US assigns ‘anarchist’ designation to 3 cities
Withholding of federal funds is threatened
WASHINGTON – The Justice Department on Monday singled out Portland, Oregon; New York City; and Seattle as “anarchist jurisdictions” – cities that the Trump administration said have allowed violence to persist during months of civil demonstrations over racial injustice and police brutality and could lose federal funding.
The designation of the three cities, led by Democrats, was in response to President Donald Trump’s Sept. 2 executive order, which threatened to withhold funding from cities where the administration said state and local officials cut police funding, refused offers for help from the federal government and failed to rein in violence.
“We cannot allow federal tax dollars to be wasted when the safety of the citizenry hangs in the balance. It is my hope that the cities identified by the Department of Justice today will reverse course and become serious about performing the basic function of government and start protecting their own citizens,” Attorney General William Barr said in a statement.
The mayors of the three cities criticized the move as a political stunt to punish Democratic cities beset by crisis amid a deadly pandemic and accused the Trump administration of trying to distract from its inability to contain the spread of coronavirus, which has killed nearly 200,000 in the country.
“This is thoroughly political and unconstitutional. The President is playing cheap political games with congressionally directed funds,” the three mayors said in a statement Monday. “What the Trump Administration is engaging in now is more of what we’ve seen all along: shirking responsibility and placing blame elsewhere to cover its failure.”
New York’s corporation counsel also said officials will sue the Trump administration if it withholds federal funding.
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan said threatening to withhold federal funding is a “gross misuse of federal power.”
New York City’s corporation counsel said officials will sue the Trump administration if it withholds federal funding.
In a joint statement following Trump’s executive order, the mayors of Portland, Seattle, New York City and Washington, D.C., said their cities and citizens are not the president’s “political pawns,” and withholding federal funding would be illegal. Trump’s executive order also singled out Washington, D.C., although the Justice Department on Monday did not designate the district as an “anarchist jurisdiction.”
“We are confronting unprecedented challenges – fighting back a pandemic and economic devastation without another stimulus. Now, instead of leadership from the White House, we are faced with new attacks that are unlawful and will undoubtedly be defeated in court,” the mayors said. “President Trump needs to wake up to the reality facing our cities – and our entire country – and realize he is not above the law.”