Mayor Lee Harris has declared a state of emergency in Shelby County, citing a strain on local resources caused by the surge in federal and state law enforcement deployed to Memphis by Gov. Bill Lee and President Donald Trump.
The declaration, issued last week and announced publicly Tuesday, cites pressures on the county’s already-overcrowded detention centers as a result of an estimated 200% increase in daily arrests made by members of the Memphis Safe Task Force. This state-federal partnership has brought hundreds of outside law enforcement personnel, including the Tennessee National Guard, to the city.
Shelby County includes all of Memphis, as well as a few smaller cities.
The local state of emergency will continue “until the end of Memphis Safe Task Force operations or until detention facility populations are reduced to capacity level or below,” the declaration read. Lee this week said the operation could “last forever.”
Shelby County jail officials have long faced criticism for persistent overcrowding and inhumane conditions inside the city’s central detention center
The declaration, issued last week and announced publicly Tuesday, cites pressures on the county’s already-overcrowded detention centers as a result of an estimated 200% increase in daily arrests made by members of the Memphis Safe Task Force.
True, if you’re already overcrowded, what’s the harm in adding another 200% on top of that with no additional funding?
The task force that invaded a city to keep it safe has only strained resources and endangered all residents by making arbitrary arrests and filling local jails beyond their capacity…
Why is this the same fucking story every time. “If all the ignorant libs who don’t know what’s best for them, would just stop resisting, and allow themselves to be saved by the right wing authoritarian oligarchs, everything would be fine.”
This is how actual criminals get let out of jail incorrectly.
Edit: “This” being overfilling the jails with non-serious criminals and/or non-criminals.
Yep, it literally happened in New Orleans a few months ago. Everybody blamed the “progressive” sheriff that our governor literally believed had been installed by George Soros.
Somehow there was always a reason not to believe her numbers when she tried to point out she had been begging the city to give her money to make repairs to the jail. Clearly she just wasn’t doing her job.
However, pointing out the fact that the governor’s state police force had done exactly this, and filled the jails at maximum capacity for arrests following stops for things like window tint, was just absurd and typical “conditioned to fail attitude,” from the liberal policy that is responsible for flooding the city with crime, and ignorant liberals refusing to take responsibility.
Our DA is also continuously being publicly blamed and shamed online for not clearing cases off the docket fast enough despite having an agreement with the Republican state AG that she would be handling all of the state police arrests. Coincidentally there currently seems to be a similar campaign against the Memphis DA and other local elected officials on city council.
At this point, I’m pretty sure it’s intentional.