Four residents from Memphis, Tennessee, have filed a lawsuit accusing the administration of United States President Donald Trump of harassment during an immigration and crime crackdown in the city.
The complaint, filed on Wednesday, focuses on the Memphis Safe Task Force, a law enforcement initiative Trump launched in September in collaboration with state and local officials.
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The plaintiffs allege that the agents involved in the crackdown retaliated against locals for engaging in activities protected under the First Amendment of the Constitution, including filming arrests.
“In the professed name of crime control, Task Force agents have stopped, menaced, and arrested Memphians engaging in routine, day-to-day activities,” the lawsuit says.
The complaint describes agents responding with hostility to bystanders who stop to record the task force’s activities.
“Task Force agents are systematically retaliating against, intimidating, and harassing Plaintiffs and others lawfully engaged in these constitutionally protected information-gathering and recording activities,” the lawsuit alleges.
It describes threats of arrests and physical intimidation, including government vehicles that swerved at activists monitoring enforcement operations.
The lawsuit also notes that the task force has conducted about 120,000 traffic stops in the majority-Black city, home to a population of nearly 610,000.
The task force, which was initiated at the invitation of Governor Bill Lee, includes Tennessee State Troopers and members of the Tennessee National Guard, as well as agents from 13 federal agencies.
The complaint lists the acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche as a defendant, alongside the heads of agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). State officials, including the leader of the Tennessee Highway Patrol, are also listed in the complaint.
But the US government has denied any wrongdoing related to the Memphis Safe Task Force.
“We strongly disagree with the allegations in the lawsuit and remain committed to fair, impartial, and professional law enforcement practices to keep Memphians and the American people safe,” the Department of Justice said in a statement on Wednesday.
Since taking office for a second term, Trump has frequently described left-leaning cities as “war zones” ravaged by crime, and he has implemented crackdowns in several major cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, DC.
Some of those crackdowns have faced significant pushback, with critics arguing that Trump, in some cases, exceeded his powers as president by deploying military forces without state approval.
Federal agents involved in those crackdowns have been accused of ignoring civil liberties and profiling residents based on race and ethnicity.
People monitoring or filming their activities have also described being threatened and harassed, despite the legality of such activities.
“Recording publicly visible law enforcement activity is a core First Amendment right,” Scarlet Kim, a senior staff lawyer at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), said in a press statement.
Her organisation is involved in representing the plaintiffs in Wednesday’s lawsuit.
“Like folks in Minneapolis, Chicago, Los Angeles, and elsewhere across the country, Memphis residents have picked up their phones and cameras to document the massive influx of law enforcement officers into their community,” Kim said.
Hunter Demster, one of the plaintiffs, said that he lives in a community with a large Hispanic population where the task force regularly stops cars.
Demster alleges that he was surrounded by agents after filming one such stop and informing those in the car that they had the right not to speak to the police.
“It is a terrifying feeling,” Demster said. “I did nothing illegal. I used my First Amendment-protected rights to hold up a phone and say some ‘know your rights’ information.”
