Some Memphis businesses push back against Memphis Safe Task Force 

More than 50 Memphis businesses have signed onto a public pledge to deny service to members of the Memphis Safe Task Force, citing a pattern of widespread intimidation by its agents that have kept workers and customers away.

The pledge — made by owners of local cafes, cocktail bars, restaurants and hair salons — includes a commitment to deny entry to task force agents conducting warrantless searches and a demand that local and state leaders intercede to end the multi-agency deployment initiated last fall by President Donald Trump. 

Since Trump launched the crime-fighting task force, thousands of law enforcement officers have become a visible presence in one of the nation’s largest majority-Black cities, conducting traffic stops, serving warrants, making arrests and detaining immigrants. Task force members include immigration, drug enforcement and other federal agents, state troopers and Tennessee National Guard.

Business owners on Monday said the task force presence has cast a pall on regular activities, making people fearful of driving, going to work, sending their children to school, eating out and shopping — ultimately hurting local businesses and the customers and employees they depend on.

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“This is our city. These are our workers. These are our children. These are our neighborhoods. These are our tax dollars,” Rob Brown, owner of Da Sammich Spot, said Monday during a news conference featuring half a dozen business owners who pledged to not serve members of the task force. 

“You cannot call this public safety when people are afraid to work, afraid to take their children to school, afraid to go to church and afraid to spend money in their own neighborhoods,” Brown said.

In January, dozens of Task Force members swarmed the parking lot of Brown’s restaurant after he taped a sign on the door that read: “Stop. No ICE access in this business,” and “If you attempt to enter this business without a valid judicial warrant, you will be asked to leave.” They ultimately left without explaining their presence or making any arrests, but Brown was shaken.

The so-called business “buycott” was organized by the community group, Free the 901, which is seeking an end to the Memphis Safe Task Force presence in Memphis. The organization is urging other Memphis businesses to make the same commitment. It is also asking residents to patronize participating businesses and avoid a list it has compiled of other establishments that have expressed support for the work of the task force. 

“The task force has been devastating to local businesses, who’ve experienced drastic sales drops due to vulnerable community members staying indoors, unable to risk being racially profiled, terrorized, and taken from their families at a pretextual traffic stop,” it said in a statement.

The Monday announcement came just a day after reports of a large raid on a local nightclub. Volunteers with Vecindarios 901, a rapid response network that monitors ICE activity and offers support to affected families, reported that Immigration and Customs Enforcement had detained about 100 people at the El Corralón bar in Memphis. 

Volunteers posted videos and photos of the incident showing patrons dressed for a night out driven away in white buses while bystanders yelled at agents “shame on you.”

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A spokesperson for ICE declined on Monday to provide details about the enforcement action. 

“On August 30, ICE conducted a multi-agency targeted enforcement operation on Macon Road in Memphis,” the spokesperson said via email.  “This is an ongoing investigation.  More information will be released when available.”

The Task Force, which began arriving in Memphis last September, has come under renewed public scrutiny in recent months after the shooting deaths of four Black men in a two-month span. 

Official accounts of three of the four separate fatal encounters say the men reached for, or brandished, a weapon before being killed by a Task Force member. 

An autopsy of one of the men — 20-year-old Tyrin Johnson — appeared to contradict those accounts, further fueling anger among some business owners and residents as it was made public in recent days.

Johnson was killed July 5 after two members of the Tennessee National Guard on foot pursuit opened fire. After the shooting, Memphis Police released a statement saying Johnson was shot after he “turned toward” the guard members with a weapon. 

The autopsy, which was provided to the Lookout by Johnson family attorney André Wharton, determined Johnson was shot in the back. It concluded his death was a homicide. 

Darrin Pigram, 41, was shot and killed by a Drug Enforcement Administration officer serving a warrant on May 13 while working the breakfast shift at a Burger King. Other agents were present.

Agents later told investigators that Pigram became “visually and verbally aggressive” at the employee door after learning he was being served an arrest warrant and attempted to “push the agents off” and “close the door between himself and the agents.” One agent described a “pulling match” at the door. 

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Video released by the Shelby County District Attorney contradicts those accounts, showing Pigram holding the door open to speak to agents without attempting to push them or closing the door. Instead, it shows an agent pushing Pigram backward seconds after he opens the door. The TBI’s initial account said agents reported Pigram reached for a weapon in his waistband before being shot. The stationary cameras, which did not capture the entire incident, do not show Pigram reaching for a weapon nor the moment he was shot, less than a minute after he opened the door to the Memphis Safe Task Force agents.  Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy has declined to pursue criminal charges in the incident. 

Four days after Johnson was killed, Alfonso Ivy, 47, was shot and killed inside a Memphis hotel by officers serving a warrant for felony drug charges, a statement from TBI said. Ivy pointed a gun at the officers, according to the bureau. 

A fourth individual – 25-year-old John Neal – was killed after a Homeland Security Investigations officer responded to a report by his mother that he was threatening suicide. It wasn’t clear “whether Neal died as a result of the agent firing upon him or if it was self-inflicted stab wounds,” a statement by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said.  

The TBI has not yet released any materials or records of its investigations into the four shootings.