President Donald Trump and Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee confirmed they will deploy state troops and extra law enforcement resources to Memphis. (Photo: Karen Pulfer Focht for the Tennessee Lookout)
MEMPHIS —Gov. Bill Lee confirmed Friday he has been in “constant communication” with the Trump administration about deploying the Tennessee National Guard to Memphis as part of a crime crackdown.
“The next phase will include a comprehensive mission with the Tennessee National Guard, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Tennessee Highway Patrol, Memphis Police Department, and other law enforcement agencies, and we are working closely with the Trump Administration to determine the most effective role for each of these agencies to best serve Memphians,” Lee said in a statement released Friday afternoon.
Lee added he plans to speak with President Donald Trump on Friday afternoon to “work out details of the mission.”
Trump told Fox News Friday morning that he plans to send federal troops into Memphis, after weeks of speculation and calls from state Republican officials for him to do so.
Memphis Mayor Paul Young (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)
Trump said the Shelby County city was a “deeply troubled” and that the city’s Democratic mayor and Republican governor “were happy” for him to send in national guard troops like he did in Washington D.C.
The announcement comes days after Memphis Mayor Paul Young confirmed in a statement to MLK50, a Memphis nonprofit news outlet, that his office, Gov. Bill Lee’s and the Trump administration were considering sending troops to Tennessee’s most populous city.
Young did not respond to a request for comment by the Lookout, but told MLK50 he was “committed to working to ensure any efforts strengthen our community and build on our progress.”
Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris said in a statement to the Lookout that Trump’s decision to send troops was “disappointing and anti-Democratic.”
“The president sending troops to Tennessee will interfere and have a chilling effect on Tennesseans’ ability to exercise critical freedoms, such as the freedom to protest and the liberty to travel,” Harris said. “We will do everything in our power to prevent this incursion.”
Two weeks ago, Gov. Bill Lee told reporters Memphis crime had dropped by 15% in the last year and that he had no plans to deploy the Tennessee National Guard to the city, only to reverse course a week later, saying that anything was possible.
This is an abuse of power, using troops to score political points off of crime statistics, even though overall crime in Memphis is down to a 25-year low.
– Sen. Raumesh Akbari, D-Memphis
A federal appeals court ruled that Trump’s decision to take over the National Guard and send troops into Los Angeles without the California governor’s permission was illegal. His administration is appealing the ruling.
Trump also said he planned to deploy troops to Chicago but later backtracked. In Washington D.C., the president has more direct control of the presence of federal troops because the federal government reserves significant authority over governance of the city, which was established as a federal enclave separate from any of the states.
Tennessee’s state law says the governor can deploy the National Guard in an “invasion, disaster, insurrection, riot, attack, or combination to oppose the enforcement of the law by force and violence.” But the deployment can not exceed the extent of the emergency.
“This is an abuse of power, using troops to score political points off of crime statistics, even though overall crime in Memphis is down to a 25-year low,” said Senate Minority Leader Raumesh Akbari, a Memphis Democrat. “That’s not leadership — that’s overreach.
The Lookout previously reported that Tennessee Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton favored sending federal and state troops to Memphis as a “strike force” to cut down on gang activity.
Rep. John Gillepsie, a Memphis Republican, said on social media he was “grateful” for the decision and that “arrests must be backed by tough prosecution and accountability in the courts.”
The last time the Tennessee National Guard was deployed to Memphis was in 1978, when a strike by city firefighters resulted in more than 100 fires throughout the city in a matter of days. Then-Mayor Wyeth Chandler declared a civil emergency, calling for a military presence and curfews for residents.
This is a developing story.
Sam Stockard and Holly McCall contributed.
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