Mike Brown

Stories/Essays: Senseless Streets

Violence on the streets of Memphis is a way of life for the estimated 10,000 - 15,000 gang members inhabiting the city. As graduation rates decrease and the number of teenagers in the city's criminal courts increase few are willing to step-up and end the cycle of violence. "Uncle" Joe Hunter, a former gangster turned preacher, is one of those few working closely with young gang members to help guide them to a brighter path. 

  • Jermain Fields, 23, weeps at the edge of his brother's grave in a Raleigh cemetery. Charles E. Henry, 34, better known as 'Picklehead' in the neighborhood, was one of six murder victims Memorial Day Weekend. His mother Gwendolyn Henry says of police: {quote}They saw all those tattoos on him and they knew what that meant. But they still treated his murder like he was a human being. And I appreciated that.{quote}(Mike Brown/ Memphis Commercial Appeal)
  • Chris Suggs, 38, former governor of North Memphis in the Gangster Disciples, is serving 26 years at West Tennessee State Penitentiary for especially aggravated kidnapping. He {quote}plugged out{quote} of the gang after more than a decade of working up the ranks. {quote}If I pray with one man and see him not affiliated, and he gets his GED, makes parole, becomes a real man, then there is purpose for me being here.{quote}(Mike Brown/ Memphis Commercial Appeal)
  • A Shelby County deputy with the Street Crimes Unit takes notes while talking to a suspected Blood in the Hyde Park area of North Memphis. His brother was shot more than a dozen times in a gang hit. The young man is wearing a shirt covered in gang symbols to memorialize his brother. The murder remains unsolved. (Mike Brown/ Memphis Commercial Appeal)
  • At Montgomery Plaza in South Memphis, deputies from the Shelby County Street Crimes Unit detain a suspected Vice Lord and drug dealer after seeing him swallow what they believed was crack cocaine. (Mike Brown/ Memphis Commercial Appeal)
  • This man shows off a bullet wound from what he said was an attempt on his life. Although he denied any gang involvement, officers say his tattoos, one of which covered his entire back depicting a jack-in-the-box smoking a blunt while holding two semi-automatic pistols, indicate otherwise.(Mike Brown/ Memphis Commercial Appeal)
  • Members of the Progressive Tabernacle of Holiness Church march down Broad past People Nation gang graffiti to mark the church's first day in their new home at 3213 Summer. Annie Heaston, wife of the church's pastor, said the purpose of the march was to let the community know they were there and to tell criminals to, {quote}Put them guns down and pick that bible up.{quote}(Mike Brown/ Memphis Commercial Appeal)
  • William Key stands in the driveway of his Northaven home after being arrested during a drug raid. Key, who officers said is a documented Gangsters Disciple, was charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell cocaine. The officers also recovered one shotgun, approximately $500 of stolen property, and over $1,000 in cash from illegal drug sales.(Mike Brown/ Memphis Commercial Appeal)
  • Gang membership in Memphis is not limited to black inner-city youth. Matt, 22, who openly claims Crip affiliation, lives in Tipton County. Gang activity and related crime has spread into the suburbs and beyond.(Mike Brown/ Memphis Commercial Appeal)
  • Jimmy Chambers, 44, an investigator for the Shelby County DA's gang unit, and MPD officer M.A. LeSure confront young men believed to be FAM members outside Trezevant High School. At least one is not a student there. Chambers says gang members routinely arrive around campuses at the end of the school day. {quote}They wear school uniforms,{quote} Chambers says, {quote}so they can blend in with the rest of the crowd.{quote} (Mike Brown/ Memphis Commercial Appeal)
  • As a group of students near Frayser High School ask investigator Jimmy Chambers for some spare change, he jokingly replies that he only has {quote}spare chains{quote} and reaches for a pair of hand cuffs. Chambers says that the high schools are a good source for {quote}intel{quote} when it comes to solving gang-related street crimes.(Mike Brown/ Memphis Commercial Appeal)
  • {quote}Uncle{quote} Joe Hunter talks on his cell phone in a Frayser High School hallway. Hunter, a former gangster turned preacher, volunteers as a mentor at several North Memphis schools. He also reaches out to gang members in his after-school program. {quote}That guy who just finished smoking a blunt and has a gun on him, I still hug him.{quote} he said. {quote}And when that time of desperation comes, you know who they'll call? Uncle Joe.{quote}(Mike Brown/ Memphis Commercial Appeal)
  • {quote}Uncle{quote} Joe Hunter drops in on an honors geometry class at Frayser High School to talk about life choices. He tells the kids to hit the books and not the dope. {quote}I can't spell good because I smoked weed at your age.{quote} he says. (Mike Brown/ Memphis Commercial Appeal)
  •  {quote}Uncle{quote} Joe Hunter, a reformed gangster turned preacher, leaves Juvenile Court with a witness he brought to testify in a gang shooting. Hunter says he tries to help everybody, and that he couldn't help anyone without the gang leaders' blessings. {quote}I couldn't do what I do,{quote} Uncle Joe says. {quote}They could shut me down in a heartbeat.{quote}(Mike Brown/ Memphis Commercial Appeal)
  • The hole left by a bullet in the door of {quote}Uncle{quote} Joe Hunter's 1978 Monte Carlo serves as a reminder of his old life - that night in 1994 when he was shot multiple times during a drug deal.(Mike Brown/ Memphis Commercial Appeal)
  • Deputies with the Shelby County Street Crimes Unit place a suspected Blood gang member under arrest for an outstanding warrant. They then check the tattoos on his arm, which often identify gang affiliation.(Mike Brown/ Memphis Commercial Appeal)
  • A gang member shields his candle from the wind and rain outside the National Civil Rights Museum during a candle light vigil to honor victims of violence as part of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference event on the eve of Martin Luther King Day. Individuals from the four major black gangs operating in Memphis attended.(Mike Brown/ Memphis Commercial Appeal)
  • An 18-year-old gangster stands in a back alley in the Firestone area of North Memphis. He was first pulled into the gang life by Crips before leaving elementary school. {quote}Instead of living around all this inner-city violence,{quote} he says, {quote}I'd like to go to the suburbs, live the American Dream with a white picket fence.{quote}(Mike Brown/ Memphis Commercial Appeal)
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