NASHVILLE, TN — Under the command of Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee, the National Guard is in Memphis, despite protests from local government officials, community leaders, and citizens. Gov. Lee readily gave his support regarding the use of federal troops to further a federal crackdown on crime; however, local representatives such as District 86 Tennessee House Representative Justin J. Pearson say Gov. Lee and President Trump are getting their facts wrong regarding crime in Memphis. Pearson said, though Memphis does have a level of crime that is of concern to citizens, it is not at the level, nor following the trends, that Gov. Lee and President Trump are presenting.
“The President has his facts wrong,” Pearson said. “The numbers say that crime is down. Many of the things that this administration is doing is causing calamity, not rectifying it … you can’t have a conversation about crime without talking about poverty, and the policies of the Trump administration, and Gov. Bill Lee, [that] have kept our citizens and our community poor and destitute.”
Tennessee officials recently filed a lawsuit challenging the National Guard’s deployment in Memphis. The lawsuit includes Tennessee House District 96 Democrat representative Gabby Salinas. The lawsuit itself said that the founders of the United States recognized that military rule was incompatible with liberty and democracy, that the facts on the ground in Memphis cannot justify the overreach of the defendants, and that crime is not a circumstance that passes constitutional muster.
Democrat Memphis Mayor Paul Young said he hopes the task force will target violent offenders rather than scare, harass, and intimidate residents. “I think it’s very optimistic,” Pearson said regarding Mayor Young’s comments on the National Guard focusing on community-first efforts. “Every place that you see a National Guard presence, you also see an increased ICE activity. You have the effects and the traumatization of military occupation in the city and in our communities. They’re being sent at the request of wanna-be a dictator. You can’t separate that from reality. And when has negotiating with Bill Lee or Donald Trump ever worked to the benefit of Memphis? It hasn’t. And so why do we think it’s going to work now? It’s not.”
Trump has sent or discussed sending troops to other cities, including Baltimore; the District of Columbia; New Orleans; and the California cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. The federal government says the troops support immigration agents and protect federal property.
A recent ruling has given President Trump more reason to confidently send federal troops and agencies to American cities, despite the will of the general populace. The victory was a 2-1 ruling from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, ruling that Trump likely exercised his statutory authority when federalizing Oregon’s National Guard to send them to what he called “war-ravaged Portland.”
Trump-appointed Judge Karin Immergut, District Court for the District of Oregon, issued restraining orders against Trump after determining Trump’s determination of Portland needing federal military response was “simply untethered to the facts.” Her first restraining order, which was just overruled, blocked President Trump from activating the Oregon National Guard. Immergut issued her second order when Trump tried to circumvent her first order by sending National Guard troops from California to Portland, blocking him from sending any state troops to Oregon. With the second order still in place, Trump is still unable to send in troops to Portland, though a Trump admin is arguing this second order should also be overruled, as it uses the same legal reasoning as the first.
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