Less than a year after she was carjacked the first time, Madeline Johnson wasn’t about to let it happen again.

Johnson is a teacher and a volleyball coach, a 25-year-old Chicago native who came to Memphis for her first real job.

She teaches history at Evangelical Christian School, which she considers “life-giving” work.

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“I love it,” she said. “I didn’t know what it would be like, moving to Memphis, but it’s truly been a dream come true.”

Last summer, after her first year at ECS, Johnson took a job as a bartender to make some extra bucks.

“I worked at Flip Side,” she said. “Near Crosstown Concourse. I park right across the street. As someone who grew up in Chicago, I’m very aware of my surroundings. The night of the first carjacking, I was leaving at about 11:45 p.m., and I actually said to a friend, who was leaving with me, ‘Hey, my car is right there; why don’t I give you a ride to yours?’

“As soon as I get in my car, I always lock it. This time, I’m reaching to lock it, and the door swings open and there’s a gun in my side. Then the guy puts the gun in my face and says to give him the money. Well, I’m a teacher. I don’t have money. But, luckily, I had about $20 in tips. So I gave him the $20, and he drove away in my car. Let me tell you: There is nothing quite as humbling as watching your car drive away without you in it.”

A few days later, the police found Johnson’s car — a 2016 Nissan Rogue — in a driveway in Cordova. They arrested a suspect, who had been caught on video casing the area near Crosstown Concourse.

“At one point, he pulled down his face mask to smoke a cigarette,” she said. “He was easy to ID.”

Johnson sold the Nissan Rogue and bought a 2017 Honda CRV. She spent another happy year teaching and coaching volleyball at ECS.

“This summer, I got a job at Lucchesi’s Beer Garden,” she said. “The owners are my friends. And knowing my past experience, he walks me to my car every night.

“Well, this past weekend, I drove home to my house in Cooper-Young. As a young woman, I’m always aware of what is around me, especially when I’m driving alone at night. I’m on high alert.

“It was about 1 a.m. As I turned onto my street, I noticed another car was coming. I backed into my driveway, because that’s what I always do. And I never get out of my car if there is a car passing me or if there’s a person on the street. I sit in my car and wait, just in case.

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“Sure enough, this time, the car that was on the street stopped in front of my driveway and blocked me. I saw three men staring at me. The two on the passenger side — in the front and in the rear — started to get out of the car.”

This was just 11 months after Johnson had seen that gun pointed at her head. Just 11 months after she had handed over her $20 tips and watched her Nissan Rogue drive off without her.

“So I put the car in drive,” she said. “I hit the gas and did not let off. I rammed into the side of their vehicle and sped off. I started to weave through different neighborhoods, just in case they were giving chase. When I called 911, they said all their dispatchers were busy at the moment and they would pick up as soon as one was available. It didn’t take long — maybe 15 seconds — but it felt like forever to me. I finally met the police back at my house, about an hour later. They were incredibly nice. Then I called my family back in Chicago and said, ‘It happened again.’ ”

Should she stay or should she go?

We need Madeline Johnsons in Memphis.

We need smart, dedicated young people who are passionate and engaged.

We need them to move to Memphis for the opportunity — this city is brimming with opportunity — and to fall in love with the place.

That’s exactly how it was all unfolding for Johnson, too.

Until last weekend.

Until she fought off an attempt to carjack her a second time.

“I’ve signed my contract to teach another year but after everything that has happened?” she said. “I just don’t know.”

So put Johnson down as one of the 38.6% of Memphis residents who “are considering moving away from the Memphis area altogether” because of crime.

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That number comes from The Daily Memphian’s recent crime survey. The percentage of Shelby County residents who say they are considering moving away is 52.6%.

More than any data point in the survey, that is the one that stood out.

Nearly 40% of Memphians are considering moving away?

More than half of Shelby County residents have had the same thought?

Yes, there is a significant difference between “considering” moving and “actually” moving. And Memphis isn’t exactly alone in this. A recent survey revealed that more than 40% of Californians have contemplated moving out of state, nearly half of them “very seriously.” So it’s possible that even asking the question — “have you thought about moving?” — prompts an affirmative response. 

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But there’s no point in sugarcoating the problem in Memphis, which may be even more profound than the survey suggests. Because it doesn’t include the impact of crime on people who might decline to move to Memphis in the first place — potential hires at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, FedEx or hundreds of other employers across the area. Nor does it include the impact of crime on young Memphians who have moved away for a job or education, who might now be less inclined to move home. 

“It’s obviously something a lot of my friends talk about,” Johnson said. “Part of that is wondering how we can have an impact on what is going on.”

Which is the other reason we need people like Madeline Johnson. Because — at age 25, after living in Memphis for just two years — she talks about the city’s challenges with more nuance and thoughtfulness than many of the people in charge of solving them.

“I have spent a lot of time pondering what happened to me,” she said. “When I saw those young men in the car the other night, they looked like they could have been my students. That’s how young they were. It really upsets me that there are so many young people who think that is the answer. How did we get to this point?”

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And that’s the central question, isn’t it? The central problem to address. We could lock up every 16-year-old who steals a car or holds up a bartender for tips. But what of the next wave of 16-year-olds? And the next wave after that? Are we doing everything possible to give them reason to hope for a better life?

None of this means that we don’t need a fully staffed police force and a more efficient court system. None of this means that we don’t need to revisit our gun laws.

Indeed, at this point, there is almost universal agreement on all of that. The Daily Memphian crime survey made that perfectly clear, too.

So why can’t we find a way to talk about these issues without the acrimony and the finger-pointing? Why does it seem like too many are less interested in fixing the problems than in telling everyone that someone else caused the problems in the first place?

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I am not among those who have considered moving away from Memphis because of crime. But the way we talk about crime? The way we accuse each other of bad faith? That can get discouraging.

In the meantime, Johnson hasn’t made any decisions about what comes next. She’s thinking it might be time to try another city. Or maybe she’ll feel safer in another part of town.

But if you want to find the hope in all this, you should know that Johnson really doesn’t want to leave.

For all its problems, this city is a place of opportunity. That’s what drew Johnson here in the first place. She didn’t know a thing about Memphis before she moved here. Now it has found its way into her heart.

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“It’s a place where one person can make a difference,” she said. “And, throughout everything that has happened, everyone has been incredibly nice.

“So I really don’t want to give up on the city. I just wish it wasn’t so hard.”