by Rod Williams, Sept. 12, 2025- It is now official that the National Guard will be deployed to Memphis. President Donald Trump announced it on Fox News today, following days of speculation.
“I am just announcing that now, and we’ll straighten that out,” Trump said after the announcement. “...National Guard, and anybody else we need. And by the way, we’ll bring the military too, if we need it.”
Trump said Memphis is "deeply troubled," but that both Memphis Mayor Paul Young and Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee were happy about the deployment.
Despite Memphis being ranked as the most violent crime-ridden city in America, crime is down in Memphis, and reportedly, it is at a twenty-year low.
I am unsure why Trump is sending troops to American cities. A major motivation seems to be to support ICE in making raids. Of course, Trump said he was going after the worst ot the worst criminal aliens. That, of course, would require investigative police work. The worst of the worst are not showing up for their court hearings or picking up their kids from school. It seems ICE just wants numbers and is going after the low-hanging fruit.
We know that illegal aliens are not a major source of crime. It may be impolite to point it out, but cities with large Black populations have more severe crime problems, much of it gang-related. A short-term show of force in highly visible parts of town does little to curtail crime. It may make those parts of town where military forces are standing guard safer while the military is present, but National Guard troops will unlikely be going into Black neighborhoods and housing projects doing investigative work and building relationships with people in the community.
If making cities safer is the goal, that is already happening. Crime is heading down all across America. All we have to do is keep doing what we have been doing. Of course, ending cashless bail and more police on the streets, and some other actions would hasten the downward trend in crime. Those are decisions to be made at the local level, however. Each city gets to set its own priorities. If some cities are more tolerant of crime than I would be or if they have spending priorities different than what I might choose, then so be it. It is their right to govern themselves.
Trump's motivation for sending troops into American cities may be nothing more than to show he can do it. He did say recently that as president, he could do whatever he wanted. He portrays himself as the decisive strong leader macho man. This may just be a reflection of Trump's bully personality.
Another motivation, I assume, is that Trump wants to please his base and keep them engaged. Part of the partisan divide is a rural versus urban divide, and many people who do not live in cities see cities as crime-ridden hellholes. By sending troops into American cities, Trump is confirming his base's prejudice and showing he is doing something to fix these Democrat run cities that are pandering to criminals, protecting illegal aliens, and are soft on crime.
I fear that there is another motivation. Trump seems to be following the dictator's playbook. He wants to accustom American citizens to the presence of military rule and make subjects out of citizens.
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