Trump Sends Federal Agents to Cities
Chicago and two
other Democratic-run cities are being targeted in the Republican president's
move, amid a spike in violence.
But federal
deployments in Portland, Oregon, have proved controversial. Local officials say
they have raised tensions amid anti-racism protests.
Critics say Mr
Trump's initiative is part of his re-election campaign.
US Attorney General
William Barr, who joined Mr Trump at Wednesday's announcement, said they had
sent about 200 federal agents to Kansas City, Missouri, would send a
"comparable" number to Chicago, and about 35 others to Albuquerque,
New Mexico.
There have been
protests sometimes descending into civil disorder in scores of US cities since
May, following the death of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, in police
custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Meanwhile, gun
violence has spiked in cities including New York City, Philadelphia, Los Angeles,
Chicago and Milwaukee.
On Tuesday night,
federal agents fired tear gas, pepper balls and flashbangs at demonstrators in
central Portland, which has seen 54 consecutive night of protests.
The officers quickly
used crowd-control munitions in an attempt to disperse hundreds of people
gathered outside a federal court.
The agents have been
accused of driving in unmarked vehicles around Oregon's biggest city while
wearing military fatigues and arbitrarily arresting a handful of demonstrators.
Chicago Mayor Lori
Lightfoot confirmed on Tuesday that federal agents would be deployed to her
city to beef up local police.
"We welcome
actual partnership, but we do not welcome dictatorship," Ms Lightfoot told
a news conference, warning that the federal officers should not try the same
tactics they have used in Portland.
Mr Trump often
highlights Chicago's gun violence epidemic and he did so again on Wednesday.
"This rampage
of violence shocks the conscience of our nation," he said.
In the latest
incident in Chicago, at least 15 people were shot outside a funeral home in a
suspected gang-related attack.
Federal officers
were deployed to Kansas City following the death of a four-year-old boy, LeGend
Taliferro, who was shot in the face while sleeping in his family home in June.
The federal law
enforcement operation is named after the boy, Mr Trump said. LeGend's mother
joined the president at the announcement.
"No mother
should ever have to cradle her dead child in her arms simply because
politicians refused to do what is necessary to secure their neighbourhood and
to secure their city," Mr Trump said.
Many people in
Kansas City say the president's plan is not what this place needs. Kansas City
leans Democratic, and many are opposed to the president's policies and object
to his aggressive law-and-order mandate.
Traditionally
crime-fighting programmes are popular during election campaigns, and critics of
the president say this initiative is directed more at his conservative
supporters in the rural heartland than those who live in Kansas City and other
urban areas.
Mr Trump's critics
say the initiative is not really an effort to fight urban crime, claiming it is
simply a way to drum up enthusiasm among the president's base of supporters
before the election.
FROM .bbc.com/news/world-us-canada
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