USA TODAY International Edition
Mayors see fed surge as political
Sending agents to cities breaks trust, they say
One of the hardest lessons to emerge from the 9/ 11 terror attacks was the lack of coordination among American law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
The failures, outlined in a national commission’s report, prompted a dramatic expansion of a network of terrorism task forces, marking a landmark collaboration between federal agencies and local law enforcement.
By contrast, the plan unveiled by the Trump administration last week to surge hundreds of federal agents to Chicago; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and other cities as part of a crackdown on violent crime lacked an essential ingredient that continues to bind the vaunted anti- terrorism enterprise: local trust.
At any other time, the help extended by the White House likely would have been accepted without question, especially in Chicago, where murders are up 51% this year.
But as federal agents clash nightly with protesters in Portland, Oregon, and as President Donald Trump openly threatens federal intervention in cities led by Democrats, municipal leaders in those cities and elsewhere no longer view the deployments as a salve to help reduce crime. Instead, they say, the deployments have taken on the unmistakable shroud of politics, with the
president seeking to project a law- andorder image and revive a sagging reelection campaign in the midst of a deadly pandemic.
“My vision for America's cities could not be more different from the lawlessness being pushed by the extreme radical left,” Trump said Wednesday in the East Room of the White House, where he went on to refer to city leaders as “deadly politicians” supporting “deadly policies.”
Quinton Lucas, mayor of Kansas City, Missouri, was among those who listened carefully to the president's words and winced, calling the message “offensive, divisive and harmful to my city.”
While struggling with its own violent crime, Kansas City recently accepted the help of more than 200 federal agents to battle persistent violence highlighted by last month's unsolved murder of 4- yearold LeGend Taliferro, who was shot while he slept in an apartment. The plan announced by Trump and Attorney General William Barr on Wednesday expanded on that strategy named for the young victim, “Operation LeGend.”
Trump's rhetoric “makes it very hard to stand with and explain this operation to the public,” Lucas, a Democrat, told USA TODAY on Thursday. “I want to find justice for LeGend Taliferro. But to get that justice ... you don't have to make the community a ploy in an election year.”
‘ Politics standing in way’
In Albuquerque, long troubled by violence in the city and upheaval in its police department, municipal leaders said they did not request federal help, nor were they consulted, before Trump and Barr announced that more than 35 federal agents were being sent there.
“We always welcome partnerships in constitutional crime fighting that are in step with our community, but we won't sell out our city for a bait and switch excuse to send secret police to Albuquerque,” Democratic Mayor Tim Keller said, referring to Portland, where the identities and affiliations of federal agents operating there are not always known or visible to the public. “Operation LeGend is not real crime fighting; it's politics standing in the way of police work.”
Albuquerque Police Chief Mike Geier has been equally wary.
“I truly hope this is a not just a cheap political stunt that will only make our city less safe,” Geier said after learning of the federal plan.
With as many as 300 federal agents headed to Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot, a Democrat, was both apprehensive and hopeful. Local leaders have grappled with spasms of gun violence, including a Tuesday night shooting when 15 people were wounded outside a local funeral home.
“You see a common theme here?” the mayor said at a briefing Wednesday. “The president is trying to divert attention from his failed leadership on COVID- 19.”
After a phone call with Trump on Wednesday evening, Lightfoot indicated she would accept the federal help but on the condition that it be narrowly tailored to address local violent crime.
‘ We do not consent’
Other local leaders, whose cities have been mentioned by Trump as future destinations for federal intervention, have expressed their unconditional opposition.
“We do not consent. We object,” said New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat. “Do not send the proposed agents and officers from the Department of Homeland Security or other federal agencies to New York City. They have not been requested. They are not needed. And they have proved to bring way more harm than good.”
In Baltimore, another city on Trump's deployment list, a spokesman for Mayor Bernard “Jack” Young, a Democrat, said the mayor would simply not respond to the president's use of a public safety strategy as “a political issue.”
Appearing with Trump at the White House, Barr sought to distance the Albuquerque and Chicago deployments from the chaotic scene in Portland, where protesters and a contingent of federal officers have clashed almost nightly.
On Wednesday night, just hours after the White House announcement, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler was caught in a cloud of tear gas while trying to calm protesters.
“It is important to stress that the operations we are talking about are the standard anti- criminal activities we have carried out around the country for many decades,” Barr said of the planned surges in Albuquerque and Chicago.
“This is different than the operations and tactical teams we use to defend against riots and mob violence. We will continue to confront mob violence. But the operations we are discussing today are very different – they are classic crime fighting,” he said, while not specifically referring to Portland, where protesters have demonstrated against police brutality since the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis on May 25.
Barr said the goal of additional deployments is to “save lives.”
“The principal danger to the lives of our inner city communities is violent crime,” Barr said, adding homicide is the leading cause of death for young Black males.
“Every one of these lives matter,” the attorney general said.
Larry Cosme, president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, said he supports the federal surges, maintaining that attacks on officers by those he described as trying to hijack peaceful protests have not received enough attention.
“Morale is in the dumpster already where you have these anarchist groups and these groups that are well- organized and well- funded by certain individuals attacking the police,” Cosme said. “No one's talking about that.”
Yet in the cities where new surges of federal officers are expected in the coming days, the troubling images pouring out of Portland have been difficult to ignore.
“The leaders in these cities have every right to be wary,” said Lucas, the Kansas City mayor. “What's happened in Portland lends a great deal of concern and fear.”
Condemnation in Chicago
Dozens of activists gathered in downtown Chicago on Thursday morning to condemn the deployment of additional federal agents to the city. Many said the federal resources would be better spent by investing in social services in low- income neighborhoods.
“What we need is funding. What we need is investment in Black and brown communities. We don't need police. We don't need feds coming in,” said Alycia Kamil, 19, a South Side resident and organizer with GoodKids MadCity, an anti- gun violence youth group. “I fear for my life going to actions now.”
Sameena Mustafa, a commercial real estate broker and North Side resident who attended the rally, called the deployment of federal agents “a complete mistake.”
“It means there are federal dollars that are going to attacking my neighbors instead of investing in infrastructure, education and health care,” Mustafa said. “We're in the middle of a pandemic. There are people reusing masks. And yet we have federal agents coming here. That money could be going to save lives.”
More than 1,300 miles away, in Albuquerque, the reaction was largely the same.
Jim Harvey, executive director of the city's Center for Peace and Justice, said local social justice advocates and civil rights leaders are “deeply concerned” about what the federal deployment could mean.
“If there was a need for the federal agents, they would have been asked for,” he said. “Most people recognize the political motivation behind this.”