The deadly capturing of a person in Memphis by an armed Tennessee National Guardsman on Sunday introduced shock and concern to some members of the neighborhood. Those emotions have been nonetheless recent Wednesday when phrase arrived that one other particular person had been killed by a member of the Memphis Safe Task Force.
“It’s another day in an occupied city,” sighed Jessica Miller, an organizer with the activist group Indivisible Memphis, which has strongly opposed the presence of the task force in her metropolis because it was announced by President Donald Trump on September 15.
The White House cited “tremendous levels of violent crime” in Memphis when it bolstered law enforcement assets there — a transfer that drew cautious help from the city’s mayor and mirrored an identical effort in Washington, DC.
Wednesday’s capturing of Alfonso Ivy, 47, by a Drug Enforcement Administration agent was the fifth involving a member of the task force and the fourth since May. Officials say the suspect “pointed a handgun at members of the Memphis Safe Task Force,” whereas fleeing a warrant on drug prices.
In Sunday’s capturing, suspect Tyrin Johnson, 20, was described as an individual “armed with a handgun” who had “reportedly fired shots in the area,” though a statement from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation says the explanation guardsmen fired in that case is “under investigation.”
The Trump administration and its Republican supporters in Tennessee level to falling crime in the town generally known as the Home of the Blues as proof that the task force is efficient in making residents safer. The metropolis has confronted the excellence of getting the best violent crime price final 12 months amongst US cities with a inhabitants over 250,000, in accordance to a NCS overview of FBI knowledge.
But after the deadly shootings this week, and with no finish to the task force mission in sight, critics say they really feel beneath siege.
“There’s no accountability, and there’s no goalposts,” mentioned Miller. “Even where there were goalposts, they keep being moved.”
All 5 shootings related to the task force have concerned federal law enforcement officers, and the TBI says they’re nonetheless beneath lively investigation. No updates have been supplied concerning the investigations, and no prices have been filed in any of the circumstances.
The NAACP on Friday referred to as for a federal investigation into Johnson’s demise.
“The federal government has unique expertise and skill in investigating law enforcement misconduct, and in the case of Mr. Johnson, there are challenges that arise given the involvement of federal officials,” state NAACP president Gloria Sweet-Love wrote to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche in a letter that additionally referred to as on the Memphis Safe Task Force to be suspended instantly.
The 5 incidents match the full variety of officer-involved shootings involving the Memphis Police Department and the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office for all of 2024, in accordance to TBI records. There have been 4 police capturing circumstances in Memphis investigated by the TBI in 2025 earlier than the task force was fashioned.
The task force combining native law enforcement with the National Guard, state troopers, and a number of other federal businesses was created with the promise of reducing the town’s crime charges.
“We’ve been here a short while, and in another two or three months, you’re going to have, like, no crime,” Trump said in a speech celebrating the task force in March.
As of Wednesday, there had been a 40% drop in “serious crimes,” together with homicide and sexual assault, in Memphis during the last 10 months in contrast to the identical interval a 12 months earlier, in accordance to city records.
The task force — together with its federal, state and native officers — made 10,883 arrests, spokesperson Dave Oney advised NCS on Thursday.
Opponents of the task force notice that crime was already lowering in Memphis earlier than the unit’s arrival. The Memphis Police Department said that included almost 500 fewer individuals shot in Memphis in 2025 in contrast to the 12 months earlier than.
Although Memphis has principally Democratic political management, the cooperation of Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee – who signed off on the National Guard deployment – has given them little room to combat the presence of armed troops on Memphis streets. Tuesday, Lee told NCS’s affiliate WMC he was ready for extra data on Monday’s capturing.
Although Memphis has principally Democratic political management, the cooperation of Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee – who signed off on the National Guard deployment – has given them little room to problem the presence of armed troops on Memphis streets after related deployments have been efficiently turned again by leaders in Chicago and Portland, Oregon. Tuesday, Lee advised NCS’s affiliate WMC he was ready for extra data on Monday’s capturing.
“I am proud of the work they’ve done,” Lee mentioned. “But anytime there is a shooting involving law enforcement or the National Guard, we want to make certain there is a full investigation, and that’s what’s happening.”
Democratic Mayor Paul Young – who himself was the victim of stalking and tried kidnapping in his own residence final 12 months – has mentioned the town is keen to settle for the assistance, and he declined to weigh in on the task force shootings whereas they’re nonetheless being investigated.
“I want to let all of the information from the investigation play out before making any remarks,” he said to WMC after Monday’s capturing. “But I will say this. It hurts to lose anybody. And I hate to see anyone lose their life.”
Miller says she passes federal avenue patrols almost day by day, and a few task force patrols have gotten extra intense because the National Guard will get concerned extra instantly with law enforcement patrols.
“In the beginning, they were almost like tourists,” she mentioned. “We saw them walking around, going to the Peabody (Hotel), just going down Beale Street, walking around shopping centers. But over the past couple of months, we have seen an increase in the aggressiveness.”
Gov. Lee told NPR when the task force was organized final 12 months, state Guard troops wouldn’t be armed until law enforcement requested it.
Some members of the neighborhood say they don’t really feel safer and have been hoping to get solutions from Memphis Police Chief CJ Davis, who was scheduled to attend a public security city corridor hours after Wednesday’s capturing. She had to cancel due to a “conflict,” the state senator internet hosting the city corridor mentioned.
“This is not a reality that anyone should be expected to live in. What is happening is unfathomable,” resident Dai Williams told WMC.
After the intense federal immigration enforcement operations in a number of main Democratic-majority cities in the previous 12 months, native activists say many in the Memphis immigrant neighborhood have been afraid to be seen in public for worry of being detained. Indivisible Memphis began a service to ship meals and private provides to immigrants.
“We’ve made over 3,000 deliveries in the past year,” mentioned Miller. “People have reported avoiding work, avoiding medical appointments, avoiding school, even avoiding reporting crimes because they fear the interaction with law enforcement.”
Following a pattern seen in other cities, some teams in Memphis have been following Task Force automobiles and monitoring their exercise.
Under Tennessee’s “Halo Law,” any law enforcement officer can order a civilian to get no less than 25 toes away from against the law scene. Four individuals represented by the ACLU of Tennessee filed a lawsuit in May accusing the task force of abusing the law to block them from documenting officers’ actions, generally ordering them to keep greater than 100 toes away from arrest scenes.
“The recent shootings are yet another example of the harm being carried out on the ground that’s making people unsafe,” mentioned Zee Scout, an lawyer for the ACLU of Tennessee. “Certainly, it is another example of the importance of documenting what’s happening.”
In one case, Jessica Chodor testified in the lawsuit she approached a scene the place law enforcement that was a part of the task force had reportedly pulled two individuals over to doc it and was advised she had to return to her automotive. Chodor refused, physique digital camera footage obtained by the ACLU confirmed, however moved throughout the road, saying she would keep 25 toes away.
The state trooper grabbed her as she was strolling away from him, the video confirmed, handcuffing her and forcing her to the bottom. The trooper may be heard in the video telling Chodor, “You’re resisting arrest and interfering.”
“While they pinned me to the ground, the officers put such a forceful weight on my back that I could not breathe,” Chodor mentioned in the swimsuit. “The amount of force they were using terrified me, and I worried I could be killed.”
Chodor testified that she was detained for 27 hours and charged with Resisting Official Detention. The cost was dropped in December.
“I am incredibly anxious and scared that they will retaliate against me again,” Chodor wrote in a lawsuit affidavit, “but I refuse to let their intimidation tactics stop me from exercising my rights and supporting my community members who are even more often victimized by their abuses of power.”
In their response to the lawsuit, the Trump administration mentioned the law enforcement response to the activists is constitutional as a result of it “was to respond to obstructive conduct and perform their law-enforcement duties, not to retaliate against Plaintiffs for any First Amendment expressive conduct.”
With no clear reply to how lengthy armed troops and federal brokers will stay on their streets, Memphis activists like Miller insist there are higher methods to make the town safer.
“There’s things that could be put in place in Memphis that would actually make long-term change to the crime rate instead of an occupation that, whenever they leave, it’s not going to make a difference,” she mentioned.