Dalit
ELITE MEMBER
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2012
- Messages
- 23,669
- Reaction score
- -12
- Country
- Location
President Donald Trump says his administration will send "a surge" of federal agents to US cities in an anti-crime initiative, Operation Legend.
Speaking from the White House, Mr Trump said he had "no choice" but to deploy hundreds of federal agents to Chicago.
The Republican is also sending federal officers to two other Democratic-run cities, Albuquerque and Kansas City.
Federal officers are already in Portland, Oregon, where the mayor says they are making ongoing protests worse.
US Attorney General William Barr, who joined Mr Trump at Wednesday's announcement, said they had already sent about 200 federal agents to Kansas City, would send a "comparable" number to Chicago, and about 35 others to Albuquerque.
President Trump is adopting a law-and-order posture as he runs for re-election in November amid ongoing racial justice protests that have sometimes descended into civil disorder.
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.
www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53507660
