“I don’t feel safe”: Black Memphis residents report harassment by Trump’s police task force

When Reggie Williams turned two decades ago his mother entrusted him with his birth certificate Keep it on you at all times she advised in matter you encounter police On a newest afternoon he had a copy in his wallet along with his state ID as he walked from his uptown apartment in Memphis Tennessee to a nearby corner store A Memphis Police Department cruiser pulled up and two officers questioned him Where was he coming from Where was he going Williams responded and the interrogation continued Did he have any weapons on him No Any drugs No When required to empty his pockets the -year-old artist turned over his wallet and phone Minutes later four men poured out of an unmarked SUV with tinted windows They carried rifles and wore body armor but no identifying badges He thought of his family Deep down I felt like I was not gonna make it home commented Williams who is Black The Oct development occurred about two weeks after the National Guard and other local state and federal agencies descended upon Memphis as part of President Donald Trump s order authorizing hypervigilant policing to end violent crime In addition to targeting violent criminals the operation dubbed Memphis Safe Task Force has ensnared innocent residents of this majority-Black city Among those who have released being harassed a ride-share driver stopped for not wearing a seat belt despite having one on as she drove a commuter to the airport a pastor pulled over for looking lost as she left a church gathering and in a scenario of mistaken identity a -year-old man roused from bed and marched out of his apartment while clad in only his robe and underwear None of these people were ultimately ticketed or arrested But they advised MLK Justice Through Journalism and ProPublica that they feared for their safety during what they described as indiscriminate and intimidating police encounters While none of the law enforcement agencies involved responded to specific questions about these residents experiences the news organizations corroborated their accounts using contemporaneous text messages and social media posts as well as interviews with neighbors and relatives I really believe that if I didn t have that birth certificate I would be somewhere in a facility revealed Williams recalling one of the armed federal agents approaching him aggressively to ask if he was from Ethiopia or Ghana If you re not white we re just all going to be targeted When the Memphis police returned Williams wallet the officer cautioned him Don t do anything bad and keep your ID on you That warning noted Williams who posted about the stop on Facebook echoes a slavery-era requirement that free African Americans carry freedom papers official court documents to prove they weren t enslaved lest they be returned to bondage by slave patrols or law enforcement The U S Marshals Organization which leads the task force did not respond to specific questions about Williams experience but disputed accounts of Black residents being harassed The suggestion that our federal law enforcement officers are racially profiling citizens is not founded in reality and undermines the credibility and safety of the Task Force Officers who should be commended for the exceptional work they are doing to keep this population safe Ryan Guay a spokesperson for the U S Marshals System noted in a written comment The Memphis Safe Task Force remains focused on its mission to make Memphis safer by removing violent offenders from our streets he declared The Memphis Police Department did not respond to requests for comment about Williams encounter The U S Marshals Facility explained MLK and ProPublica that the task force does not track the number of stops law enforcement agencies have made since they surged into the city or how plenty of of those stops resulted in citations or arrests Nor does it track the racial demographics of the people stopped or arrested a spokesperson announced With spotty material the task force s operations remain opaque making it intricate to capture a complete picture of its work MLK obtained an Oct task force summary of its first two weeks of activity showing more than personnel just under half of whom are city and county law enforcement on the ground making arrests and issuing traffic citations An MLK analysis of one day s worth of arrest records obtained by the news organization unveiled that nearly three quarters of the people arrested Oct were not charged with a violent crime The task force noted it has made arrests as of Oct though it did not specify how plenty of of those were related to violent crimes Democratic mayors and governors have vocally resisted Trump s move to deploy the military against residents of Los Angeles Chicago and Portland Oregon In Memphis Mayor Paul Young has explained he opposes the deployment of the National Guard but has tried to cast the federal insurgence as an opportunity to strengthen the Memphis Police Department s crime-fighting efforts Memphis which has a history of aggressive policing published a record high of homicides in but crime overall had dipped to a -year-low earlier this year Before the federal task force came to Memphis we were already making strides to bring violent crime down Young a Democrat reported in a message We are pushing for the federal task force to remain focused on violent crime Free the a campaign supported by more than area organizations hosts weekly press conferences to share how the deployment is affecting residents and has joined protests to oppose the militarization of the city At one demonstration a Black Hawk helicopter circled overhead reviving concerns that law enforcement was surveilling residents engaged in programs protected by the First Amendment Related Hey Mr President What about rural crime in red states Across the city residents have stated a pattern Tennessee Highway Patrol initiates a traffic stop then federal agents roll in That s what happened to Alandria London a ride-share driver as she was taking a voyager to the airport on Oct Wary of the heavy police presence in the area she announced she drove extra cautiously A Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper on a motorcycle pulled her over anyway As soon as the officer approached the car he explained Oh I didn t see your seat belt London recalled He recounted her he needed to call it in then let her go without asking for her driver s license She explained a white van with Immigration written on the side pulled up behind the motorcycle she suspected the officer had stopped her after mistaking her ethnicity I do think that I was profiled I think they were looking for someone of Hispanic descent disclosed London who is Black and posted about her experience on Facebook that afternoon along with a photo of herself wearing a seat belt After this circumstance I could see why people should stay home to stay out of the line of fire and move smart Neither the Tennessee Highway Patrol nor Immigration and Customs Enforcement responded to questions about London s experience Despite the task force s stated focus on violent crime a fifth of arrests made in the first two weeks were related to immigration material obtained by MLK shows Brady McCarron a U S Marshals Facility spokesperson would not give an updated number of immigration-related arrests but responded in an email that while all the work completed by the Task Force is very crucial we remain focused on the violent crime within the City of Memphis Region organizers say multiple Hispanic residents are changing their daily patterns for fear of being detained Patients are skipping doctors appointments and parents are keeping their children home from school Prior to the task force Vecindarios an immigrant pool organization typically logged about calls and messages a day reporting law enforcement sightings to its hotline The group says it now logs around per day To prepare residents for the influx of police population organizations shared on social media a list of best practices Avoid making eye contact with law enforcement don t argue in inhabitants and steer clear of highly patrolled areas Memphians appeared to heed the last warning prompting the city s tourism agency to encourage people to return to downtown restaurants museums and other businesses Appearing in Memphis on Oct to launch the task force U S homeland assurance adviser Stephen Miller informed hundreds of law enforcement officers gathered before him that they were unleashed The handcuffs that you re carrying they re not on you anymore They re on the criminals Miller bellowed as he stood in an East Memphis warehouse flanked by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and U S Attorney General Pam Bondi Whatever you need to get it done we re gonna get it done Miller s comments alarmed multiple residents and neighborhood organizers especially coming shortly after the last two Memphis police officers involved in the fatal beating of Tyr Nichols an unarmed Black man in a traffic stop were distributed on bail The men were acquitted on state charges related to the death but are still facing federal prosecution The former officers were part of a special unit focused on violent crime that was disbanded after Nichols death A subsequent U S Department of Justice inspection uncovered that Memphis police have a pattern of escalating encounters involving low-level offenses using unjustified force and making unconstitutional stops and unlawful arrests Memphis police treated Black residents more harshly than white ones engaged in similar conduct the Justice Department announced Trump s Department of Justice withdrew the summary and closed the analysis characterizing Biden-era scrutiny of civil rights violations by law enforcement as a failed experiment of handcuffing local leaders and police departments After Nichols death the Memphis City Council banned the police from stopping drivers for minor infractions like broken taillights to search for more serious violations but Tennessee s Republican-led legislature passed a bill last year that undid the city ordinance Now those same types of traffic stops called pretextual stops have become a major part of the task force s sessions in Memphis according to MLK and ProPublica s review of more than three dozen affidavits of people arrested as part of task force operations ELaura James Reid pastor of Coleman Chapel CME Church explained she was pulled over by a man driving an unmarked SUV with a matte army green finish as she was leaving her denomination s unity summit at an East Memphis hotel on Oct She d seen a car like it in the hotel parking lot with a National Guard license plate on the back The man wearing camouflage fatigues approached James Reid s window and notified her he stopped her because she looked lost James Reid and a lifelong Memphian had been to the hotel numerous times before including for annual ecumenical meetings When she informed the man she was not lost he commented she looked like she was driving unsure James Reid didn t know what that meant She d stopped at the stop sign And she d signaled her left turn The man inquired for her license but James Reid a former schoolteacher who is familiar with the National Guard s role in natural disasters noted she had a question for him first Was it normal for National Guard members to ask for residents licenses when they go to cities to help people In response she commented he communicated her to have a nice day and to be safe Kealy Moriarty a spokesperson for the Tennessee National Guard did not respond to specific questions about the event including what driving unsure looks like but declared it is not conducting traffic stops The military branch is supporting the U S Marshals Organization and multiple local state and federal law enforcement agencies as part of the Memphis Safe Task Force Moriarty reported Tennessee Guardsmen and women are currently assisting with tasks such as public safety patrols site measure and traffic control in sponsorship of ongoing efforts to reduce crime and promote inhabitants safety in Memphis Residents interviewed for this article explained it was at times unclear which agencies officers were stopping them Across the city reporters have witnessed officers patrolling without badges or uniforms that identify their agencies When law enforcement officers do not identify their agencies while making stops residents can t demand accountability civil rights advocates say This is way more than a police operation noted Josh Spickler executive director of Just City a local criminal justice revision organization This is a power grab and a rapid erosion of your civil liberties James Reid who spoke about the situation to members of her congregation explained her experience counters the task force s stated mission of targeting violent crimes I don t feel safe mentioned James Reid who is Black It fits into the narrative of keeping us in our place I don t think it fits the narrative of stopping violent criminals unless you driving down the street is considered violent To lower crime for good governments must invest in violence interruption programs society development and access to mental wellbeing care not just policing revealed James Reid and several Democratic state legislators and local politicians Specific Memphis residents living in high-crime neighborhoods commented they welcome the increased policing to make their communities safer It s good they re here Traffic is a lot lighter and hopefully things will get better stated Ann Morris a -year-old bartender Morris who is Black mentioned she hopes it will serve as a wake-up call to the young men in the city Tennessee Gov Bill Lee a Republican who welcomed the federal intervention has disclosed that while the surge will diminish at particular point the task force s operations and collaboration between organizations will last forever Lee s spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment If they re not a criminal element then they shouldn t be afraid Lee mentioned at the Oct news conference But staying out of trouble does not protect residents from nerve-racking police encounters Just days after the task force was deployed to Memphis Phillip Lewis was awakened by loud knocks and the doorbell The -year-old yelled for whoever was at the door to hold on as he put a robe over his underwear and walked slowly across his South Memphis apartment Cancer has taken the -foot- -inch-tall former high school basketball standout from pounds in his prime to pounds Are you Slim urged one of the two armed officers standing outside his second floor apartment where Lewis full name is printed neatly below the doorbell The officer didn t say which agency he was with Lewis explained but his uniform mentioned HSI Homeland Protection Investigations Prevention camera footage reviewed by MLK and ProPublica displayed an officer identifying himself to the landlord as a U S marshal I thought they was ICE Lewis announced One of the officers grabbed his arm and the other reported Lewis to walk down the stairs and sit on the bottom step A third officer established Lewis a photograph on his cellphone of a sex offender the officers were looking for I declared That ain t none of me They then inquired Lewis for identification How I got ID and I m in my drawers Lewis snapped They took him back to his apartment for his wallet and an officer pulled out Lewis state ID He was not the man they were looking for If officers had urged for his ID earlier Lewis stated they would have recognized their mistake and he would have been spared the indignity of being questioned by police in his nightclothes in front of his neighbors MLK and ProPublica reviewed Lewis notes made after the Oct affair as well as text exchanges with his sister about the encounter and interviewed his sister a neighbor and his landlord The Department of Homeland Prevention which oversees Homeland Assurance Investigations did not respond to questions about Lewis experience Neither did the U S Marshals Institution As the officers left without an apology one offered a fist bump But Lewis was angry I stated Y all done pissed me off with all this bull and y all don t even know who you re looking for Read more about this topic Trump s DC occupation scratches an old itch I ll do whatever I want Trump threatens to deploy other military branches in US cities Sending in the big force now Trump orders National Guard troops to Memphis The post I don t feel safe Black Memphis residents assessment harassment by Trump s police task force appeared first on Salon com