Thug of the Week 1-31-2008

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This week, since the legislature is back in session, I decided to highlight the most arrested female in Memphis. While it's true that she only had about half the arrests that Larry West accrued, she still has a significant number. Kimberly Johnson rni # 68844 has 230 booking numbers, and has been charged with 388 different charges since she started her adult crime career.

A quick look at the charges will show you that "anything goes" with Ms Johnson. She hasn't been to our jail in a while, and I don't see her listed in the SCCC either, so maybe she moved on? Kimberly was last arrested in the area of McLemore and Bellevue, where she has been arrested numerous times before. If you see her, be sure to tell her to "STOP THAT!"

388 charges and 230 arrests just seems a little "wrong" doesn't it? One has to ask the question, "why hasn't someone with some authority done something about these thugs who continue to terrorize Memphis?" I'm asking that right now. Law enforcement is doing their part. Are the judges doing everything they can under the current law? Are the prosecutors? I'm not sure they are. I think even under the current law, more could be done with the repeat offender, if they people who are in charge of the various entities would step up.

Last week we heard from Senator Mark Norris and Representative Curry Todd on the subject and they promised to introduce legislation to address this. I'll be checking on that during this next week, and inviting them and other political leaders to visit this blog and post comments about what their thoughts are. Let's see who steps up to the plate.

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Hey Mister, What is an Escort?

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While looking at my selection for this coming week's "Thug of the Week", I decided to do a little research. This week's "thug" is a street entrepreneur, or a "substitute", aw heck, she's a prostitute. She has been arrested a couple of hundred times for plying her trade, which I'm told is the oldest profession. While she operates on the lower end of the spectrum, there are others who are more "respectible", meaning they charge a lot more!

I decided to see how hard it would be to hire a "substitute" via the internet, and you might be amazed to see what I saw. Well, there are several screen shots of what I saw below. I guess anything goes these days, doesn't it? We aren't living in Bedford Falls anymore, it's now become Pottersville. Take a look - you might be surprised...

Tunica Escorts


Maybe your heart desires to be left alone:


How bout something to calm your nerves?



Now, I've been around the block a time or two and seen a few things in my day, but the world sure seems to have gone awry. I think Darwin had it backwards, we are not evolving, we are DEvolving.

One Good Law!

Finally a bill has been introduced that is guaranteed to help protect the citizens! This bill will fix a problem we have had here in Shelby County since at least 2002. This bill requires that a shurf have some experience in his or her chosen field. Now, that's a novel idea! Think about it, if our shurf had actually been a cop, maybe he wouldn't have taken money from convicts. Maybe he would have known what authority he had to make arrests in all of Shelby County. Maybe he wouldn't have thought we "can't arrest our way out of crime." And he might not even say stupid stuff like, " a taser can be a lethal weapon."

I hope this bill gets passed this year. It is another one of those "common sense" bills.

HB1537 by *Bass. (*SB1744 by *Ketron.)

Sheriffs - Requires any candidate for sheriff to have five or more years experience in law enforcement; existing sheriffs are grandfathered-in. - Amends TCA Title 8.

Fiscal Summary for HB1537 / *SB1744
MINIMAL

Bill Summary for HB1537 / *SB1744

This bill adds to the present law qualifications that are required for election or appointment to the office of sheriff by requiring at least five years' experience as either a member of the state highway patrol or a POST certified law enforcement officer, or comparable certification in another state. The experience requirement added by this bill would not apply to any person who is serving in the office of sheriff on July 1, 2007, for so long as the person's service in the office of sheriff is continuous and uninterrupted.

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link to the source document

Thug of the Week 1-24-2008

This week's "frequent flyer" is Carl Webb. Carl, like many of his fellow occupants of the "cross bar hotel" has been convicted of a multitude of offenses. Carl has visited 201 Poplar, as a temporary resident on 139 occasions since 1982. The charges against Mr Webb have ranged from public drunk to robbery and burglary. Here's a look at some graphical representations of Carl's track record:

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Hopefully, this week on the Mike Fleming Show, we will be able to get the ball rolling to help cut crime in Memphis and Shelby County. We will be joined by retired police officer, and current state representative, Curry Todd and Senator Mark Norris to discuss the crime problem. Hopefully, they will take our suggestion for a sentencing matrix and get some legislation passed that puts more pressure on the thugs who practice the black art of thuggery!

Given that we have so many people who keep getting arrested, who can argue that our very way of life is in danger. Law enforcement has been doing the job. Blue Crush is locking criminals up in record numbers, but they are being released back into society even faster. It's not a revolving door, it's more like a proton accelerator!

Thug O The Week - 01172008

Did you hear the one about the guy who was so old his social security number was 2? Well, this week's thug has something in common with him. Clifton Banks' RNI number is 4361! Today, the highest RNI number I could find is 378,256. That means 373,895 other people have been arrested since Clifton first graced the sally-port of the Criminal Justice Complex.

Oh, but Clifton hasn't been resting on his laurels. He's been busy stimulating the economy. Think of all the police officers, lawyers, deputies, deputy jailers, clerks, insurance people, doctors, etc. who have benefited from Mr. Banks' activities. Clifton has been booked into the county jail 146 times since January 27, 1983, when his first act included shoplifting, assault and battery and malicious mischief. Since that time he has dabbled in most every charge on the books, except murder. Robbery, burglary, assault, numerous drug charges, criminal trespass, etc. Clifton is currently in jail, without a bond, and no charges available via JSS or through the SCSO's website. I guess he's being investigated again.

Once again, the "system" has failed to "rehabilitate" a wayward individual, as though anyone could rehabilitate anyone else. Personally, I think the idea of rehabilitation is wrong. People have to decide they want to be "rehabilitated" before it happens. For this reason, I think the better strategy is to attempt to change behavior, or make the punishment for committing crimes untenable to the perpetrators, so that they opt for more criminal friendly environs. (Don't forget the bus ticket option!)

Since the legislature has reconvened, this would be a good time for everyone to let their representatives know that we need an overhaul of our "injustice" system. Here's a link to a web page that will let you send an email to the legislators.

Identification Please!

I just returned from a cruise in the Bahamas. Once again, I got to experience, firsthand, the insanity of government regulation. I have always hated the bureaucratic shuffle, but now, since 9/11 we have been subjected to insanity personified. I'm glad the guy who did the shoe bomb thing didn't decide to stuff the C4 into a suppository, else we'd be getting a proctological exam at the airport. It's almost that bad anyway. Take your shoes off, coins, cellphones, take your laptop out of the bag (used to have to turn it on), etc. Now, being a retired cop, it boggles my mind that the US Government doesn't trust cops to carry their weapons anywhere in the country. I've carried one all over the place, been shot at, never shot at anyone. Some idiot bureaucrat, most likely an anti-gun liberal, decided nobody should carry guns in the air. Even though the president did sign a law a few years ago that says cops can carry their guns anywhere, we still can't. Oh well, it's the government. It's not supposed to be logical, or sane, or . . . .

Next up, getting on the cruise ship was fun. I don't yet have a passport (soon to be remedied), so I had to take a birth certificate with me. Now, the birth certificate is merely a document that has a name on it, and it appears to have been issued by a governmental entity, but beyond that it identifies absolutely nothing. The birth certificate I took was issued by the Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis in 1953. That wasn't good enough, it had to be a "state" issued certificate. So, we had to call and get someone to go into the gun safe, retrieve my marriage certificate, then fax it to the cruise line. It seems a marriage license, or one of your children's birth certificates is considered "identification". I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP.

Stay with me now. The cruise line and/or the department of Homeland Security decided that this document is proof that I am who I say I am. It is also acceptable that this document can be faxed to the cruise line. Now, they don't know where this document is coming from, who it is coming from, there is nothing on the document that identifies who I am, and it could refer to anyone. Are you seeing some holes in the system?

Here's another example of "government intelligence" - social security card required. Now, if ever there was an exercise in stupidity, it is using a social security card for identification purposes. Here's a link to a bunch of social security cards you can download, type your ssn on the card, print and there you go.

And we wonder why we cannot protect our borders with these rules being formulated by an outpatient group from a government mental institution. The government already has most people's fingerprints, they certainly have mine. Most everyone has a driver's license, issued by a state, etc. It seems long overdue that we have a system whereby we can quickly identify who is a citizen, and who isn't. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm aware of the "big brother" conspiracy theories, and I also don't want the government micromanaging me. At the same time, I think we need a system that is efficient, does what it purports to do, and lets the citizenry continue about their business with minimal intrusion.

New Plan - Cut Crime in Memphis and See the World

I have come up with a new idea on how to cut crime in Memphis which won't cost a lot of money and will help our criminal element expand their horizon. It's a plan that would have saved us millions, had we implemented it years ago. Here's the deal:

Instead of going through all the machinations of prosecuting people for their crimes, I think we offer them an option. They could have three choices, maybe four. They can opt out of our "penal" system and instead take a trip. Here are their four possible destinations:

1. Detroit
2. St. Louis
3. New Orleans
4. Atlanta

According to the Greyhound Bus website, a one way (non refundable) ticket from Memphis to Detroit is 103.00. I'll bet we could get a volume discount, if we shipped all 138 of our top folks their way. The 138 people who have been arrested 100 times or more in Shelby County account for over 18,500 arrests. If we calculate those arrests cost the taxpayers $500.00 per incident, which is probably low, we find we have spent 9.25 million dollars on this batch of miscreants. Had we just ponied up the bus fare, we would only have spent $14,214.00. That's a net savings of 9.2357 million.

This program's time has come. I mean, New Orleans did the same thing, except they didn't buy anyone a ticket. Memphis and Houston got flooded with their criminals. Yeah, I know the crime rate in Nawlins is still through the roof, but hey, it could be much worse.

I'm thinking this plan has some potential. Transfer our problems to other areas of the country, where they are criminal friendly - like we used to be. Of course when this group leaves, we would still have over 17,400 criminals who have been arrested 20 times or more (but less than 100) to contend with. Who knows, maybe we could pony up for them too.


What do you think?

Thug Thursday - The First of '08

Laverne Robinson is apparently one of those "secret shoppers", except when she gets caught. Then she becomes a shoplifter, or a person who steals stuff with a value less than $500.00. I'll say this for her, she is persistent. Last year she was arrested 9 times, 5 times in 2006, none in 2005 (must have been on sabbatical), 6 times in 2004 and so on. She has been booked a total of 105 times for every charge we have, it seems. I guess it really isn't fair to call her a shoplifter though, because her charges range from public drunk to aggravated assault, prostitution and she has even tried her hand at selling drugs.

Laverne is currently in jail on a $750.00 bond and holds the rank of fourth most arrested - currently in jail.

Murder - Down 12 Percent in Memphis

The numbers are in for 2007 and it appears Memphis has experienced a significant downturn in crime this year. Murders are down by 11% and all part I crimes are down about 5.5%. I believe much of this is due to the Blue Crush Operation and CyberWatch. Blue Crush is taking a lot of bad folks off the street, and CyberWatch is making the citizens aware of what is happening around them. One precinct commander has told me his burglaries are down by 25% and he attributes it to CyberWatch.

We will get even better once the Real Time Crime Center is open and we expose even more information to the general public. The more information we can get out to the public, the more likely they are to help us in our fight against crime. We've had nothing but positive feedback on the CyberWatch program, but we've only scratched the surface of what we will be making available to the citizens.

Even with all these things in place, we will still need new legislation, if we are to continue this crime abatement. The MPD can arrest people all day long, but it will be to no avail, if we can't take the repeat and serious offenders off the street. Mike Fleming (WREC Radio) and I will be focusing on this more and more as we get ready for the legislature to reconvein. I'm asking everyone to contact their legislators and express your concern over this issue. We need a sentencing matrix that helps change the criminal's behavior and the legislature is the only place that can happen.