Jeff Warren's Vision for City Council, District 9

Jeff Warren, Future901 endorsed progressive, who won the election for City Council District 9 Position 3

I am deeply grateful to Future 901 for encouraging my candidacy and then supporting me when I chose to run.  I started the race hoping to bring a physician’s perspective to our council; i.e., listening, thinking and then making a diagnosis and plan.  I promised to be flexible and willing to change course as new facts and conditions arose.  That was the gist of my candidacy.

Early in the race I heard a compelling interview with a professor from Harvard who had studied how communities can lower violent crime rates, especially murder rates. I ordered his book, Bleeding Out, that night.  He compared cities to trauma victims.  As physician, with lots of experience in the ER, this metaphor spoke to me.  

The author, Thomas Abt, encourages us to look at urban murder in a new way:  He compares local leaders to ER doctor, and the distressed neighborhoods to a car crash victim who has many critical injuries:  a broken leg, a perforated bowel, and brain damage.  The patient is also bleeding from an artery.  In order to save the patient’s life, so that we can do the important therapies of repairing the leg, the bowel and the head, we must FIRST stop the bleeding artery.  Only then can we go on to heal the more complicated injuries that will result in long-term recovery for the patient.

“…the cost of a single murder to a community ranges from $10 to $19 million”

 Murder by small groups of our young men is the bleeding artery for our city and its poor, urban neighborhoods.  In order to build long-term health in these communities by providing improved educational opportunities, safe local parks and community centers, access to transportation and fresh food choices, we FIRST have to stop the bleeding… and that means lowering the murder rate.    

Thomas Abt, author of Bleeding Out

Thomas Abt estimates that the cost of a single murder to a community ranges from $10 to $19 million.  These are monies spent on police investigations, trials and prisons, and the lost future productivity of both the victim and the murderer.  There is also suppression of local property values and the inhibition of investment in business opportunities in these neighborhoods.  Reducing murders frees up enormous amounts of societal moneys for healthier uses.

I have ordered 100 copies of Bleeding Out, and I hope to spread this message to stake holders in our communities, our police force, and local and state governments.  I want Memphis to become a model of success in murder rate reduction. Then we can also model the growth that a lower murder rate can bring to our historically left-out communities.  

 Murder is the anchor that is holding large parts of our city in poverty.  Kids can’t study when they are worried about bullets flying through their walls.  No one wants to start a business in an area where they fear for their safety. Property values and a tax base do not grow in high murder-rate neighborhoods.

We will need a violent crime task force made up of a team of local community leaders, a committed mayor, a designated social worker swat team, and a community and data driven police force.  This kind of task force has helped other communities accomplish a steady reduction in deaths.  

 As members of Future 901, I hope I can count on your support with this public health initiative.  I would love to give you a copy of Bleeding Out and have a group discussion about how we can make these ideas a reality for Memphis.

Sincerely yours,

Dr. Jeff Warren

For a Safer and Healthier Memphis