Video of judge's strong statements to gang member goes viral

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A Tennessee judge was fed up with a gang member in court, and in a viral video, she told him so.

“Sir, East Lake Courts is not your hood,” Judge Lila Statom said in Tennessee court last week. “It’s the citizens of the United States who own that because they work and pay taxes. You don’t own that.”

The video of her verbal condemnation has received nearly 300,000 views since, to overwhelming support.

The statement came after the gang member said that he shot a rival gang member for being “in his hood.”

On Friday, Statom sat down with WRCB-TV to discuss the video and why she felt the need to speak up.

“It makes me upset because there are people that live in East Lake Courts who get up and go to work every day,” Statom told the station. “They take their children to daycare.”

Watch the judge open up about her strong statements in court below:

WRCBtv.com | Chattanooga News, Weather

She later added, “It’s unfair that anyone has to live among this violence. Especially when most of the violent people don’t live in that community.”

Asked why she decided to dress the gang member down that day, she said, “I didn’t want to allow him to take control over a courtroom when I felt he had maybe taken control over an area of town. He needed to at least see that he was not in control everywhere.”

O’Shae Smith was the gentleman who Statom addressed in her courtroom. He is currently being held without bond on attempted first degree murder.

Watch the full video of Judge Statom’s comments below: