>>>Michael Ramirez lived in Memphis for many years and was editorial cartoonist for the Commercial Appeal (Comical Appeal, Communist Appeal, etc.) He still comes back to town on occasion and does a radio talk show with Mike Fleming (local talk show guy) and also with Paul Shanklin. Paul Shanklin does the parody songs for Rush Limbaugh, and once did one on our voting problems to the tune of Walking in Memphis - Voting in Memphis. I do a weekly radio spot with Mike Fleming called "Thug Thursday" where we "honor" a new recipient of the "Thug of the Week" award. In order to qualify, a person has to have been arrested 100 times or more. We have 140 people who qualify.
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>>>How many degrees of separation is that?<g>
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>>Interesting. It sounds like the weekly spot may go for a while with 140 qualified subjects to choose from. And more young pups coming along, I'm sure....
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>Yeah, and if you look at the frequency distribution of arrests it is even worse. We have over 52,000 people who have been arrested from 6-15 times. That is over a 25 year span. How in the heck does someone get arrested 10 times or more? I've been trying to get some legislation passed to create a sentencing matrix, so that when a person is convicted of a misdemeanor, we impose progressive discipline. Currently, we have prostitutes who have been arrested over 100 times, and the penalty for the last crime is the same as the first. The bill SB3905 passed through the senate committees to go to the full senate, but the house bill got sent to summer study. I'll be testifying in Nashville this summer on this. I think they stuck a fiscal note on the bill and that is what kept it from sailing through.
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>I met with a reporter yesterday to answer some questions about the repeat offenders, and for some background. The local paper is going to be doing a story on them and also a story on my CyberWatch program.
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>Anyway, if you want a little light amusement you might check out my blog at www.memphiscrime.blogspot.com

Interesting case under Thug Of The Week. Do you consider this woman (prostitute) a thug? A threat to public safety? Or is the thug label strictly based on number of arrests?