WMC-TV: News, Weather, Traffic, Radar, and Sports for Memphis, TN; WMCTV.com | Citizens Safety Coalition heads to Nashville to demand tougher crime laws

Citizens Safety Coalition heads to Nashville to demand tougher crime laws

By WMC Staff

MEMPHIS, TN (WMC-TV) - A bus full of Memphians left for Nashville Wednesday morning to demand legislators come up with tougher laws on crime.

Members of the Citizens Safety Coalition left from the Jewish Community Center.

Two weeks ago, nearly 300 people showed up at the center for a community crime meeting.

Almost everyone at the meeting had been directly affected by crime.  Several people who attended the meeting were part of the group that went to Nashville.

Sherman Kelly, a parent of a murder victim, said something needed to be done about the rise in violent crime.

"Families are going through this day after day and its got to be stopped," Kelly said.  "We've got to do something for our children."

Kelly said his daughter, Tia Moore, was styling hair at a customer's house when several gunmen opened fire inside the house.  The killers were never caught.

Kelly and the other in the coalition outlined the three issues they want to focus on in Nashville, which include expanding the list of what defines a violent felony, raising aggravated robbery from a class B to a class A felony, and tougher sentencing for crimes committed by three or more people.

Copyright 2010 WMC-TV. All rights reserved.