Two National Guardsmen shot and killed an armed man in downtown Memphis Sunday, stepping into a lawless vacuum created by progressive prosecutors and Democrat leadership that has surrendered American streets to violent crime.
When a city requires military deployment to handle street crime, civilian governance has failed. The Guardsmen, part of a federal task force deployed over local objections, confronted 20-year-old Tyrin Johnson after reports of gunfire around 4 a.m. According to Memphis police, Johnson fled on foot and "turned toward NG members with his weapon" before the soldiers opened fire. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, which is probing the incident at the request of Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy, stated only that "the situation escalated, resulting in two National Guard soldiers firing upon Johnson, striking and killing him." The New York Post noted the TBI omitted the detail about Johnson turning with his gun, though police stood by it. Two Guard medics attempted first aid, but Johnson died at the scene.
This is what happens when Soros-backed DAs refuse to lock up repeat offenders: the military has to do the policing. The soldiers are part of the Memphis Safe Task Force, launched by the Trump administration last fall to combat soaring assaults, carjackings, and homicides in Tennessee’s second-largest city. Memphis Mayor Paul Young, a Democrat, fought the deployment but called the shooting an "unfortunate incident." The Trump administration has ordered similar deployments in six Democrat-run cities, costing taxpayers nearly half a billion dollars through December and projected to top $1 billion this year, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Americans are footing a billion-dollar bill because local leaders won't do theirs.
The establishment press spins the failure. NPR and the Associated Press made sure to highlight Memphis police claims that overall crime was falling before the Guard arrived. Yet some local residents told NPR they welcomed the federal intervention—a telling split between the media narrative and the reality on the ground for working Americans.
There are legitimate constitutional concerns. The ACLU is representing four Memphis residents in a federal lawsuit challenging a 25-foot buffer zone restricting citizens from recording law enforcement, alleging task force members have retaliated against those filming them. A state appeals court already overturned a lower court's injunction blocking the troops, ruling local Democrats lacked standing. While the ACLU's free speech fight is warranted, the need for a federal task force to establish basic order is the deeper constitutional crisis.
The Guardsmen did what they had to do when an armed suspect turned on them. The open question is how long American citizens will tolerate paying billions for the military to do a job that local police and prosecutors are paid—and refuse—to do themselves.
