the president of our neighborhood association attended yesterday's city council meeting in support of the woman from chickasaw gardens who was raped earlier this week.

one of the things they talked about was supporting a few crime bills that are on the table in nashville - the state of florida passed similar laws, and have had a 30% reduction in crime - folks, that's huge.

I'm copying the body of the e-mail I received below. please look this information over & if you support it, get involved & contact your representatives to let them know you expect their support of it!



Dear Friends:

Thank you for your support today downtown. As we discussed, passage of the "crime bills" before the state legislature is critical to fighting crime in Memphis. Please contact your representatives in Nashville to stress the importance of this legislation.

Contacts are available on the Legislature's web page, http://www.legislature.state.tn.us .

**MY NOTE: You can also go to http://www.shelbyvote.org if you live in shelby county to get the names of your reps. **

When you call/write/email you will need to refer to these bills by their numbers: SB1967/HB1835 and SB1322/HB1834.

The status of these bills is as follows:

SB 1322/HB1834 has passed both the House and Senate Judiciary Committees and will be before the Finance Committees soon (no date yet set). If it passes the House and Senate Finance Committees it will be before the entire Legislature. It would be great if you could call, write or email your representative or any of the members of the Finance Committee to stress the importance of this bill to our community, fighting crime, etc. (find out who is on what committee by clicking on "Senate" or "House", then on "committees." Click the individual's name and you will get all of their contact information.

SB 1967/HB 1835 will be before the House Judiciary Committees tomorrow (although some effort is being made to push it to next week). It will be before the Senate Judiciary Committee next week. If it passes the Judiciary Committees, it too will go to the House and Senate Finance Committees. Please call, write or email your representative and members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committee regarding the importance of passing this bill.

We will be in touch with you regarding an ongoing local response to the crime in our community in the next few days. Until then, we thank you for your support of your friends, family, and the City of Memphis.