R&I – FS
Donald Trump ordered a “surge” of hundreds of federal law enforcement officers to Chicago to combat what the president and senior administration officials have described as an “explosion” of violent crime.
Federal officers deployed to Chicago — and other cities in the coming weeks — will be drawn from the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security. According to Attorney General Bill Barr, they will help with the investigation and arrest of state law offenders, solve murders, and investigate other federal crimes.
A similar deployment of officers has already been seen to Kansas City, Mo. Announcing the deployment on Wednesday, the president said that he will also send federal officers into other cities whose leaders are “too proud or too political” to ask for the help he said that they “should want,” naming Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Barr sought to portray the deployment — called Operation Legend — as separate from the DHS and DOJ officers in Portland, Ore., who have drawn fierce criticism for their heavy-handed tactics against demonstrators protesting police violence. Officers in that city have been videoed striking nonviolent protesters with batons and dragging demonstrators into unmarked vans.
“This is a different kind of operation obviously than the tactical teams that we use to defend against riots and mob violence, and we’re going to continue to confront mob violence,” Barr said. “But the operations we’re discussing today are very different. They are classic crime-fighting.”
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Bugs Marlowe