Trump orders feds to Chicago, other cities to address ‘rampage of violence’
President Trump on Wednesday ordered federal officers to Chicago to counter what he called “a rampage of violence.”
“The FBI, ATF, DEA, US Marshals Service and Homeland Security will together be sending hundreds of skilled law enforcement officers to Chicago to help drive down violent crime,” Trump said in the White House East Room.
“For those people in Chicago and other cities where we’ll be, help is on its way.”
Trump is deploying officers to Chicago and also to Albuquerque, New Mexico, as part of the national Operation Legend anti-violence initiative, which is named for LeGend Taliferro, a 4-year-old shot dead in Kansas City.
Earlier this month, federal officers were sent to Portland, Oregon, to protect a federal courthouse from rioters, and to Kansas City to quell violence as part of Operation Legend.
Trump did not specify the number of officers going to Chicago or the other cities. The Chicago Tribune reported on Monday that 150 officers would be sent.
Taliferro’s family joined Trump at the White House on Wednesday. The toddler’s mother, Charron Powell, said “Operation Legend is not to harass. It’s not to harm or hurt. It is to help investigate unsolved murders.”
The new deployments come as Chicago’s Mayor Lori Lightfoot vowed to turn away the feds, with support from fellow Democrats in Washington. Trump said deployed officers would enforce federal laws and seek to partner with local police.
Trump blasted “extreme politicians” who he said have joined an “anti-police crusade,” resulting in “a shocking explosion of shootings, killings, murders and heinous crimes of violence.”
“The citizens of Chicago are citizens of America and they have the same right as every other American to live in safety, dignity and peace. No mother should ever have to cradle her dead child in her arms simply because politicians refuse to do what is necessary,” Trump said.
“Perhaps no citizens have suffered more from the menace of violent crime than the wonderful people of Chicago — a city I know very well. At least 414 people have been murdered in the city this year, a roughly 50 percent increase over last year, more than 1,900 people have been shot, these are numbers that aren’t even to be believed. Yesterday alone 23 people were shot in Chicago, including at least 15 who were shot and a merciless onslaught of gunfire outside of a funeral home.”
The boost in law enforcement isn’t welcome by Lightfoot, who tweeted Tuesday, “Under no circumstances will I allow Donald Trump’s troops to come to Chicago and terrorize our residents.”
“Trump & his stormtroopers must be stopped,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tweeted about the Portland deployment.
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Tuesday cited a section of law that she said allows Trump to deploy the officers to protect federal property.
“When a federal courthouse is being lit on fire, commercial fireworks being shot at [officers], I think that that falls pretty well within the limits of 40 US Code 1315,” the Harvard Law School graduate said.
Other major cities including New York are experiencing a surge in violence following national unrest over the killing of George Floyd by Minnesota police. Trump on Monday threatened to “do something” in New York if local leaders do not.
Trump and Attorney General William Barr said further deployments are possible.
“We will be adding cities in the weeks ahead,” Barr said.
The attorney general blamed increases in violence on criticism of police following Floyd’s death. “This rise is a direct result of the attack on the police forces and the weakening of police forces,” he said.
Trump highlighted New York City.
“In New York City, over 300 people were shot in the last month alone. A 277 at least percent increase over the same period of a year ago,” he said, adding: “Murders this year have spiked 27 percent in Philadelphia and 94 percent in Minneapolis.”
Trump said Wednesday that he was also rolling out a $61 million Justice Department grant program “to hire hundreds of new police officers in cities that are the focus of Operation Legend.”
“We will never defund the police, we will hire more great police,” Trump said. “We want to make law enforcement stronger, not weaker. What cities are doing is absolute insanity… While others want to defund, defame and abolish the police, I want to support and honor our great police.”