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President Trump signed an order authorizing the deployment of National Guard troops to Memphis, Tennessee, on Monday. The order also creates a so-called safe task force, which Trump claims will address violent crime in the city. Law enforcement officers from several federal agencies will also be dispatched to Memphis, including the FBI, DEA, ICE and Homeland Security.
"This is nothing more than a power play for more authoritarianism from this administration," says Justin J. Pearson, Democratic Tennessee state representative. "We are dealing with the consequences of people who are in positions of power who do not care about our lives, who do not care about our communities, who don't care about eliminating poverty. They don't even care about crime," he adds.
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Former president Barack Obama called the killing of Kirk a tragedy, and said the Trump administration was wrong to try and sow division after the shooting.
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Six Republican-led states have now pledged National Guard troops to the Trump administration's takeover of Washington, D.C., where it has assumed control of policing under the claim of tackling crime. Along with the D.C. National Guard that Trump already controlled, this brings the total number of troops in the streets of the capital to more than 2,000. The federal takeover comes even as violent crime in the capital is at a 30-year low — numbers the Trump administration now disputes, with the Justice Department launching an investigation into whether those crime statistics were manipulated by city officials.
"What we're seeing is lawlessness, but it's all coming from the White House," says community activist Keya Chatterjee, the executive director of the group Free DC.
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