President Trump is deploying 100 federal agents in Chicago to help combat rising crime rates, a move that marks an expansion of White House intervention in local law enforcement as Trump continues to position himself as the president of ” law”.
The “surge” of agents announced Wednesday in Chicago and other American cities is part of Operation Legend, named after 4-year-old LeGend Taliferro, who was fatally shot while sleeping in a Kansas City apartment in late April. Last month, and declaring federal law enforcement officers have already dropped in Portland, Oregon and Kansas City, Missouri.
“The effort to shut down the police in their own communities has led to a shocking explosion of shooting, murder, violence, murder,” Trump said during a speech in the East Room of the White House. “This rampage of violence is shaking our nation’s conscience and we are not going to wait and see it happen.”
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While dispatching federal agents to assist local law enforcement is unprecedented, Attorney General Bill Barr announced a similar escalation effort in December for seven cities that had seen an increase in violence: the type of federal agent sent and some of his tactics have raised concern among state and local lawmakers.
Typically, the Department of Justice dispatches officers under its own umbrella, such as officers from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or the Drug Enforcement Agency. But this major effort will include officers from the Department of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), who generally conduct investigations of drug trafficking and child exploitation.
Several lawmakers from New York to Portland protested against the Trump administration sending officers to their cities, especially after reports that unidentified federal agents detained protesters in Portland and took them in unmarked vehicles. Portland has been hit with near-daily protests against police brutality and systemic racism since George Floyd’s death while in Minneapolis police custody on May 25.
Local authorities have also complained that the waves have only exacerbated tensions, and criminal justice experts say the efforts defy explanation due to the unprecedented time the United States is experiencing, with a pandemic, historic unemployment and a trial. about racism and how people of color are treated. For the police.
“The president is attacking progressive cities with inopportune and low-skilled troops,” Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said in a letter signed by 16 mayors asking Trump to reverse his orders. “Militarized agents are terrorizing the American people. We must unite for peace and reform, and against these non-American tactics. “
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Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot added: “We welcome society, not dictatorship, and we will never tolerate the kind of unconstitutional deployment and state-sanctioned illegality we saw in Portland.”
Chicago, which is currently experiencing a wave of deadly gun violence, has been a particular target of Trump’s criticism. A shooting at a funeral home earlier this week left 14 people injured, and followed a weekend that saw 10 people killed and 60 people injured due to gun violence.
“At least 414 people have been killed in the city this year,” said Trump. “These are numbers that you can’t even believe.”
The decision to send federal agents to American cities is unfolding at a hyper-politicized moment when Trump is trying to demonstrate that he is a “law and order” president and that he paints Democrat-led cities as out of control. With less than four months to go before Election Day, Trump has been making dire warnings that the violence would worsen if his Democratic rival Joe Biden is elected in November, as he tried to win over voters who could be influenced by that message.
Trump has worked to link Biden with some of the progressive Democratic lawmakers who have echoed protesters’ calls to “strip the police.” The president said Democratic leaders “embraced the ideology of the radical left to remove the police.”
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However, Biden has not asked the police to be expelled or abolished, but has instead advocated for better training and a redistribution of funds to other social programs.
Using federal agents against the will of local officials has also created the potential for a constitutional crisis, according to legal experts.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said federal agents were clamping down on the United States’ right to protest and would not welcome federal agents there.
“I still believe in the rule of law in this country and we would go to court immediately. I think what the president is doing is unconstitutional, “he said Wednesday on MSNBC’s” Morning Joe “program.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
