Trump sends agents to ‘crime cities’
President vows to never ‘defund police’
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that the Justice Department would send hundreds of additional federal agents into cities to confront a rise in shootings and other violence, escalating his rhetoric about urban crime and bashing local elected officials who have been wary of intervention by his administration.
Mr Trump, who has sought to make “law and order” a campaign theme and denounced “Democrat-run cities” as he seeks re-election, recounted anecdotes and statistics about a recent spate of gun violence in places like Chicago, while blaming local politicians for crime and criticising the progressive “defund the police” slogan.
“We will never defund the police,” the president said in remarks at the White House. “We will hire more great police. We want to make law enforcement stronger, not weaker. What cities are doing is absolute insanity.”
Standing beside Mr Trump, Attorney General William Barr said the Justice Department would send roughly 200 additional agents to Chicago and about 35 to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to bolster violent crime task forces that work with local police. The surge will build on previously announced plans to send about as many agents to Kansas City, Missouri, and more cities would be added, he said.
The announcement comes amid heightened scrutiny on interventions by federal law enforcement officials in urban areas amid protests prompted by the police killing in May of George Floyd in Minneapolis — including the deployment of Department of Homeland Security agents in camouflage uniforms to confront protesters in Portland, Oregon, in the name of protecting federal buildings from vandalism.
Mr Barr sought to distinguish the Justice Department additions to existing task forces from the novel issues raised by confrontations with protesters, stressing that the agents would perform the sort of “standard anti-criminal activities” targeting violent gangs that law enforcement officers have for decades.
The additional agents will be reassigned from other tasks at Justice Department agencies like the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the US Marshals Service, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, as well as law enforcement officials from the Department of Homeland Security, Mr Barr said.
Mr Barr said the agents would be part of the same effort announced several weeks ago for Kansas City, which the Justice Department is calling Operation Legend, after LeGend Taliferro, a 4-year-old boy who was killed in Kansas City.
Mr Barr also announced grants of about $3.5 million (111 million baht) for Chicago to help compensate for overtime and other expenses incurred in supporting the federal task force and $3.6 million for Kansas City to hire additional police officers. Mr Trump said that in all, $61 million in federal grants would go to hire more police officers in cities that are eventually included in the operation.
While there is nothing unusual about federal agents teaming up with local police on task forces to investigate gang violence or drug trafficking networks, the Trump administration’s recent efforts have strained federal and local relations.
The mayor of Kansas City, Quinton Lucas, a Democrat, has said he was caught by surprise when the Trump administration announced Operation Legend for his city, saying he learned about it on Twitter. He said he supported receiving help in solving crimes but was worried federal agents may end up being political props.