LOTS OF POSTS IGNORED BY BLOGGER.....
OR REMOVED ON THEIR WHIM!
ALL POSTS ARE AVAILABLE ON
MIDDLEBORO REVIEW AND SO ON
BLOGGER DOESN'T LIKE TRUTH OR FACTS!
BLOGGER DOESN'T LIKE FUND RAISERS AND DELETES
POSTS THAT INCLUDE FUNDRAISING THAT 'VIOLATES THEIR
UNDEFINED COMMUNITY STANDARDS SO ALL 'FUND RAISING'
IS DELETED - CONTRIBUTE AS YOU ARE INCLINED TO SUPPORT
IMPORTANT ISSUES! THESE ARE NOT SOLICITATIONS
MASS GOP IGNORE ICE GESTAPO ABUSE AND LIES!
EXCERPT: This is lengthy, but let's not FALSELY CLAIM those who are being
arrested have committed CRIMES!
PUBLISHED BY ProPublica:
Trump’s Memphis Crime Task Force Arrested Over 800 Immigrants, Records Show. Only 2% of the Arrests Were for Violent Crimes.
Elmer, a street vendor from Honduras, said he saw three immigrants arrested by federal agents near his shoe stand in Memphis, Tennessee. Kevin Wurm/MLK50/CatchLight Local/Report for America
On an overcast Saturday in February, a street vendor named Elmer lined up dozens of pairs of worn but carefully cleaned tennis shoes on tables next to a convenience store.
The 44-year-old father from Honduras felt like his head was on a swivel, greeting the handful of shoppers that approached while also scanning the busy thoroughfare behind him. He was ready to serve — or to run.
Last fall, as Elmer and his son were setting up their shoe stand, he said, agents wearing Homeland Security vests arrested two Guatemalan men in a nearby parking lot. A few hours later, the Mexican owner of a taco truck across the street was also detained by immigration authorities.
Then in December, Elmer’s 19-year-old nephew was taken, too, following a traffic stop; he remains incarcerated in a Tennessee detention center. Elmer worries that he and his son could be next. They fled Honduras seven years ago to escape gang violence and are not authorized to be in the United States. Elmer spoke with MLK50: Justice Through Journalism and ProPublica on the condition that only his first name be used.
Those around Elmer were swept up as part of President Donald Trump’s September order deploying more than two dozen state, local and federal law enforcement agencies, including the National Guard, to neighborhoods in Memphis, Tennessee. Unlike federal operations in Minneapolis, Chicago and other cities where immigration officers flooded the streets to ramp up deportations, the stated mission of the Memphis Safe Task Force was different: “to end street and violent crime in Memphis to the greatest possible extent.”
But just over a quarter of the more than 5,200 arrests made by the task force in and around Memphis have been for violent crimes, according to an MLK50 and ProPublica analysis of nearly four months of daily arrest reports from October through the beginning of February. The vast majority of violent crime arrests stemmed from outstanding warrants.
And despite casting violent criminals as the task force’s primary target, the operation has swept up more than 800 immigrants whom law enforcement deemed to be unlawfully present in the United States. Of those, just 2% — or 17 — were also arrested for violent crimes, our analysis found. Being unlawfully present on its own is a civil, not a criminal, offense.
More immigration arrests occurred in and around Parkway Village, the neighborhood where Elmer sells shoes, than in any other part of Memphis, according to our analysis. This majority Black community on the outskirts of the city’s core is also one of the fastest growing Hispanic neighborhoods in Memphis. It is dotted with immigrant-owned businesses — barber shops, grocery stores, a tax preparer — that serve a predominantly Spanish-speaking clientele. Other vendors sell tamales and cheese from the trunks of their cars. Overall, 81% of the neighborhood’s task force arrests have been for nonviolent crimes, including immigration violations, drug offenses, theft and illegal possession of weapons.
Trump has repeatedly proclaimed success in Memphis, crediting the task force for a more than 30% decline in homicides, aggravated assaults and sexual assaults compared with the same period last year.
While some research has shown that a surge in policing could deter crime, Memphis Police Department data indicates that crime had already been dropping steadily since 2023, hitting a 25-year low before the task force began its operations last fall. Criminologists say more analysis is needed to determine how much impact the task force has had on crime rates in Memphis.
Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson, said crime rates continued to drop due to “the great work of President Trump’s task force.”
“Every local leader should want to mimic this success,” she said in a written statement.
Jackson did not answer questions about the gap between the task force’s stated mission to end violent crime and the fact that so few of the immigrants arrested were suspected of committing such crimes. Nor did Brady McCarron, a spokesperson for the U.S. Marshals Service, which leads the task force. Instead, he reiterated Trump’s claims that the task force has restored law and order to Memphis.
“All Memphians are safer today than they were seven months ago because of the Memphis Safe Task Force,” McCarron said in a written statement. “Calls for service are down 18% since last year. Meaning less crimes are being committed that residents must call in for law enforcement response.”
Federal agents and the Tennessee Highway Patrol conduct a traffic stop in a Memphis shopping plaza in March. Kevin Wurm/MLK50/CatchLight Local/Report for America
In response to some Memphians saying that the task force’s immigration activity makes them feel unsafe and discourages immigrants from reporting crimes and cooperating with police, McCarron said: “We are aware of concerns raised by community advocates. Our focus remains on removing violent offenders, recovering illegal firearms, and protecting all Memphis residents, including communities who are disproportionately victimized by violent crime.”
What the Trump administration celebrates as a successful crime-fighting campaign, Latino advocacy groups and civil rights organizations argue is a crusade that’s left much of the Hispanic community in turmoil and fear, as it grapples with the social isolation, economic instability and trauma the task force has brought.
The task force has shrunk Elmer’s world to work, church and a drafty rental home near the railroad tracks that he shares with his 20-year-old son, whom he raised alone.
Three of Elmer’s siblings also live in Memphis, but since the task force arrived, family gatherings have been few. No one wants to risk being detained while driving across town.
During the week, Elmer shops for used Nikes, New Balances and other sneakers at thrift stores, then sells them in front of the neighborhood convenience store on the weekends. Elmer said he used to sell 100 pairs of shoes a week. Now, he’s lucky if he sells 20 — bringing home $500 a month instead of his usual $2,400.
Elmer says he used to sell 100 pairs of shoes a week at his stand in the neighborhood of Parkway Village. But weekly sales have dropped to under 20 pairs. Kevin Wurm/MLK50/CatchLight Local/Report for America
Elmer said his father, a former police officer who had a car rental business in Honduras’ capital city, was gunned down after refusing to pay off a local gang. Elmer tilted his chin up as he spoke to keep tears from falling.
“Sometimes I ask my son, ‘What would your life be like if we never left?’” Elmer said through a Spanish interpreter. “He answered, ‘I would probably be dead,’” killed by the same gang that took his grandfather.
Ever vigilant still, Elmer has mapped three escape routes from his shoe stand, just in case the task force reappears. As he pointed them out, a Tennessee Highway Patrol SUV flew down the road behind him, lights flashing and sirens blaring.
On a recent Friday afternoon, while Elmer was working, an unmarked white SUV leaving the parking lot slowed to a stop a few feet from his shoe stand. Immigration officers wearing bulky green vests sat inside the vehicle and stared at Elmer and the Hispanic men standing with him.
The agents didn’t say a word, Elmer recalled, but “I could feel the intimidation because I know who they are.”
Although it felt like forever, Elmer said, the federal agents only looked at them for 10 or so seconds — long enough for Elmer to abandon the escape routes he had planned and remember his son’s advice: Don’t run, or they may chase you.
So he froze, waiting for the moment to pass.
Violent Crime Campaign Swept Up Immigrants
Last month, Trump came to Memphis and declared victory from a stage decorated with seized weapons and cardboard boxes stamped “DEA EVIDENCE.”
“You have now developed a reputation as a city that’s coming back stronger than any city in the country because of what’s happened with crime, and because your political leaders have the courage to do what they did,” Trump told hundreds of National Guard troops, law enforcement officers and local and state Republican leaders gathered in a Tennessee Air National Guard hangar.
President Donald Trump proclaimed the success of the Memphis Safe Task Force when he visited the city in March. Kevin Wurm/MLK50/CatchLight Local/Report for America
Armored vehicles and a law enforcement helicopter were parked next to the stage, framing the president and other administration officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller. Miller has worked closely with Tennessee Republicans as they try to pass bills to require courts, public health clinics and law enforcement to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Trump administration has praised the proposed legislation and the task force as possible models for the rest of the country.
The influx of law enforcement has created a political minefield for Memphis Mayor Paul Young, a Democrat in a blue corner of a Republican-led state. Hours after Trump’s appearance, which the mayor did not attend, Young said during a press conference that the task force has “amplified” the work Memphis police had already been doing to reduce crime and that the increased law enforcement presence has led to “greater results,” especially in executing warrants. About half of all task force arrests have been for outstanding warrants.
But Young said he disagreed with the task force’s immigration enforcement role. “That’s not a part of those efforts that I am supportive of,” he told reporters. “I think that immigrants in our community have been a vital part of the growth of our city for the past 10 to 15 years, and we want them to feel welcome in our community.”
‘A tragedy’: Mass. Republicans react to fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis
IF REPUBLICANS DIDN'T LIE, NO ONE WOULD ELECT THEM!
3 WISHY-WASHY BRAIN DEAD MASS GOP RUNNING TO BE GOVERNOR,
ALL SELF-FUNDING TRUMPERS IGNORING THE EVIDENCE!
ICE GESTAPO HAVE ALREADY TAMPERED WITH THE EVIDENCE....
THEY TURNED OVER ALEX PRETTI'S BODY TO COUNT BULLET WOUNDS
AND ABANDONED THE CRIME SCENE UNPROTECTED!
THERE ARE BODY CAMS ICE GESTAPO ARE REVIEWING - NOT PUBLICLY
RELEASED - WE CAN EXPECT THOSE TO BE TAMPERED WITH - JUST AS
THE ORANGE TURD HAS RELEASED OTHER FAKE VIDEOS!
A JUDGE WARNED THEM NOT TO DESTROY EVIDENCE, BUT THIS FASCIST
REGIME IGNORES COURT ORDERS!
TRUMP ET AL LIED ABOUT FACTS! THEY CLAIMED HE 'BRANDISHED' A
GUN - NO! HE HAD A CELL PHONE IN ONE HAND AND HELD UP THE
OTHER!
ICE GESTAPO TACKLED HIM TO THE GROUND AND BEGAN BEATING HIM
WITH BATONS AFTER SPRAYING HIM IN THE FACE - HE WAS HELPING A
WOMAN THAT ICE GESTAPO PUSHED TO THE GROUND - THERE'S VIDEO!
THERE ARE VIDEOS!
MASS GOP HAVEN'T SEEN THE VIDEOS?
BECAUSE OF ICE GESTAPO ABUSE, INJURIES, KILLINGS AND LIES, THEY
ARE BEING RECORDED -THERE ARE VIDEOS!
RECORD NUMBERS OF DETAINEES ARE BEING KILLED - WHERE ARE THE
MASS GOP BOOBS? THEY'RE NOT QUESTIONING!
MORE RECENTLY, ONE MAN WAS SUBJECTED TO BANNED CHOKEHOLDS
AND FINALLY, A DEATH WAS RULED A HOMICIDE!
WISHY-WASHY MASS GOP NEED TO FIGURE IT OUT AS OTHER REPUBLICANS
ACROSS THE NATION HAVE - SPINELESS REPUBLICANS WHO HAVE
FAILED TO CALL OUT THE ILLEGAL INVASIONS OF CITIES WILL LOSE THE
MIDTERM ELECTIONS - FOR GOOD REASONS!
THE NATION IS RIGHTLY ANGRY!
MASS GOP BLABBERS NONSENSE!
ANYONE STUPID ENOUGH TO BELIEVE HIS CALL WITH GOV. WALZ
WAS AS TRUMP REPORTED MUST STILL BELIEVE TRUMP'S LIES!
While driving in traffic with a medical emergency, our local PBS STATION, WBUR broadcast several programs I am unable to locate, but have sent an inguerie to the station....
There was one program the recorded 911calls asking for assistance for ICE GESTAPO following people, causing accidents with damage to vehicles then falsely claiming the damage was the VICTIM'S fault.
911 advice is to 'escape' offering no police assistance.
Much of the 911 recordings are horrifying!
ICE GESTAPO break vehicle windows, assault drivers, people disappear.
ICE GESTAPO has SHOT & KILLED US CITIZENS!
The videotaped EXECUTIONS of RENEE GOOD and ALEX PRETTI highlighted and organized the ICE GESTAPO abuse and impunity, but their EXECUTIONS are not new ICE GESTAPO ABUSE.
Let's remember SALI, a US CITIZEN.
They BROKE DOWN HIS DOOR, dragged him out ill-clad because of their incompetence.
There's CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTION AGAINST HOME INVASION!
ICE GESTAPO have ignored COURT ORDERS!
ICE GESTAPO et al are signing 14 year contracts to WAREHOUSE 'IMMIGRANTS.'
WE know those being kidnapped by ICE GESTAPO are not criminals, but FOR PROFIT CONCENTRATION CAMPS are being created to house + 600,000 'detainees.'
AT WHAT COST? Your healthcare?
While driving in traffic with a medical emergency, our local PBS STATION, WBUR broadcast several programs I am unable to locate, but have sent an inguerie to the station....
There was one program the recorded 911calls asking for assistance for ICE GESTAPO following people, causing accidents with damage to vehicles then falsely claiming the damage was the VICTIM'S fault.
911 advice is to 'escape' offering no police assistance.
Much of the 911 recordings are horrifying!
ICE GESTAPO break vehicle windows, assault drivers, people disappear.
ICE GESTAPO has SHOT & KILLED US CITIZENS!
The videotaped EXECUTIONS of RENEE GOOD and ALEX PRETTI highlighted and organized the ICE GESTAPO abuse and impunity, but their EXECUTIONS are not new ICE GESTAPO ABUSE.
Let's remember SALI, a US CITIZEN.
They BROKE DOWN HIS DOOR, dragged him out ill-clad because of their incompetence.
There's CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTION AGAINST HOME INVASION!
ICE GESTAPO have ignored COURT ORDERS!
ICE GESTAPO et al are signing 14 year contracts to WAREHOUSE 'IMMIGRANTS.'
WE know those being kidnapped by ICE GESTAPO are not criminals, but FOR PROFIT CONCENTRATION CAMPS are being created to house + 600,000 'detainees.'
AT WHAT COST? Your healthcare?
How does this LUNACY make sense?
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.