Gideon’s Army

The activities of the organization have generated significant controversy and the group and its founder, Rasheedat Fetuga, have been the subject of several investigative news pieces from Nashville’s local Channel 5 television station—which has chronicled the group’s employment of violent gang members, exaggeration of its success in preventing violence in a specific neighborhood, and the group’s founder being banned from Pearl-Cohn High School following an alleged expletive-laden outburst. ^{1 2 3 4}

Background

Gideon’s Army was founded in 2010 by activist Rasheedat Fetuga. Prior to running the organization full-time, Fetuga was the acting executive director for the Nashville branch of the NAACP and the Tennessee statewide organizer for the Children’s Defense Fund. ⁵

The organization has promoted left-of-center and far-left policies concerning policing, school discipline, and criminal justice and has endorsed policies it refers to as “Restorative Justice” that have been adopted within the Metro Nashville Public Schools in 2014 and by Davidson County Juvenile Court Judge Sheila Calloway, a Democrat. ⁴

Controversies

Gideon’s Army has been the subject of several investigative news pieces by Nashville’s local Channel 5 television station—which has made allegations concerning the group’s employment of violent gang members, exaggeration of its success in preventing violence in a specific neighborhood, and the group’s founder being banned from Pearl-Cohn High School following an alleged expletive-laden outburst. ^{1 2 3 6}

Employment of Alleged Gang Members

In April 2021, an employee of Gideon’s Army, Cleveland Shaw, Jr. was killed in a late-night gun battle. After the admitted shooter claimed he shot Shaw in self-defense, the Metro Nashville Police found evidence to support the self-defense claims and the district attorney ultimately closed the case. While Shaw was “supposedly helping the taxpayer-funded group to keep the peace,” the investigation into his death uncovered evidence that he had been a “high-level drug dealer” who “headed a Crips-affiliated gang known as the Dodge City Young Gunnas (DCYG).” ¹

The investigation into police records by News Channel 5 Nashville raised allegations that Shaw remained heavily involved in gang activity while on Gideon’s Army’s payroll, including an incident in which multiple witnesses identified him as the suspect who ran another car off the road, “jumped out with short rifles,” and “took something from the trunk.” In another incident, he was identified as a suspect in a shooting, but the victim would not identify anyone. ⁷

Another Gideon’s Army employee, Charles Brooks, was involved in a gun battle in the same neighborhood in 2021. Brooks claimed self-defense and police reports indicated that was likely, but Brooks, who as a convicted felon was barred from carrying firearms, was arrested for a weapons offense. ³

Controversial Views of Leaders

Another News Channel 5 Nashville investigation piece revealed several social-media posts of some of the top individuals within the Gideon’s Army organization that endorsed views associated with the Nation of Islam (NOI). According to News Channel 5, posts by “lead violence interrupter” Hambino Goodboy “include descriptions of white people as being a “pestilence” accidentally unleashed on the world by an ancient scientist, suggestions that police should be made to fear going into Black neighborhoods,” and a derogatory reference to the president of Meharry Medical College. News Channel 5 quoted Goodboy’s Instagram biography as referring to himself as a “five percenter,” which the outlet characterized as “an apparent reference to an offshoot of the Nation of Islam known for its controversial views on race.” ⁸ Other Gideon’s Army personnel expressed views appearing to support violence. ⁸

Exaggeration of Success in Reducing Crime

News Channel 5 Nashville also investigated Gideon’s Army’s claim of an “unheard-of” record of eliminating all violent crime for 10 months in the Cumberland View housing projects of North Nashville. ³

During the 10-month period referenced by the organization, Metro Nashville police “received 38 calls about shootings, shots being fired or people with weapons.” In response, Rasheedat Fetuga, the group’s founder, claimed that “What we measure is who has been shot.” Fetuga also stated that when a man was actually shot in the neighborhood (and a Gideon’s Army volunteer was identified as the suspect), Gideon’s Army did not count the incident as an act of violence either. ³

Funding

Gideon’s Army has received funding from the Tennessee Department of Human Services and gun-control group Moms Demand Action. In 2022, an advisory group appointed by Nashville Mayor John Cooper (D) recommended that the city fund Gideon’s Army as part of a two-year, $1.5 million violence interruption pilot project in North Nashville. ^{3 9}