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Tennessee Rep. Justin J. Pearson is calling for accountability from city leaders after Memphis Police officers sprayed attendees at Saturday’s No Kings event with pepper spray and arrested three men for allegedly blocking a street. 

“The actions of the Memphis Police Department (MPD) officers were violent, vicious and unnecessary,” Pearson, a Memphis Democrat, told the Lookout in a statement. “The peaceful march was minutes from ending and MPD attacked the peaceful protesters exercising their First Amendment rights.”

“Mayor Paul Young and Chief CJ Davis must reprimand and remedy these patterns and practices of policing in our city immediately,” Pearson said. 

A coalition of 25 community groups, including the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Committee, Just City and Memphis For All, have condemned the police actions. 

Tikeila Rucker with Memphis For All had just finished marching and reached the end at Robert Church Park in downtown Memphis, when she became aware of a commotion. 

“We were done; we were 50 feet from the end point and (march) marshals were holding some elderly people on walkers to help them,” Rucker said. “The cops were 50 feet from the finish. No rationale was provided, there was no directive to get out of the street.” 

A statement provided by Memphis Police Department said otherwise: “Officers observed multiple individuals in the street obstructing traffic and made repeated verbal requests for approximately 40 minutes for them to move to the sidewalk so that normal traffic flow could resume and to ensure the safety of all individuals involved.”

According to police, marshals refused to leave, locking arms, at which point an officer deployed pepper spray. 

The police statement also said event organizers did not have a permit for the march. Faith King, spokesperson for Memphis Police, did not respond to a request for clarification about why police did not halt the march earlier. 

Rucker said the three men arrested, Rueben Burch, 33, Adam Nelson, 41, and David Rahaim, 42, were acting as marshals during the march, tasked with guiding marchers and directing traffic. 

All three were charged with disorderly conduct and obstructing a highway/passageway. Burch was also charged with interfering with an officer serving process and resisting detention, Nelson with failure to obey a traffic officer and Rahain with resisting detention. 

Nelson said he had been assigned to guide marchers into Church Park when he saw police massing behind the last group of marchers.

“Police turned the sirens on their cars on and I could smell mace: people who had not been directly sprayed were choking from it,” he said.

Nelson said he stepped between marchers and police officers to act as a buffer, at which point he was detained and arrested.

The law against obstructing a highway or passageway is new, having passed in the legislature in 2025 and taking effect on July 1. The measure was sponsored by Sen. Brent Taylor, a Shelby County Republican. 

All three men arrested were released from custody on Sunday. They appeared in Shelby County General Sessions Court Monday and received a 30-day continuance in their case. 

Mayor Paul Young said in a statement released Monday afternoon that the officers involved in the incident have been placed on administrative leave pending an internal investigation.

More than two dozen No Kings rallies and marches took place in Tennessee Saturday as part of a nationwide day of protest against President Donald Trump and his administration’s policies. The Memphis event apparently was the only one in which law enforcement became involved.

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