Federal agents working on Donald Trump's anti-crime initiative in Memphis have been accused of systematically intimidating community observers who attempt to monitor their operations, according to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.
The ACLU alleges that officers have followed vehicles, kept homes under surveillance, and made what it characterizes as false arrests targeting activists trying to document taskforce activity. Six community observers have filed sworn declarations describing what they say are aggressive tactics designed to discourage oversight.
The taskforce launched last September after Tennessee Governor Bill Lee activated the National Guard and deployed more than 2,000 state and federal officers to Memphis in response to Trump's focus on the city's violent crime rates. The US Marshals Service, which chairs the initiative, declined to comment on the ACLU allegations.
Hunter Demster, the lead plaintiff, described an incident in which he said a masked agent in an unmarked black Ford Expedition sped up and swerved toward him while he stood near a grassy median, missing him by approximately two inches. In another encounter, he said an agent he had never met addressed him by name through a truck's loudspeaker.
"When I am home alone and I hear a branch snap, my heart drops," Demster stated in his filing. "The presence of these unmarked vehicles outside my home gives me a scary, uneasy feeling that has taken away my peace inside my own home."
Jessica Chodor documented her arrest on an officer's body camera after she began filming taskforce officers in October. She alleged she had already experienced multiple instances of police interference with her observations. When Chodor announced she was streaming live, she said a trooper tackled her to the ground with force, and officers pinned her face-down without explaining she was under arrest.
Chodor spent 27 hours in a crowded jail cell with a broken toilet before release. The state later dropped its charge of resisting official detention in December.
James West, a retired anesthesiologist, saw his decade-long Global Entry expedited border screening status revoked by US Customs and Border Protection less than a month after he began photographing taskforce activities. The official notification stated he may be subject to a law enforcement investigation or suspected of conduct related to terrorism.
The ACLU contends that officers have weaponized the state's recently passed Halo law, which makes it a Class B misdemeanor to approach a police officer within 25 feet after being instructed to withdraw. According to the lawsuit, agents have used vague or contradictory interpretations of the buffer zone, telling observers they must stay 25 feet from different reference points or simply declaring "it is where I say it is."
Trump and Lee have championed the taskforce's reported results. The White House announced in March that overall crime in Memphis had dropped more than 43 percent compared to the same period the previous year, with murders falling below 200 for the first time since 2019 and shootings down nearly 40 percent. By mid-March, the taskforce had made more than 7,000 arrests, seized over 1,000 illegal guns, and reported reuniting more than 150 missing children with their parents.
However, violent crime in Memphis had already been declining sharply before the taskforce began operations. Crime has been falling across large and small American cities since 2022, largely attributed to demographic shifts and post-pandemic trends rather than specific enforcement initiatives.
Author James Rodriguez: "The tension between public safety claims and allegations of retaliation against monitors raises hard questions about what oversight of aggressive policing actually looks like when the agency doing the monitoring is also controlling the scene."
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