From my U of M area back porch, October nights have been filled with the sounds of roaring sirens and helicopters circling overhead. Since the Memphis Safe Task Force brought “up to 1,500 federal law enforcement officers” to our city, according to reports, it has been persistent. Last Friday night into Saturday morning, two Tennessee Highway Patrol helicopters rounded for hours, blades cutting the air and echoing for miles, overlapping the constant siren screams. If you closed your eyes and listened, you might have thought we were in a war zone.
The National Guard is here. That’s what people are talking about. But it’s not the National Guard I’m seeing on the streets. I haven’t seen any camouflaged troops. I suspect that many of the increasing number of blacked-out vehicles I’ve crossed are agents. And I have seen uniformed Revenue Protection officers in unmarked vehicles approach a home on Prescott Avenue near the Lamar/I-240 exit. I’ve seen a city Construction Enforcement truck, equipped with a dash laptop, turning into a neighborhood off of Summer Avenue — that typically buzzing, immigrant-rich area now noticeably less-traveled. Browsing thrift and bargain stores along that strip last week, I saw markedly fewer Hispanic shoppers than usual. When I asked if the federal presence had affected one store, the Ross cashier told me, “Oh, yes. Definitely less people [shopping].” I hadn’t seen many feds yet, I told her. “Oh, they are here,” she said. “A lot of them. They’re out there all day.” Driving that stretch of Summer, various mercados looked sparsely inhabited. We stopped to eat lunch at La Guadalupana. A single diner was seated in the otherwise empty space. The parking lot of the nearby Superman Market was wide open — and no one in line at the popular taco truck there. This Monday, I saw a photo showing more than a dozen masked ICE agents in that same parking lot.
On my media feeds, I’ve seen photos and videos of dozens of officers — FBI, state troopers, ICE, border patrol — unnecessarily gathering at single traffic stops here, pulling people over for minor infractions like missing taillights, or for no reason at all. In one instance, a 70-year-old Hispanic woman was stopped for expired tags and detained — a photo of her license plate showed it was valid until December 2025. Home security camera footage, man-on-the-street video, and live streams from scenes around the city have offered a more realistic view of what this task force is here for — and this is not the war zone you think it is.
Please — take the murderers, rapists, sex traffickers, drug traffickers, as many violent offenders as you can off of our streets. Arrest every fentanyl dealer. Every pimp. Arrest every pedophile. Every crooked leader. But do not kidnap the grandmas. The construction workers. The tree trimmers. The cooks. Do not abduct the hardworking, law-abiding people who have made Memphis their home. Don’t take parents from their children or bang on doors in the night without warrants, demanding papers. This is not about crime.
And while people here are being targeted for … not being white, the view beyond Memphis is just as horrid. The same disappearing of people is happening in other occupied U.S. cities. Millions could go hungry in the coming weeks. Millions could soon see annual insurance premium hikes in the thousands. Funding for education, arts, health and social services, and more has been decimated. All while President Trump happily demolishes a wing of the White House to make way for a $300 million ballroom. All while inflation seems to know no end. All while our civil — even constitutional — rights erode before our eyes.
For the sake of our sanity and yours, we landed on a lighter cover story this week. Toby hunts for ghosts and tells the tale. We hope it is a brief respite from the very real horror stories unfolding every day.
Shara Clark
shara@memphisflyer.com