Rob Brown opened Da Sammich Spot Restaurant and Resource Hub in Orange Mound in March 2025 to be a “cultural hub for regular, everyday people in the community,” he said. The dining room’s walls are covered in wavy patterns of yellow and white. The space is dotted with positive quotes, hand-painted in bright-orange, bold text: “Respect humans. Protect children. Lettuce be friends.”
But on Sunday night, the restaurant became a scene of fear and confusion when dozens of law enforcement and military officers staked out the parking lot, although Da Sammich Spot was closed. The National Guard and several other local, state and federal law enforcement agencies have been patrolling the city since September as part of President Donald Trump’s Memphis Safe Task Force.
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Community members said they saw people wearing military uniforms standing in front of several businesses along Park Avenue on Sunday night. “A friend texted me and was like, ‘Hey, I was riding past and saw the National Guard setting up in front of your restaurant.’ So I turned on my camera first and saw them,” Brown told MLK50: Justice Through Journalism.
Brown was at his home, just minutes away from the restaurant. After seeing the live camera footage, he showed up and asked them to move their van. It was blocking the restaurant’s entrance, Brown said. They agreed to move, but soon after, more than 20 law enforcement and military officers filed into the cramped parking lot.
Almost instinctively, Brown started a livestream on Facebook at 8:22 p.m. on Sunday. A social media video showed that the National Guard was present first. Moments later, federal agents from the FBI, the U.S. Marshal’s Service, and Homeland Security Investigations arrived. Officers from the Memphis Police Department were also on the scene around 9 p.m. Officers were responding to a “disturbance at Park and Semmes,” an MPD spokesperson told MLK50 via text.
“I’m getting more and more scared for my life,” Brown said during the livestream as he pointed out all the weapons task force members were carrying. Brown went into “fight-or-flight” mode as a result of PTSD, he said.
“My adrenaline (was) pumping,” Brown said. “Things will go from zero to 100 in Memphis.”
The sudden police and military presence felt like an affront to the restaurant’s mission as “a safe space for the community,” Brown said. That mission is part of the reason Brown accepted the offer to put a new sign on the front door of his restaurant from a community organizer when the task force began its work in the fall.
“Come to find out, I’m one of the only businesses in the city that actually put it up,” he said.
Taped to the front door, the sign is a laminated sheet of printer paper. “Stop. No ICE access in this business. Notice to all law enforcement & immigration agents,” it reads. “If you attempt to enter this business without a valid judicial warrant, you will be asked to leave. This policy is in compliance with: U.S. Constitution, 4th Amendment.”
“It’s just crazy that the one space in the whole neighborhood that has this sign up, y’all come park in front of it,” Brown said while livestreaming on social media. “It’s an occupying force right here…This shit don’t make no sense.”
When Brown told guard members that he felt unsafe, one responded: “We’re patrolling this whole area.”
As Brown aired his experience on social media, other community members showed up to support him. Their presence seemed to “de-escalate the situation,” Brown said, and by 9:43 p.m., the parking lot was mostly empty. No arrests were made, nor any citations given.
Tyler Foster, a law student and vice president of the Memphis Interfaith Coalition for Action and Hope, said in an email that community members were threatened with arrest for disorderly conduct as they protested law enforcement’s presence. Foster was one of the people who arrived Sunday night to support Brown.
Jackson Brown, a spokesperson for the National Guard, said the guard was aware of the interaction in front of Da Sammich Spot.
“Our mission is to make Memphis and Memphians safe by providing assistance to local and federal law enforcement agencies in their duties,” he said in a statement. “We are committed to the communities of Memphis and all Memphians.”
The U.S. Marshals Service, which oversees the task force, referred a request for comment to the Memphis police, saying, “Though the task force is indeed multi-agency, the MPD is the agency that works most [with] the Guard. They would have a better firsthand explanation of the situation.” An MPD spokesperson described the National Guard as “extra eyes and ears in our city.”
Now, Foster and others are calling on MPD to release all body-worn camera footage from the Sunday night scene, and to adopt and publish written policies governing cooperation with the National Guard and federal law enforcement agencies.
The task force left. The community showed up.
By Tuesday afternoon, Da Sammich Spot had returned to its normal state. Sunshine filled the dining room. The front door stood open, welcoming fresh air from an unusually warm January afternoon. Faint sounds of traffic faded into the background as classic R&B tunes filled the air. Several people were hanging out in the dining room, talking, playing games and sharing meals.
So many customers visited the restaurant on Monday and Tuesday that it sold out of food both afternoons. Like many there, Wayne VanDeveer had visited Da Sammich Spot after he saw the videos from Sunday night’s incident on social media. VanDeveer, a resident of Central Gardens, wore a Smokey the Bear T-shirt. “Only you can prevent fascism,” the T-shirt read.
“(I) had to come support the neighborhood,” VanDeveer said. “Here it is, a property [manager] can’t get people off his property. Normally, you’d call the police, but here’s the police doing the crime.”
Daniel Bader, a lifelong Memphis resident, drove from Midtown during his lunch break on Tuesday to place a to-go order. It was his first time visiting the restaurant to “support local businesses” and to “show love,” he said.
“I don’t mind the National Guard. …They’re following orders, which is not a great thing to do all the time. They don’t want to be here,” Bader said. “We don’t need the Memphis Safe Task Force here.” State and federal agents “want to be here…causing chaos,” he added.
Brown described the police and military’s presence as “just another day in Memphis.” “This ain’t new,” he said. “We’ve been dealing with this way before the task force got here. MPD will pull up the exact same way with those aggressive tactics,” Brown said, referencing the U.S. Department of Justice’s report, which found MPD has a pattern of violating people’s civil rights. The 70-page report was released in December 2024.
Bluu Davis, a friend of Brown’s, also visited the restaurant on Tuesday. She agreed that the “Memphis experience” includes seeing retaliation by police officers, and that Sunday’s interaction could have escalated into something much worse.
“They could’ve gotten into an altercation,” she said. “Rob could’ve been arrested, or guns could’ve been drawn. We’ve seen it happen for something less.”
Despite this, “Da Sammich Spot will continue to be a positive place because the right person is occupying this space,” she said. “The sun came out perfectly after that incident. We’re not going to be scared to go into a space that the task force – that we didn’t ask for – is here trying to intimidate.”
Brown’s focus is back on building “stability for the restaurant,” he said, after months of dealing with poor building conditions and a contentious relationship with his landlord. Since the Sunday-night incident, he’s faced surprise visits from the Shelby County Health Department, which is threatening to shut down the restaurant due to “missing paperwork: a certificate of occupancy,” Brown said.
Brown has also received several supportive phone calls from people in Memphis, Chattanooga, Chicago and other places across the country. “I’m just trying to get back to doing some of the stuff I’ve been doing since I opened the restaurant … community events and inviting people and organizations in,” he said.
Brittany Brown is the public safety reporter for MLK50: Justice Through Journalism. Email her at brittany.brown@mlk50.com
Katherine Burgess is the government accountability reporter for MLK50: Justice Through Journalism. Contact her at katherine.burgess@mlk50.com
This story is brought to you by MLK50: Justice Through Journalism, a nonprofit newsroom focused on poverty, power and policy in Memphis. Support independent journalism by making a tax-deductible donation today. MLK50 is also supported by these generous donors.