Post falsely claims Tennessee National Guard troops were sent to Memphis | Fact check

The claim: National Guard troops were sent to Memphis, Tennessee, in April 2024

An April 26 Facebook post ( direct link , archive link ) claims troops were sent to a major city in Tennessee.

“Memphis so bad the national guards are on the way (sic),” reads the post.

It was shared more than 100 times in four days.

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Our rating: False

A spokesperson for the mayor of Memphis said the claim is false. The Tennessee National Guard has not received any formal requests for help in the city, a spokesperson said.

No requests for troops in Memphis, guard says

The claim in the Facebook post is false, said Penelope Huston , a spokesperson for Memphis Mayor Paul Young.

As of April 30, the National Guard had not received any formal requests to send troops to the city, Capt. Kealy Moriarty told USA TODAY.

“While the Tennessee National Guard is always ready to respond and help the community we serve in, there has not been an official request for support at this time,” Moriarty said in an email.

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It is unclear what, if any, specific event is referenced in the Facebook post, which contains no context or explanation.

Sending troops to a major U.S. city for any reason would generate a significant amount of coverage from legitimate media outlets, but there is no such reporting on the topic. The most recent credible reports linking the guard to Memphis were published in November 2023, when multiple state lawmakers from the area said their constituents pushed them to ask the guard for help in reducing violent crime, which included the fatal shooting of a researcher at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital . A Memphis pastor made a similar request three months earlier, WHBQ-TV reported .

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee’s most recent authorization to deploy troops came in May 2023, when 100 Tennessee National Guard members were assigned to help secure the southern U.S. border , according to a search of the website where those announcements are posted.

Lee also previously placed the guard on active duty in June 2020 in Memphis and other cities across the state where protests were held following George Floyd’s death, WREG-TV reported .

USA TODAY reached out to the Facebook user who shared the post but did not immediately receive a response.

Our fact-check sources:

• Kealy Moriarty , April 30, Email exchange with USA TODAY
• Penelope Huston , April 30, Email exchange with USA TODAY
• Tennessee Office of the Governor, accessed April 30, Search results

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Post falsely claims Tennessee National Guard troops were sent to Memphis | Fact check