The National Guard began patrolling the streets of Memphis on Friday, after White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller last week encouraged law enforcement to police aggressively.
“You are unleashed,” he said at a press conference with law enforcement agents to announce this Memphis task force. Miller added, “The gangbangers that you deal with, they think that they’re ruthless. They have no idea how ruthless we are.”
That has residents worried they will be harassed in their own communities. Eleven Memphians in the majority-Black city told NBC News they are exchanging one fear — the crime in their city — for another, excessive policing.
Wilhelmina Washington said she is encouraged that crime is being addressed. “I need to feel safer. I don’t go out at night. Period. Too much has happened. So, if this can change that, then OK.”
But others said they feel as if they are pawns in a political game they cannot win.
The National Guard troops are joining several other federal agencies that have already arrested hundreds of people since their arrival on Sept. 29. The task force is made up of 700 agents from the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. Marshals, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, among others.
The Trump administration called out Memphis for having the highest rate of violent crime among major U.S. cities last year, according to the FBI’s annual data.
Data released by the Memphis Police Department in September adds some nuance to that picture, pointing out that for the first eight months of the year, robbery, burglary and larceny reached 25-year lows. Sexual assault was at a 20-year low, murder at a six-year low and aggravated assault at a five-year low, it added.
All the same, violent crime continues to be a concern in the city, according to officials and residents. But what is being debated now is whether federal troops — and how many — are the best way to address it.
Mayor Paul Young, a Democrat, and Police Chief C.J. Davis told reporters they had requested federal assistance in the past to help drive down violent crime. But “we didn’t ask for it in such large numbers,” Davis said Wednesday. “But it’s here, and the mayor and I have worked with these teams to try to make sure that during this time, this is working for Memphis.”
Eric Dunn, a Memphis native who is the executive director of the Tennessee Bone Marrow Foundation, said he feels as though African American communities in particular are being targeted. “Most certainly the community is offended by what Miller said and how he said it, as if we are in the ‘50s and ‘60s and they are going to let the dogs out, spray us with water hoses. That’s what this feels like more than them trying to cut down on crime.”
A White House official told NBC News that this interpretation of Miller’s words is “wholly incorrect.”
“Stephen’s full comments were that law enforcement officers are unleashed to go after criminals,” the official added. “He talked about using resources, federal, state and local to dismantle criminal networks, to bulldoze the criminal element of this city and liberate law-abiding citizens. Any sort of comparison of Stephen Miller’s comments relating to the 50s and 60s, when law enforcement sent dogs and used water hoses on Black residents, is so far from what the reality is on the ground.”
As of Thursday, 627 arrests had been made, including four homicide suspects, 28 for sex offenses and 131 Immigration and Customs Enforcement administrative arrests, the Department of Justice told NBC News. There have been 155 firearms seized, the DOJ said.
Davis, the police chief, said on Wednesday, “It’s not a numbers game” for them, but instead figuring out “how do we work to make Memphis safe? How do we focus where the data shows that we have criminal activity?”
The Rev. J. Lawrence Turner, president of the Black Clergy Collaborative of Memphis, a civic organization that addresses social concerns, called the move federal overreach. “I’m not denying Memphis has had a crime problem. But this level of surge of federal law enforcement officials is overwhelming,” he said. “It is unnecessary. It’s immoral.”
Young, the mayor, said he understood his constituents’ angst.
“With the surge of law enforcement officers in the city on top of our existing complement of officers, you can’t help but to have a sense of anxiety,” he said.
