Wendi C. Thomas is the founder and investigative editor of MLK50: Justice Through Journalism and a ProPublica distinguished fellow. Thomas’ reporting with MLK50 government accountability reporter Katherine Burgess shows how President Donald Trump’s ongoing Memphis Safe Task Force, a multiagency law enforcement effort that promised to focus on violent criminals, is causing distress and concern among residents that they are being racially profiled and harassed.
Thomas and Burgess found that despite the task force’s stated focus on violent crime, innocent people are being stopped by law enforcement while driving, walking and just living their lives. Their reporting spotlights the experiences of residents who said they’ve been stopped by police for no apparent reason and even mistaken for people they are not.
“Deep down, I felt like I was not gonna make it home,” said one Black resident after armed men poured out of an unmarked SUV after he had been stopped by Memphis police while he walked from his apartment to the corner store.
Another Memphis resident, a Black ride-share driver, told reporters that she was pulled over for not wearing a seat belt despite having one on. “I do think that I was profiled,” she said. “I think they were looking for someone of Hispanic descent.”
The U.S. Marshals Service, which leads the task force, did not respond to specific questions about individual experiences 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 community safe!” Ryan Guay, a spokesperson for the U.S. Marshals Service, said in a written statement.
ProPublica asked other agencies involved with the task force for comment on specific encounters with individuals. None responded to those questions.
I spoke with Thomas about her reporting. Below is a version of our interview, edited for clarity and length.
Logan Jaffe: In your story, you point out that unlike other cities like Los Angeles and Chicago, Memphis has a mayor who was more open to having federal agents and U.S. Marshals in the city. What’s the context of that, and why is this focus on “violent crime” resonating with the Memphis mayor’s office?
Wendi C. Thomas: Right. So unlike L.A., Chicago and Portland, Tennessee’s governor supports Trump and has been in favor of as many federal officers and National Guardsmen as you could have in Memphis as possible. Memphis’ mayor is a Democrat. But he did welcome the federal intervention because Memphis does have a problem with crime. I don’t think there’s anybody in the community that would deny that. The homicide rate in 2023 was the highest it had ever been on record. There’s a saying: “When all you have is a hammer, everything’s a nail.” The only solution that’s being offered on the table is more police. There are a fair number of residents who support that. Depending on who you ask, the task force efforts are having some impact and the reports of violent crimes have fallen since the task force arrived on Sept. 29.
Jaffe: The Tennessee governor is quoted in your story saying at an Oct. 14 press conference: “If they’re not a criminal element, then they shouldn’t be afraid.” What does the story you reported show?
Thomas: None of the people I wrote about were engaged in anything that could remotely be considered criminal activity. It is patently false that if you’re not a criminal, you don’t have anything to worry about.
Historically, that narrative has often led to a lot of racial stereotyping based on ethnicity and language spoken. That is really dangerous. And this narrative that if you’re not a criminal then you don’t have anything to worry about is also dangerous in part because we see that a lot of these police interactions are beginning with traffic stops. With a lot of these traffic stops, we’re seeing the stops initiated for things like failure to maintain lane or failure to yield, which are minor traffic offenses. But they are a way for law enforcement to make contact with people.
Jaffe: And what is the particular resonance of traffic stops in Memphis?
Thomas: Part of the reason why the use of traffic stops as an attempt to address violent crime is problematic to a lot of residents is because a lot of people here remember Tyré Nichols. Tyré Nichols was an unarmed young Black man who was stopped by Memphis police officers. It was a traffic stop. Sky cameras captured five Memphis police officers brutally beating Tyré Nichols, who died three days after he was stopped.
He was about a block from his mother’s house and on the video you can hear him crying out for his mother. And so in Memphis, when you have homeland security adviser Stephen Miller coming to Memphis talking to law enforcement and telling them that they are “unleashed” — the image that conjures for a lot of Memphis residents is Memphis police officers “unleashed” beating Tyré Nichols.
This isn’t a theoretical unleashing. People are remembering the audio of this man screaming for his mother. And I think that’s important to know.
