In the age of the pandemic, you would think a message like this from the authorities would be about social distancing against the virus.

And it is. The virus of crime.

The Memphis police chief told her city’s citizens to stay home after rapper Young Dolph was killed outside of a cookie store – sparking fears of reprisals from the local hip hop scene.

‘Tonight we strongly encourage everyone to stay home if you do not have to be out,’ Police Chief Cerelyn CJ Davis announced in a press conference Wednesday night.

She also suggested that the police department might call for a city-wide curfew ‘in case of acts of retribution’ in the near future and encouraged city residents ‘to remain calm as we actively perform our investigation’. 

So “criminal justice reform” has reached curfew levels of disaster.

Things are not going well in Memphis. They’re not going well in any major city in America, but Memphis is something special these days.

Child gunshot wounds surge amid rise in community violence – Commercial Appeal

Tenn. Dept. of Safety requests more state troopers in Memphis – Action News 5

In 2020, Memphis had the highest rate of violent crime in the country. So it’s time for some police defunding.

 It takes a quarter of a billion dollars each year to operate the Memphis Police Department, and the rallying cry from many protesters in the way of George Floyd’s death is “Defund the Police.”

They want part of the MPD’s $260 million annual operating budget redirected into different services to help the disadvantaged in the city. But the protesters who met with Mayor Jim Strickland on Wednesday, June 10th, said that option isn’t on the table right now.

In Downtown Memphis on South Main Wednesday night, Amber Sherman organized a block party to start a discussion about defunding the Memphis Police Department, reallocating some of MPD’s budget and investing it in the community.

“It’s not necessary for them to have that much money in their budget,” Sherman told WMC Action News 5. “Crime would go down and it’d be a deterrent if you actually fund the real root cause of crime, which is, you know, social and economic inequality, food deserts, and not having a good education.”

Food deserts! That’s why gang members are shooting each other on the interstate.