President Donald Trump said Friday that he plans to send the Federal Police and the National Guard to Memphis, Tennessee, to reduce the crime in the city after his increase in Washington, DC, during the last month.
“Let’s go to Memphis. Memphis is deeply worried,” Trump said in an interview about “Fox and Friends” by Fox News in New York. “The mayor is happy. He is a Democrat. And the governor of Tennessee, the governor is happy. We are going to fix that as we did Washington.”
Then, the president raised the issue of reducing crime in Chicago, a point of frequent conversation of his, saying: “I would have preferred to go to Chicago” and criticize Democratic officials in the city for opposing the measure.
Trump said he decided for Memphis after talking to someone who knows at the Fedex Board that brought the crime rate in the city.
“Let’s go to Memphis.” Trump said. “I am only announcing that now, and we will straighten it: the National Guard and any other person we need. And, by the way, we will also bring the military if we need it.”
FBI data show that violent crimes have been between 15,000 and 16,000 a year in Memphis in the last five years, marking an increase of several thousand of a decade ago.
The offices of the mayor of Memphis Paul Young and Republican governor Bill Lee did not immediately respond to the requests for NBC News comments.
Trump acknowledged that he has “more power” in DC, whose officials share authority with the federal government, and said the administration has had a positive relationship with Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser.
“We have had a great relationship,” Trump said. “Everyone is happy, and the mayor was not in favor of that at first … and then saw the results, and everyone is rising and thanking him. We no longer have crimes.”
The Trump emergency order authorizing a federal acquisition of the DC Police Force for 30 days expired this week, and would have required Congress to extend it even more under a law that gives the city some autonomy.
Bowser said that the federal personnel of application of the law would remain in the capital of the nation, but the Metropolitan Police Department would stop transporting the persons detained by the agents of compliance with the immigration and customs of the United States.
While the city would return to the “status quo,” he said, “Federal Police officers will be in the district … Federal Police officers can improve MPD’s public security mission.”
Bowser said last month that the increase in federal forces in the capital of the nation led to a fall in crime.
“We greatly appreciate the increase in officers that improve what MPD has been able to do in this city,” he said. In the first 20 days of the federal acquisition, there was a 87% drop in car theft compared to the same period last year. The aforementioned data also showed a 45% decrease in violent crime and a 15% drop in crime in general in the district since last year.
