of course, there are violent, sick, disturbing rapes that are perpetrated by thugs, but saying it is a one in three chance for a woman to be raped in Memphis is nonsense. I am thirty one, and I know one woman who was a victim of rape in Memphis. I've lived here my whole life, and if it were truly one in three, then I, or my father, or my brother, or my friends, or someone would know many people who were victims of rape. But like I said, I know one, the others I mention know no rape victims. One is too many, but it certainly doesn't validate your one in three statistic.
All that said, I'm certain the crime statistics are cooked to a degree. However, there is no doubt that the crime rate is lower than it was 10 years ago. More work needs to be done, and it has to start with the minority community. Most crime in this area, and almost all violent crime, is black on black. That doesn't make it okay, but it does somewhat restrict what the white population can do to reduce crime. Additionally, the Memphis metro area has the highest percentange black population in the United States. Higher than D.C., higher than Detroit, higher than Atlanta or Baltimore. This clearly intimidates many white people (and I know, because I work with many people from other places and they are scared to death in most areas of town just because of the black faces they see), which leads them to over state the actual crime, reporting anecdotal evidence versus fact. Everyone knows someone who was a victim, but interestingly, none are victims themselves.
I am sorry to hear about your daughter's mugging, and I don't doubt that laziness/incompetence in the MPD allowed thugs to congregate down the street from a Precinct. However, overstating the crime problem in Memphis in order to explain what is most likely a suicide makes no better sense than those who belive that the good doctor has been taken hostage by terrorists, the UN, or space aliens.
Sorry, I don't buy it. Memphis is a cesspool. Almost everytime someone from my small town goes to Memphis they get robbed or have something stolen from them. A couple of years ago at the Mid-South Fair there was a gang fight with about a hundred rounds fired into the crowd with several wounded. The Commie Appeal and the Local television stations did not run the story but the papers that were from the surrounding communities did. I have several friends that are Memphis Police Officers and they relate numerous happenings that Willie "Hump a woman for promotion" Harrington keeps under wraps. I also have a good friend that manages the Memphis City Council and the things that are kept under the Radar screen in that city are astounding. Memphis is a cesspool and since Willie has been in power the population of Memphis' whites has plummetted. Beale and Downtown safe? I guess it is since most of the stores and restaurants there along the trolley have bars on their windows and require a buzzer to enter.