Trump sends the National Guard where crime is the highest – a blue city in a red state
When President Donald Trump began to accelerate a federal repression against urban crime, the cities he mentioned as targets at first were in solidly democratic bastions: Chicago, Baltimore, Boston and Washington. What he did not mention is that many of the 10 best cities with high homicides are in the states led by the Republicans.
But the last intrigues in a national calculation on violent crimes offer a recall of the way in which the complexity of the question defies the bites of its policy.
A very publicized metro murder put Charlotte, a city in North Carolina politically Violette, under the projectors of public security. The solid red Utah was the scene of the political assassination of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who shaken the nation. And the Tennessee led by Les Républicains is home to two cities classified in the country’s top 20 for violent crimes among major cities with populations of 500,000 or more.
Why we wrote this
Republicans say that crime rates justify the deployments of the National Guard in cities led by Democrats like Memphis. But many cities of higher crimes are in states led by the Republicans, a recall that the causes of crime – and solutions – are complex.
Memphis, where President Trump now orders the national guard troops at the request of the Republican governor of Tennessee, Bill Lee, has the highest rates of homicides and all violent crimes among these big cities.
In many ways, this democratic city illustrates the complex realities that underpin a partisan debate on a national scale. Sasé with a story of racial and socioeconomic inequalities, Memphis – a shopping center and animated distribution on the Mississippi river – also has long -term problems with the corruption of the police. This was developed after the murder of Nichols by police in 2023.
The democratic mayor of the city Paul Young says that he did not ask for the National Guard, but that he will “work strategically” to align federal resources with local police priorities.
But there is also a feeling that Memphis – three hours west of More Conservative Nashville, which is also at the top of the criminal graphs – served as a target for the Republican legislators of the State and the county who limited the tax authority of the city and forced it in Hew to the laws on the security of the firearms of the State, declared ARAM GOUDSOUZIAN, a political historian Memphis.
“In terms of understanding [why Governor Lee has invited federal deployment]It is important to understand where Memphis integrates into the policy of the state of Tennessee “, explains Professor Goudsouzian.” It is the unique democratic bastion in a state dominated by the Republicans. It is an easy target for white rural legislators … to demonize Memphis and paint him as a crisis to score political points without really immersing in problems “to reduce crime.
The law of the State authorizes open and hidden transport of handguns without a license, as well as firearms in cars.
The River City is known for its blues on Beale Street and its grandeur of Graceland, but also, unfortunately, for incidents like a shooting this month in which a spray of bullets injured four children who were in a house.
Mr. Trump’s call to send troops from the National Guard to Memphis follows the previous guard deployments he ordered this year in Los Angeles and the national capital. These measures are limited by the laws which limit the use of troops in national police, and the controversial efforts of Mr. Trump to deploy the National Guard for Urban Public Security intervene while the global violent crimes, including homicides, have dropped.
But public concerns about urban violence – and his promise to support the police and more difficult laws – was a problem of a winning campaign for him.
Public support for more application of the law
In fact, some polls show that more than half of Americans support the treatment of crime by President Trump, a subject – as well as that of deporting unauthorized immigrants – that the republican president has made a centerpiece of his administration.
“You should never get to a point where your citizens are launching your hands and say,” I don’t care what you have to do, come here and clean this, “explains Louis Quijas, who supervised the coordination of FBI police under President George W. Bush.
In general, while the cities led by Democrats tend to have the highest violent crimes statistics when measured by the state, crime rates are the highest in the locations led by the Republicans. And the accelerator of violence in a given community can be less police than other social conditions, suggests a recent analysis of the Manhattan Institute. In Memphis, for example, the poverty rate is 22.6%, almost double the American national rate, which places it second in global poverty among major cities with populations of more than 500,000.
And, while the Republicans often blame Democrats not to be hard enough for crime, experts affirm that social policies of the two parties – including conservative laws such as Laxist Fire Fire Laws and Public Education Cups and Social Security net programs – can play a role in the creation of illegal conditions of activity.
“Ironically, many initiatives [aimed at collaboration between federal and local law enforcement] have been eliminated, and now we have turned to militarization, ”explains Brenda Bond-Fortier, expert in police structures at Suffolk University in Boston.
Federal intervention, including the use of the National Guard to suppress disorders, is not new. The federal government infiltrated cities in the 1960s and 1970s to dismantle mafia organizations. After September 11, federal working groups fell in cities to eliminate potential attacks.
After sending troops to Washington earlier this year, when Trump had more latitude to do so, given his status as a federal enclave, cars fell 87%, DC Police Union.
Although the National Guard can provide a rapid solution, the Trump administration’s strategy is “wrongly the objective of the military force,” said Buddy Chapman, former police director of Memphis and author of “Call Me Director: Memoir of a police reformer”.
Noah Robertson / The Christian Science Monitor / File
“The military force is not to prevent you from doing something,” he adds. “It is to eliminate and eradicate you. Crime is a different question. »»
The Trump administration now also plans to send 1,000 troops from the National Guard to Louisiana, although Governor Jeff Landry, a Republican, did not ask for this aid. New Orleans is “in very poor condition,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News last week. “I can fix this in a week and a half.”
New republican crime policies at the state level
However, the Republican Heads of State, mainly in the South, have already started reforms that align with the police promises of President Trump with fewer legal obstacles.
In Georgia, Governor Brian Kemp ordered a pivot by the patrol of the state road to urban districts. In Louisiana, Governor Landry created the Nola troop to use state soldiers for foot patrols in urban communities. And in Jackson, Mississippi, a new law has created a court managed by the state to combat crime in the downtown district. The mayor of Jackson, John Horhn, a democrat, voted against the law as a senator, but after taking over as mayor, he called this “necessary evil”.
Last March, the legislators of the Missouri State restructured the police supervisory board in St. Louis after crime tips. And in Indiana, legislators have recently established a new supervisory board which can investigate prosecutors who face complaints to be too indulgent on alleged counterfeits.
Some of these efforts have given positive criticism.
But they did not relieve deep concerns concerning the consolidation of the police power. And now, the deployment of the guard in Memphis is equivalent to the expansion of “the power of the presidency through the barrel of a pistol”, explains the historian of the Rhodes College, Charles McKinney, co-publisher with Professor Goudsouzian of “an invisible light: the black struggles for freedom in Memphis”.
Leaders, laws and continuous challenges
In 2023, Memphis saw a town record of 390 homicides. But from last year, the figures began to drop, and in the first half of 2025, the overall rate of crime of River City was at a rate of 25 years due to local efforts, such as improved police strategies, more efficient data analysis, an increase in local efforts to create positive programs to combat the participation of young people in crime and new collaborations with the American prosecutor’s office case with a federal prison period as a consequence.
The city has a long reputation for community generosity and healing. A 2017 study by The Chronicle of Philanthropy revealed that the Memphians gave a higher proportion of their income to charities than any other major metropolitan area, with an average of 5.6% of income ranging to charities. The Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association of the City, founded in 1968 to help heal the city after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., continues to support many of the city’s poor.
However, highly publicized violence continues to stimulate criticism of liberal criminal justice policies, such as those linked to the use of strength and deposit, now used in many cities to resolve civil rights issues.
Mr. Quijas, who is also the former police chief in High Point, in North Carolina, says that the current conditions justify a federal response, like the only president that Trump undertakes, in certain cities.
“We have excellent police chiefs and police commissioners who are handcuffed by bad policies,” he said.
Others insist that the roots of American violence are more endemic and require a community effort with better application of the law.
“We will never be able to solve the crime problems of our country – the white collar as well as street crime – if we transform these questions into political football”, writes Randolph Roth, author of “American homicide” and historian of Ohio State University, in an email.
“Greatness … will not do the work. Listen to each other, respect each other and govern the center can.
The writer Victoria Hoffman contributed to this report.
