MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Following two recent fatal encounters involving federal law enforcement in Memphis, the National Police Accountability Project on Friday called for independent investigations into both incidents and demanded the swift removal of federal agents from the city.
According to a press release issued by the advocacy group, 20-year-old Tyrin Johnson was killed by members of the National Guard earlier this week, while Alfonso Ivy was killed in a separate incident involving the Drug Enforcement Administration.
NPAP argued that the deaths illustrate the risks of expanded federal law enforcement operations in local communities.
“The agents who killed Tyrin and Alfonso have two things in common — they are federal agents and part of the so-called Memphis Safe Task Force,” NPAP Executive Director Lauren Bonds said in the statement. “Their deaths were preventable, and prove what we’ve been saying for years.”
The announcement demanded transparent investigations “independent from any federal coverup that’s already underway,” noting that the victims’ families are currently “living a nightmare that no one should ever have to experience.”
NPAP said it strongly opposes the Trump administration’s “massive, politically-motivated deployment of federal agencies to U.S. cities.” The organization said it filed an amicus brief expressing that position in District of Columbia v. Trump, according to the news release.
“While police train to maintain peace in local communities, National Guard troops train primarily for war,” the organization wrote in the brief.
The release highlighted the importance of local groups such as Decarcerate Memphis, which it said have successfully pressured the city to take police violence seriously. Bonds argued that President Donald Trump’s “federal invasion” is reversing that progress.
The National Guard is not trained for law enforcement, despite what the Trump administration may argue, according to the statement. Its statutory training requirements cover only the “fundamentals of soldiering,” including hand-to-hand combat.
Training for the National Guard includes “drill and instruction, including indoor target practice” and “training at encampments, maneuvers, outdoor target practice, or other exercises,” according to the release.
“Local police, in contrast, are trained in U.S. criminal law, traffic enforcement, community policing, and de-escalation techniques,” NPAP said, “and even then, they often make deadly mistakes.”
The killings of Tyrin and Alfonso “reopened a gaping wound” for Memphis, according to the news release. The organization said the incidents remind residents of the killing of Tyre Nichols by police officers several years ago.
“[I]nstead of having to demand investigations into killings, we want the killings to end,” Bonds urged. “Unwanted federal agents and National Guard members need to leave local communities immediately.”
The advocacy group maintained that public safety should not apply exclusively to white and wealthy people. It said those protections must extend to everyone, including Black people, low-income people and immigrants.
Concluding the news release, Bonds encouraged residents to “read up on their rights” during what the organization described as a period of mass federal occupation. The announcement included a guide outlining those rights during encounters with federal law enforcement deployments.
“If we truly want police killings to stop, the solution is not more police,” Bonds said, “it’s more people working together to improve the community we call home.”
NPAP said it continues to challenge law enforcement overreach and exploitation. The nonprofit provides support to civil rights attorneys and litigates cases against “police departments, jails, and prisons to hold public officials accountable for misconduct.”
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