On the afternoon of Friday, March 1, a bilingual community meeting was held with Memphis Mayor Paul Young and several members of his cabinet.
During the meeting, which was held at the Gaisman Park Community Center, Young received the questions and complaints from Hispanic Memphians with great attention, despite some tense moments when a few community members demanded more action by the authorities, emphasizing the recent cases of robberies whose victims are of Latin American origin. Also mentioned, for example, was the time it takes for the police to arrive when a Hispanic person makes a call to report a crime: it takes hours and sometimes they do not arrive.
Mayor Young asked for patience and recognized that the judicial system is broken and that it is not focused on finding only the guilty, but that it is working hard to find a common front against crime by bringing together all the parties involved and, above all, that it is taking public complaints very seriously to give better results.
The predominant topics at the event were crime against Hispanics, education, spaces and activities for the youth, as well as options and services for the Hispanic population. There was also talk of having more bilingual police officers who actively work with the community. The translation from Spanish to English and vice versa was possible thanks to members of the Leaders of Color organization.
