Memphis, Tennessee, is currently occupied by more than more than 2,700 officers as part of the Memphis Safe Task Force — Department of Homeland Security (DHS); others are from other law enforcement agencies and the National Guard — but residents are not allowed to legally film them, notes Mother Jones:
Officers have taunted them, shined bright lights at them, and followed them in their cars. One community member was assaulted and jailed for trying to film.
Now, they’re suing, with help from the ACLU, which argues that agents are engaged in a pattern of intimidation and retaliation that hampers their First Amendment rights to record the police.
The lawsuit was filed last week against leaders of the task force, and it’s a harrowing read—dozens of pages of examples. Demster, for one, recalls an officer driving quickly as he stood in a parking lot and then swerving toward him, missing him by inches.
Another plaintiff was “bumper-rushed” by police while driving—they came up behind him so quickly that it appeared a collision was imminent, before hitting the brakes at the last second…
Plaintiff Jessica Chodor was tackled by a task force officer when she tried to film a traffic stop; she was held down and an officer threatened to tase her before taking her to jail. (The charge against her, “resisting official detention,” was later dropped.)
Demster says agents sometimes sit in their vehicles outside his house. “It’s terrifying to have to be on guard 100 percent of the time,” he says.
The case in Memphis also challenges Tennessee’s Halo Law, which criminalizes anyone who gets within 25 feet of an officer after they’ve been warned to step away. Task force agents are invoking the law against observers who are not interfering, and sometimes forcing them back even farther than required so they can no longer see or hear.
“It unconstitutionally burdens people’s ability to engage in gathering information and recording what task force agents are doing,” ACLU attorney Scarlet Kim told me.
A Department of Justice (DOJ) spokesperson said in a statement that the agency “will not tolerate any action that puts our law enforcement officers at risk.”
(Sources: Mother Jones, ACLU)