Memphis Tigers.Org is having a field day with Hogville.

[HAM ELLIOT]

Hey Memphis fans! I am planning a trip to memphis sometime may for memphis in may.  Can you guys tell me anything about it, what to do, etc.  I am coming up with a single friend of mine and we are just wanting to have a good time.  What do you suggest?  (keep in mind I am married and need to be kind of good he he)  And dont lead me to the crappy parts of town as a joke either. 

Drink plenty of beer and listen to endless music, but be careful, its only a stones throw away from one of the most crime-ridden areas of the city. You might want to put your hubcaps in the trunk.

Yea...I can see where you would be scared coming from squeeky-clean, no crime NW Arkansas...

from: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/182204 (notice that the article also mentions "White Supremacist Gangs are on the rise"  :jawdrop: )

Police: Gang activity getting more sophisticated in region
BY MICHELLE BRADFORD

Posted on Sunday, February 18, 2007

Bentonville Police Chief James Allen didn?t think his city had gang problems ? until recently.

A beating that police believe was gang-related and photos of students flashing gang signs that have cropped up on MySpace. com changed his mind.

?A month ago, I would have said Bentonville doesn?t have a gang problem,? Allen said. ?Now, with what we?re seeing on MySpace and the jump-in, I say there?s a problem under the surface.?

Security cameras captured the Jan. 23 violence under a stairwell at Bentonville High School.

A boy was beaten by other students in what investigators deemed a ?jump-in,? or an initiation into a street gang, Allen said. Ten students were suspended, and police are investigating.

?An officer [reviewing the tape ] can see people running the gauntlet on [the boy ], hitting and hitting him,? Allen said. ?Then the beating ends, and [the boy ] takes turns shaking everyone?s hands. To us, this smacks of gang activity.?

People with gang ties have been committing crime in Northwest Arkansas for years, but police say it hasn?t risen to the level of sophisticated, highly organized gang crime.

Most of the crime relates to graffiti, but robberies, shootings and even murder have involved gang elements, police said.

A federal grant program is giving police in Northwest Arkansas specialized training to identify, control and reduce gangs. Project Safe Neighborhood?s Anti-Gang Initiative also provides gang intervention and prevention in schools.

Bob Balfe, U. S. attorney for the Western District of Arkansas, said gang activity is most prevalent in Benton, Sebastian and Washington counties.

Twelve law enforcement agencies are working to define the nature and degree of gang activity.

?[size=18]Northwest Arkansas has a gang problem[/size], but the exact nature isn?t clear,? Balfe said. ?We have a lot of individuals who like to identify themselves as gang members, and some of whom are engaging in violent crime.

? What we don?t have is the organizational level you see in Little Rock or Los Angeles,? he said. ?Gangs there have a distinct hierarchy and are committing ongoing crime for the purpose of making money.?

Balfe said Northwest Arkansas is in a period where communities act proactively to limit gang problems.

?But if we bury our heads in the sand, we?re going to have organized street gangs that will be entrenched and hard to root out,? he said.

GANGS IDENTIFIED Project Safe Neighborhoods pays for training for police, schools and civic groups to learn how to identify and stop gang influence. Cpl. Kelley Cradduck, a gang investigator with the Rogers Police Department, has conducted much of the training so far. He?s given more than 30 seminars under Project Safe Neighborhoods and received $ 12, 800 in grant money. Cradduck told teachers last week at Lingle Middle School that police have linked residents and students to Hispanic gangs including Sureno 13, Mara Salvatrucha, Nortenos 14 and Brown Pride.

[size=18]White-supremacist gangs also are on the rise in Northwest Arkansas[/size], he said, and Rogers police recently photographed members of the Aryan Brotherhood, New Aryan Empire and Peckerwoods gangs.

Cradduck said 15 members of the Little Asian Organization walked in a line through the Pinnacle Hills Promenade courtyard in December, knocking a woman?s packages from her arms.

?It?s not just Hispanic gangs in Rogers,? Cradduck said. ?We have Asian gangs, white gangs and a few black gangs. Having gangs isn?t a racial issue; it?s a community issue.?

Cradduck said because Rogers is on the forefront of gang interdiction, the city is perceived as having more gang crime.

?Anyone who believes the gang problem stops at city limits is crazy,? he said.

Rogers police identify gang members by tattoos, graffiti and members? admissions, he said.

?When we encounter them, we document and photograph them like crazy,? Cradduck said. ?We saturate them, and they don?t like it. Gang members don?t like the attention they?re getting from Rogers police.?

In Springdale, Project Safe Neighborhoods paid for officers to attend gang identification training in Denver last year. Springdale police Capt. Laney Morriss said some officers will be assigned to a new gang suppression unit the department is creating. Through the federal program, Springdale police are conducting community surveys to help define the nature and extent of gang activity, Morriss said. School resource officers and detectives have begun sharing gang intelligence, she said. ?A lot of what we get is finger pointing ? people saying this or that person is in a gang,? Morriss said. ?We?re documenting, photographing and building a database of that information now. ? The idea is to share our information with other jurisdictions because what happens in Springdale, Rogers needs to know, and vice versa,? she said.

NOT IN MY BACKYARD Police in Northwest Arkansas have different assessments of the extent of gang crime in their cities.

Sgt. Shannon Gabbard said the worst Fayetteville police see is graffiti.

Springdale police have identified gang members as murder suspects, Morriss said.

In 2005, Rogers had a string of aggravated robberies that Cradduck said involved gangs.

In 2003, Siloam Springs police formed a gang suppression unit to respond to trouble by the El Salvadoran gang Mara Salvatrucha 13.

Police Lt. Bryan Austin said gang members in Siloam Springs were committing crimes across Northwest Arkansas, including a drive-by shooting in Rogers.

?We had residents identifying themselves as MS 13 members, and they were doing quite a bit of traveling to Springdale and Rogers,? Austin said. ?Essentially our officers implemented heavy patrols and kept up the pressure until these people left town and moved somewhere else.?

Police don?t always have the manpower to sustain saturation patrols.

Siloam Springs police disbanded its gang suppression unit in 2006, Austin said.

?We didn?t need it anymore,? he said. ?Our concern is the activity will eventually return and we?ll have to reinstate it.

Rogers police last week reinstated its gang suppression unit in response to recent breakins and other crime, Lt. Mike Johnson said.

The department has operated the unit in the past as needed.

? Agencies need to get on the same sheet of music,? he said.

?We can?t be running gang members out of one jurisdiction to another. Running them out of Northwest Arkansas altogether would be a whole lot better,? he said.

Allen said Bentonville police are in an assessment phase and have no immediate plans to form a gang unit.

Police supervisors will receive gang training through Project Safe Neighborhoods, and the department is anxious to get gang intelligence from Rogers police.

?Bentonville isn?t gang-free, but we just haven?t seen the level of activity our sister cities have,? Allen said.

?I?m not saying we?re better than them, but I think we can learn from their experiences,? he said.

?We know it won?t do us any good to chase gang activity across the Olive Street overpass in Rogers. We know that?s not the answer,? he said. Reducing crime Project Safe Neighborhoods is a U. S. Department of Justice program aimed at reducing gun and gang crime in communities by partnering with state and local law enforcement. A few facts about the program:

The Justice Department dedicated $ 10 million to Project Safe Neighborhoods in 2006, with an additional $ 30 million to fund an ?Anti-Gang Initiative.?

The U. S. attorney?s office in the Western District of Arkansas has been allocated $ 694, 000 for Project Safe Neighborhoods.

Efforts include law enforcement training, community meetings, gang prevention in schools and tougher gun-crime prosecution.

If you dare to pull examples out of the papers, let's begin with this:

http://www.myeyewitnessnews.com/mostpopular/story.aspx?content_id=ab387537-a081-4f2d-8b09-f0fb703932c6

The point, which was obviously way over your head, is that many here cry about the problems in Memphis, yet act as if nothing ever happens in NW Arkansas, and that it is somehow paradise there. Wrong, as usual. Y'all should really worry more about Little Rock than Memphis.

You began this post by quoting me, yet all I done was ask a question about your city.  Not sure what all this has to do with the question I asked, but Oh well!  Thanks for the fine Memphis hospitality!

[hogintxhillcountry]

You gotta admit for a bunch of thugs ,murderers ,thieves ,rapist, and drug dealers those losers really love their run down scummy nasty crap hole they call Mempfrica....I get sick at my stomach just thinking about having to drive through that god forsaken thug wasteland.

...and folks like you and your racist remarks are what help give you Ark. fans such a bad name all around the country.....you're a sad excuse for a human being...do us all a favor and just don't drive thru here ?

[missjtiger]

LOL...it's so nice to know you guys are trolling our board...i just HAD to return the favor. (you don't even know how to effectively ban people LOL)

John Calipari in freaking R-Kansas...LOL...your little WPS crap scared off Altman (the look on this face was PRICELESS)...i think Cal would just bust up laughing and walk back home to Memphis.

the Piggies are coveting Cal...I LOVE IT!!!

I wouldn't call it coveting.  He's a good coach, and he could definitely do better than Memphis State.  Arkansas realizes as much and that's why they approached Cal.

By the way.  What did it feel like to see Corey Beck and Dwight Stewart win a national title in '94?

It felt kinda like seeing Todd Day in a MEMPHIS shirt just a few short weeks ago cheering on the tigers in San Antonio in the Elite Eight.

[Porkestrator]

Didn't see Memphis on this list:

http://www.forbes.com/home/business/lists/2007/1/07bestplaces_Fayetteville-AR_2920.html

[superjw]

Memphis is a glorified Arkansas State.

You're wrong.


ASU doesn't have a film of smog over the campus.

he he he

[DeltaBoy]

Screw tigger fans!

[HOGSUEY]

Guys, don't hold me to this but Mark Few may be flying in today....FYI!!!! :razorback:

HOG SUEY!!!!

[vol_in_ar]

Not likely that he would leave Gonzaga

[mword]

As Frank is running the program, the Hogs will never get a real coach.

[daddyodewy]

Guys, don't hold me to this but Mark Few may be flying in today....FYI!!!! :razorback:

HOG SUEY!!!!

Not likely on Easter.

[Prince of Swine]

Memphis is a joke, and for the person who said Fayetteville sucks; I want to ask have you ever been there?  You can get or do just about anything in NW Arkansas that you can in Memphis.  Oh wait, you can get shot a lot easier in Memphis.  You clowns use the same old AR stereotypes that your grandpa used.   Come on guys, you know you really root for the Vols anyway.  You Suck!  The only descent results you had in football you got because a kid from AR came over to run the football for you.  Your Pathetic, get something real to say.  You'll never consistently be as good as us in anything.

[vol_in_ar]

It's funny everyone bashing Memphis, there is area's of Little Rock that are just as dangerous.

[HOGSUEY]

This just in FEW took one look at the incoming roster and siad the hell with that....FYI :razorback:

[SHARKS126]

ELLIOT PERRY, KEITH LEE, DANA KIRK AND A BOX OF MONEY! ENOUGH SAID!

[NuttSucks]

Memphis is the dirtiest nastiest city ive ever been to. I guees if you like the Ghetto liestyle then its the place to be. I prefer Moderen Civilization were you dont get shot at for walking down the street with the wrong color shirt on. For who ever said Little Rock was just as bad, your wrong. Memphis is Skank town Usa. We arent comparing those two cities anyway its about the Differences in Fayetville and memphis and a Blind man  can figure out which one of those citys is better just by the Smell. Memphis Sucks and it always will Suck.

[KosherGlenn]

Memphis is the dirtiest nastiest city ive ever been to. I guees if you like the Ghetto liestyle then its the place to be. I prefer Moderen Civilization were you dont get shot at for walking down the street with the wrong color shirt on. For who ever said Little Rock was just as bad, your wrong. Memphis is Skank town Usa. We arent comparing those two cities anyway its about the Differences in Fayetville and memphis and a Blind man  can figure out which one of those citys is better just by the Smell. Memphis Sucks and it always will Suck.

I bet you thought spelling class sucked too when you were in school?

[hawgsav1]

ok, the Memphis Arkansas rivalry is about basketball and sports.  We do not need to degrade to insulting each other's city.  That's stupid and we dont need any more of that.  go on and start dissing each other's teams, not where we are from. 

[BaconIsBurning]

Memphis is the dirtiest nastiest city ive ever been to. I guees if you like the Ghetto liestyle then its the place to be. I prefer Moderen Civilization were you dont get shot at for walking down the street with the wrong color shirt on. For who ever said Little Rock was just as bad, your wrong. Memphis is Skank town Usa. We arent comparing those two cities anyway its about the Differences in Fayetville and memphis and a Blind man  can figure out which one of those citys is better just by the Smell. Memphis Sucks and it always will Suck.

I bet you thought spelling class sucked too when you were in school?

got to laugh at that.