MEMPHIS—U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, U.S. Defense Department Secretary Pete Hegseth and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, in a recent trip to Memphis, addressed the newly established federal and state multi-agency Memphis Task Force in a mobile command staging area located at Shelby Farms. Two of the unspecified number of meetings were live-streamed on local broadcast networks.
The task force was established at the behest of Republican Tennessee Governor Bill Lee and calls for the inclusion of the National Guard.
“We are going to work hand-in-hand to make the most violent crime city in the country have no crime,” stated AG Bondi, while issuing what appeared to be a veiled threat to District Attorney (D.A.) Steve Mulroy.
Who came under fire in 2024, by Republican Tennessee State Senator Brent Taylor for proposing a program to provide alternative options over incarceration for non-violent felons who would be typically charged with gun possession.
“Let me be very, very clear, I am a career prosecutor. If you touch a law enforcement officer, it is a crime, and you are going to jail. We are arresting anyone who touches any of you, if you touch a federal officer, it’s going to be assault on a federal officer and we have our U.S. Attorney here.
And to all of you state and local officers, let’s see what your D.A. does, because he better prosecute crimes against you, because we have your back,” concluded the attorney general.
“We’re here to have your back, to unleash you to do your job so you come home safely. Our department is here to enable you, law enforcement, to do your job, to help protect your facilities, help protect your people, so that you, your hands can be untied to secure your city.
So, our department is proud to be here. It’s a priority for us. The Tennessee National Guard is going to be right here, having your back,” said Secretary Hegseth, representing the U.S. Department of Defense, which has been rebranded by President Trump as the Department of War, the name from the 1940s. However, Congress would need to approve the name change to make it permanent.
This language being used by federal officials is troubling in a city that came under a Department of Justice investigation in 2023, following the brutal death of Tyre Nichols by five Memphis police officers.
The subsequent D.O.J. report chronicled patterns of abuse of authority, encouragement of use of force, escalation of encounters during routine traffic stops by officers, violations of citizens’ rights, and more. (See The Final Call, Vol. 44, No. 11).
“We are about to provide you with a level of support you cannot even imagine,” pledged Deputy Chief Miller. “This isn’t just a task force,”
he said, “this is an all of government, unlimited support operation—ATF, DEA, FBI, ICE, Department of War, every resource we have, and they’re not going to be sitting behind a desk at a keyboard. We are sending in real cops with guns and badges to go out with you on the street every single night making arrests.”
As he boasted of the experience the agents brought to the Task Force, applause erupted from the audience, emboldening him.
Mr. Miller claimed that the city needed “liberating from a criminal element,” he alleges has plagued Memphis “for generations.”
“We are not going to live in an environment, anywhere, where there is a street that belongs to a criminal, where there is a neighborhood that belongs to a gang, where there is any physical space anywhere that belongs to anyone other than the law-abiding citizens and families of Memphis.
The idea that there is a square inch of block in this city where a citizen doesn’t feel safe is unacceptable. This is Memphis. This is the United States of America. And all that bulls*** is done. It’s over. It’s finished!”
He went on to issue a threat to those he deemed “gangbangers.”
“They think they are ruthless. They have no idea how ruthless we are. They think they’re tough. They have no idea how tough we are. They think that they’re hardcore. We are so much more hardcore than they are, and we have the entire weight of the United States government behind us.”
The threats coming from federal officials aimed at Memphis come on the heels of federal troops and agents being dispatched to other U.S. cities, with more possibly on the horizon.
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan foresaw a time such as this, leading him to embark on a “Stop the Killing Tour” in 1989 and “Mens Only” addresses in 1994, culminating in the Historic Million Man March, October 16, 1995, where nearly two million men showed up.
“The Million Man March was the largest, and most peaceful, demonstration ever witnessed on The Washington National Mall. That march delayed the plans of the U.S. government: Our actions on The National Mall showed the world that we could be a civilized people;
So, that interfered with their plans,” said Minister Farrakhan in “The Time and What Must Be Done” lecture series, part 51, delivered in 2013. “However, we have gone backwards since then. …The Enemy seems to have destroyed the meaning and the spirit of The Million Man March,” he cautioned.
“The killings that are going on in Chicago, and in other cities, of ‘Black against Black’ is justifying a response that will be terrible in its manifestation!”
Minister Farrakhan warned, adding, “and because, brothers and sisters, you have heard The Truth, and have rejected The Truth, the scriptures of Jeremiah 8:17, Numbers 21:6-8 and Isaiah 14:29 teaches that part of our chastisement is that we will be bitten by ‘fiery serpents’ and ‘cockatrices’: Angry White people, turning on you and killing you in large numbers!”
Minister Farrakhan then warned, “The only way you can avoid this is to stop the killing of self.”