Experts Call Memphis Murder Spike “The Weirich Wave”
A 2-year-old boy shot inside of his grandmother’s home. A woman shot to death at Dixie Queen drive-thru window. A woman shot and left for dead under a pick-up truck. These three murders all happened within the past few days in Memphis. And they are an early signal that last year’s record breaking murder spike shows no sign of relenting in 2022.
Some experts are calling this murder spike in Memphis the “Weirich Wave”, after Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich who has overseen an unprecedented rise in murders since she took office in 2011.
Not only are murders increasing, but the perpetrators in many of these cases are never held accountable. The Tennesse Bureau of Investigations releases an official report on murders every year. And according to the most recent report from 2020, most murders in Memphis are not successfully solved and prosecuted.
That means that in Memphis, if a person picks up a gun, pulls the trigger, and takes someone's life, *most of the time* this person will never be identified, arrested, and successfully prosecuted.
Steve Mulroy, a University of Memphis law professor who is running against Weirich for the county’s top prosecutor seat, noted over the weekend that Weirich bears significant responsibility for the Memphis murder crisis: “Violent crime since Amy Weirich took over has gone up every single year since she took office.” Mulroy explained that, of course, this is not the only factor driving the surge. “I understand it's a complicated multi-factor analysis,” Mulroy said. “I don't think that any one president is solely responsible for the inflation rate or the employment rate or what you pay at the gas station. But I will say this ... what you've been doing for the last ten years ain't been working. You're not keeping us safe."
Other experts agreed with Mulroy’s analysis. Civil rights leader Shaun King quoted Mulroy on social media:
“This really is so often the case: old school, tough on crime DAs like Memphis DA Amy Weirich spend all sorts of time fearmongering, meanwhile they fail their own tests,” David Menschel tweeted.
And Mulroy underscored his point again in the video on social media, tweeting: “I say to you (Amy Weirich), what you have been doing over the last 10 years ain't keeping us safe.”