WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he will send federal agents to Chicago and Albuquerque, N.M., to help combat rising crime and said, "this bloodshed must end. This bloodshed will end."
Appearing at an event with top federal law enforcement officials and the family members of crime victims, Trump took direct aim at those who have advocated redirecting funding from law enforcement to other endeavors.
He blamed the recent increases in violence in some cities on leaders who have endorsed such steps and said he planned to increase the federal law enforcement presence to reduce crime.
"In recent weeks there has been a radical movement to defund, dismantle and dissolve our police department," Trump said.
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"Extreme politicians have joined this anti-police crusade and relentlessly vilified our law enforcement heroes," he said. "To look at it from any standpoint, the effort to shut down policing in their own communities has led to a shocking explosion of shootings, killings, murders and heinous crimes of violence."
With less than four months until Election Day, Trump has been warning that violence will worsen if his Democratic rival Joe Biden is elected in November and Democrats have a chance to make the police changes they have endorsed after the killing of George Floyd and nationwide protests demanding racial justice.
Crime began surging in some cities like Chicago, New York and Philadelphia when stay-at-home orders lifted.
Criminal-justice experts seeking answers have pointed to the unprecedented moment -- a pandemic that has killed more than 142,000 Americans, historic unemployment, a mass reckoning over race and police brutality, stress and even the weather.
Compared with other years, crime in 2020 is down overall.
The plan Trump announced Wednesday expands a program that sent hundreds of federal agents to Kansas City, Mo., after a 4-year-old boy's shooting death to help quell a record rise in violence.
Sending federal agents to help localities is not uncommon. Attorney General William Barr announced a similar effort in December for seven cities with spiking violence.
But this effort will include at least 100 Department of Homeland Security Investigations officers who generally conduct drug trafficking and child exploitation investigations, in addition to personnel under the Justice Department umbrella.
The deployments, at least at first, will be focused in Chicago and Albuquerque, where Barr said the Justice Department will increase the number of agents from the FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Homeland Security officers have already been dispatched to Portland, Ore., and other localities to protect federal property and monuments as Trump has condemned efforts by rioting protesters to knock down Confederate statutes.
Authorities there have complained that agents have exacerbated tensions on the streets, while residents have accused the government of violating their constitutional rights.
Attorneys for Oregon argued Wednesday for a restraining order against the federal agents in a standoff that some legal experts have warned could lead to a constitutional crisis in an election year.
A federal judge heard the state's and the U.S. government's arguments in a lawsuit filed by Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, who accuses federal agents of arresting protesters without probable cause, whisking them away in unmarked cars and using excessive force to quell the unrest.
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Federal authorities have disputed those allegations.
ASSAULTS ALLEGED
Federal authorities have defended their response, saying officials in Oregon had been unwilling to work with them to stop the vandalism against the the U.S. courthouse and violence against federal officers.
Acting Homeland Security Director Christopher Wolf said at a news conference Tuesday that agents have been assaulted with lasers, bats, fireworks, bottles and other weapons.
While he said federal agencies have made 43 arrests since July 4, he disputed that they were done by unidentified agents, noting that they have the word "police" on their uniforms.
The hearing Wednesday focused on the actions of more than 100 federal agents responding to protests outside the Portland's Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse, which has been a target for more than 50 nights of demonstrations against racial injustice after Floyd's killing.
The motion for a temporary restraining order asks U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman to command agents from the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, the Federal Protective Service and the Marshals Service to immediately stop detaining protesters without probable cause, to identify themselves and their agency before arresting anyone, and to explain why an arrest is taking place.
During the hearing -- held by videoconference because of the coronavirus pandemic -- the state acknowledged that federal agents have the right to defend the courthouse but argued that they had overstepped.
Rosenblum said she was asking the court to "declare it not acceptable for federal officers to use unconstitutional, police-state-type acts to detain citizens of Oregon without cause."
U.S. ARGUMENT
David Morrell, an attorney for the U.S. government, called the motion "extraordinary" and told the court that it was based solely on "a few threadbare declarations" from witnesses and a Twitter video.
"The Hatfield courthouse did not damage itself," he said, calling the protests "dangerous and volatile."
It's not clear when Mosman will rule, but he challenged the state on whether it had the standing to ask for the restraining order. The judge noted that past legal decisions have required a state to establish a very high bar -- "quasi-sovereign interest" -- in order to successfully sue the U.S. government.
Attorneys for Oregon contended that they had met that bar because the actions of the federal agents could erode Oregonians' trust in all law enforcement, including state and city officers.
But Morrell, the U.S. government attorney, disputed that, saying successful suits usually involved issues that affected many people, not "highly individual interests," like the arrests.
The suit is one of several filed over law enforcement's response to the Portland protests. Today, a judge will hear arguments in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of journalists and legal observers who say they were targeted and attacked by police while documenting the demonstrations.
A freelance photographer covering the protests for The Associated Press submitted an affidavit that he was beaten with batons, subjected to chemical irritants and hit with rubber bullets.
U.S. Judge Michael Simon previously ruled that journalists and legal observers are exempt from Portland police orders requiring protesters to disperse once an unlawful assembly has been declared. Federal lawyers say journalists should have to leave when ordered.
Ahead of Wednesday's hearing, a fence was raised around Portland's federal courthouse, at which protesters and federal agents had clashed again overnight, according to police. Protesters repeatedly tried to break into the building and set fires around it, and the federal agents drove them back with tear gas and stun grenades, the police said.
Mayor Ted Wheeler's office said Wednesday that he would attend the protests that were expected Wednesday night and there would be "some form of dialogue" with the demonstrators.
Wheeler has been vocal in opposing the federal agents' presence in Portland -- but he has still received harsh criticism from many sides. Some, including fellow council members, have accused him of not reining in local police, who used tear gas before the federal agents arrived. Others, including business leaders, have condemned him for not getting the situation under control.
As news of Wheeler's planned appearance spread, one group that has been prominent in the protests, the Pacific Northwest Youth Liberation Front, told the mayor to stay away.
CHICAGO MAYOR
In Chicago, Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who had initially blasted the news of more federal troops, said the U.S. attorney's office will supervise the additional agents joining existing federal law enforcement offices.
"If those agents are here to actually work in partnership on support of gun violence and violent cases, plugging into existing infrastructure of federal agents, not trying to play police in our streets, then that's something different," she said, while also accusing the president of trying to distract from scrutiny of the federal response to the pandemic.
The White House plan emerged days after a downtown protest over a statue of Christopher Columbus devolved into a chaotic scene of police swinging batons and demonstrators hurling frozen water bottles, fireworks and other projectiles at officers.
Then, on Tuesday in another neighborhood, a spray of bullets from a car passing a gang member's funeral wounded 15 people and sent dozens running for their lives.
Tension in the city has climbed to a level that, if not unprecedented, has not been felt in a long time.
In New Mexico, Democratic elected officials had cautioned Trump against sending in federal agents, with U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich calling on Bernalillo County Sheriff Manny Gonzales to resign for attending the White House event.
"Instead of collaborating with the Albuquerque Police Department, the Sheriff is inviting the President's stormtroopers into Albuquerque," Heinrich said in a statement.
DISTINCTION DRAWN
Wolf drew a distinction between the mission in Portland -- to protect federal property -- and the surges in Kansas City, Chicago and Albuquerque to help stop violence.
Albuquerque and Chicago will be getting millions of dollars for new officers, and the Justice Department will reimburse Chicago $3.5 million for local law enforcement work on a federal task force.
In Kansas City, the top federal prosecutor said any agents involved in an operation to reduce violent crime in the area will be clearly identifiable when making arrests.
"These agents won't be patrolling the streets," U.S. Attorney Timothy Garrison said. "They won't replace or usurp the authority of local officers."
Operation Legend -- named after 4-year-old LeGend Taliferro, who was fatally shot while sleeping in a Kansas City apartment last month -- was announced July 8.
"My one and only child who fought through open heart surgery at 4 months is gone due to senseless gun violence," LeGend's mother, Charon Powell, said at the White House. "Children are supposed to be our future, and our son didn't make it to kindergarten."
In his remarks, Barr sought to draw a distinction between Operation Legend and the federal government's response to civil unrest in Portland. In court filings, federal officials have called that deployment "Operation Diligent Valor" and said 114 officers from various components of Homeland Security and the U.S. Marshals Service are involved in protecting federal facilities.
"This is a different kind of operation, obviously, than the tactical teams we use to defend against riots and mob violence," Barr said of Operation Legend. "And we're going to continue to confront mob violence. But the operations we're discussing today are very different. They are classic crime fighting."
"Our goal is to help save lives," Barr said.
Information for this article was contributed by Colleen Long, Jill Colvin, Kathleen Foody, Michael Balsamo, Don Babwin, Gillian Flaccus, Jonathan Lemire, Sara Cline and Ben Fox of The Associated Press; and by Matt Zapotosky of The Washington Post.
