The national media narrative on the Memphis Safe Task Force convened by President Donald Trump is that lots of arrests have been made in one of the country’s least safe cities but that the bulk of them have dealt with immigration violations and traffic tickets.
The intended impression is that the whole operation is an expensive waste, unwanted by residents of Tennessee’s second largest city and perpetrated on a majority Black city by a racist president.
If data is provided in the national news stories by federal and state officials, it is usually accompanied by a phrase saying the outlet “has been unable to independently verify arrest data released” by the officials.
U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee, tried to put a more accurate face on the results of the task force for her Senate colleagues Wednesday with remarks ahead of a resolution recognizing the task force’s success.
Democrats, who aren’t interested in the actual results and just in the negative narrative, blocked the resolution. But they couldn’t silence the remarks.