When the federal government announced that it had accused 61 other people in Chicago as part of Operation Legend in August, that number meant little to Marquinn McDonald, who conducts night patrols in his South Side community so that seniors, women and young people return home safely
“They have their numbers. It’s beautiful. They made 61 arrests,” he said with some sarcasm. “Okay, you locked up a user, but the user just died. “
In Chicago, the number of weekly murders dropped after the launch of Operation Legend, an anti-crime initiative that the Justice Department has implemented in nine cities since July. The week the rates were announced, another 10 people died, less than one. before federal officials were dispatched, but that number has since doubled.
Trump’s leadership has used federal government force to suppress violent crime. During the rallies of President Donald Trump’s crusade, the words ‘law and order’ are a staple, as it is sold to the electorate as a leader in the fight against crime while portraying giant cities ruled by Democrats as places where anarchy and anarchy reign.
In a heated and chaotic exchange in Tuesday night’s presidential debate, Trump attacked cities like Chicago and New York for emerging crimes, mocked Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden for his watch history, and stoked fears of a suburban extinction.
“The other people of this country need and ask for the law and order Array . . . and he probably wouldn’t even say the phrase,” Trump said, adding that if Biden were elected, “the suburbs would disappear. “
Biden REFUSED to use the term LOI AND ORDER!There are the suburbs.
Trump’s spouse in this effort has been Attorney General William Barr, whose Justice Department has sent heaps of federal agents to Kansas City, Missouri; Chicago; Albuquerque; Detroit; Cleveland; Milwaukee; Memphis; Saint-Louis and Indianapolis. Thousands have been arrested, adding many fugitives. Dozens of firearms and quantities of drugs were also seizen.
But violent crimes are due to dissipation in the cities where the high-profile federal initiative was launched, and experts say it is too early to assess whether Operation Legend is a good fortune or an “accomplice. “
The hasty nature of the program, scheduled in the months leading up to the election and without the help of local officials in the towns where it developed, opened it up to complain that it was a political accessory for Trump’s re-election and competitive. message of public order.
It is known how long Operation Legend will last in those cities, however, federal officials sent to Kansas City, Missouri, left after just over two months.
Experts say that to have a significant and lasting effect on violent crime, it takes more than a transient push for badges on the streets.
“There has to be perseverance,” said Chris Swecker, former chief of the FBI’s criminal division. “If all you’re doing is expanding resources and eliminating them, it’s just for the show. “
Last week, Barr recognized the show for “drastically reducing” homicides and violent crimes. However, Barr identified the challenge of generating effects quickly.
In Milwaukee, Barr said the non-fatal shootings had subsided in the weeks following Operation Legend’s arrival in the city, that there had been no corresponding drop in the murders.
In Detroit, Operation Legend has led to the seizure of drugs and 189 illegal weapons and the arrest of 290 fugitives since the program began two months ago, said Matthew Schneider, a U. S. attorney in the Eastern District of Michigan.
“If we didn’t have Operation Legend, those weapons and drugs would still be on the streets. Array literally saves lives,” Schneider said. ” These fugitives were wanted for murder and sexual assault and taken off the streets, reducing crime.
Trump has long talked about the expansion of crime in the country, in major cities.
“Crime is out and getting worse. Look at what’s happening in Chicago and downtown,” he tweeted in 2016, shortly after winning the Republican nomination and at that time he also declared himself a “public order candidate. “
Trump’s rhetoric dates back to 1968, when Richard Nixon issued a message of public order and pledged to do so on behalf of the “no screams, no protesters” who “are not to blame for a crime that is rampant in the country. “
In his inaugural address, Trump denounced “American carnage” and his positioning has intensified as he seeks a mandate.
Last week, the Department of Justice designated New York, Portland, Oregon, and Seattle as “anarchist jurisdictions,” raising violence in cities amid an era of civil unrest opposed to police brutality following the deaths of George Floyd and other unarmed blacks.
The expansion of Operation Legend has largely followed the deployments of federal officials to Portland, where the goal of suppressing protests against the police has raised serious doubts. Federal officials have given public assurances that the initiative focuses on crime-fighting efforts and is different from the wave. federal agents in Portland.
The language used through the president and repeated in news and social media has had an effect on the perceptions of many in the United States. 65% of Americans said law enforcement was a “major problem” on a Monmouth University ballot published this 48% said they were convinced Trump could handle it, while 52% were confident in Biden.
Meanwhile, there are differences among Americans as to whether peoples are besathed by protesters and counter-demonstrators. Those living in rural spaces are more likely to agree with this sentiment than those living in urban spaces, and Republicans are more likely to agree with it than Democrats, according to a USA TODAY/Ipsos poll.
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But the president’s rhetoric that major cities across the country are inundated with violence distorts the crime trend in the United States, according to criminal justice experts.
According to criminal knowledge published through the FBI this week, the rate of violent crime in the country dropped from 2000 to 2019, although some cities, adding those where Operation Legend was launched, have noticed an increase in homicides and violent crimes in recent years. months, these numbers remain well below the 1990s.
“Many cities have noticed an increase in crime this summer, particularly violent crime. But none of those cities are inundated with crime, whether that means the traditionally higher crime rates or the crime that invades the entire population,” said Richard Rosenfeld, professor of criminal justice at the University of Missouri- St. Louis. Louis. ” It’s just true. “
Rosenfeld said it was too early to say for sure why violent crime had increased in some cities this year, but one factor, he said, is probably the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on police. During the early months of the pandemic, many stayed home, but an examination through the National Commission on COVID and Criminal Justice found that homicides and serious attacks increased from spring to summer.
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“Levels of police and police activity remain very low at peak levels compared to pre-pandemic grades and activities,” said Rosenfeld, who led the study. “Many agents are quarantined
Indeed, the confluence of an economy devastated by COVID-19 and calls to “de-finance the police” have noticed the biggest cuts in police service budgets in a decade, according to the Police Executive Investigation Forum. Police.
Police have been less “aggressive” in reporting crimes after protests in the past, such as those in Baltimore after Freddie Gray’s death, when rapes, they said, halved, followed by an increase in the homicide rate.
Meanwhile, Trump blamed a far-left move against police in pronouncing the expansion of Operation Legfinish in a public appearance with Barr and other federal officials in July. In a speech shrouded in political connotations, Trump called for an end to “this bloodshed. “
In Kansas City, where Operation Legend began in early July after the death of 4-year-old LeGend Talifero, officials said violent crime, in addition to homicides, had decreased in the weeks following the arrival of federal officials.
The operation led to 500 arrests, adding about 150 who were charged with federal gun and drug offenses and nearly 3 dozen murder suspects, authorities said. But they also identified that violence remains a challenge in Kansas City; 2020 is still on track to be much more fatal than the last four years.
“This is a victory lap
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Operation Legend expands as federal agents and officials head to Detroit, Cleveland and Milwaukee as Operation Legend expands
Local officials said that while they appreciated additional federal resources, eliminating violent crimes in their cities required more than a single technique of arresting others through cargo or seizing dozens of weapons.
In Albuquerque, which has noticed a steady buildup of violent crime since at least 2012, the Justice Department has prosecuted 60 other people for weapons and drug-related crimes, but acting police chief Harold Medina said Operation Legend had not had a significant effect. about the number of homicides since it was introduced two months ago.
So far, Albuquerque has noticed 56 homicides, less than at the same time in 2019, when the city recorded 80 homicides.
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“I have not had an era in which violent crime rates were reduced as a result of a federal operation. I think their hearts are in the right position for us, they need us,” Medina said.
But he also said that adding officials to the streets isn’t necessarily what Albuquerque needed. Police are already arresting thousands of people a year, he said. The biggest impediment is getting them through the justice system.
“Instead of recruiting 20 agents, I’d like the 20 prosecutors,” Medina said.
John Anderson, the U. S. attorney in New Mexico, said Operation Legend was never conceived as an unlimited wave of federal agents.
“The Justice Department and the Attorney General say the fight against violent crime is a duty of the local police,” Anderson said.
However, he said, the program was not “a one-time solution,” adding that Operation Legend also provides long-term investments to albuquerque’s police force.
“One of the criticisms that has been heard and brought to the center has been this concept that there will be federal pressure from law enforcement to reduce crime, and then the approval government will leave and the crime will resume,” Anderson said. “The government’s federal approval efforts to combat crime violence pass long before Operation Legend.
Across the country, the Department of Justice has allocated millions of dollars to crime-fighting efforts and the hiring of more police officers in the cities of Operation Legend.
The Justice Department has used a wealth of resources in its arsenal, adding intelligence analysts, forensic experts and fugitive trackers to rid the streets of violent criminals.
However, local officials say the program does little to prevent long-term violent crimes.
“The long-term solution is to replace the city’s culture,” Medina said, adding that addressing disorders such as substance abuse among young people is a component of it. “The short-term solution is a lot of arrests. “
In Cleveland, where more federal resources arrived in late July, 72 were charged with federal offenses, 26 of which related to firearms offenses. Aid comes at a time when local killings amount to 117, so this year, well ahead of 90 recorded in 2019, according to branch statistics.
“There are many things that the federal government brings to the table. They are a wonderful asset, but it can take years to reduce their size. Our challenge is a lack of resources. We’re doing anything proactive. Everything we do responds,” said a user familiar with the department’s operations.
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“The federal government allows us to catch the bad guys, but they don’t stop bad things from happening to us,” said the source, which is not legal to comment publicly.
In Chicago, Operation Legend has resulted in many arrests, adding up to 150 other people charged with federal gun and drug-related offenses. While crime in general has decreased, homicides have taken the opposite direction; 2020 is already the deadliest the city has noticed in the last 4 years.
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Weekly murder numbers in the city declined in July and August, but last week they fell back to 20, about like when Operation Legend showed up there.
In Detroit, where the Department of Justice has prosecuted 71 people, the police department’s weekly violent crime figures show no sustained decline since Operation Legend began last July; homicides, annoying attacks, robberies and sexual assaults have deteriorated significantly.
Schneider, detroit’s federal prosecutor, said his office’s investigation into the effect of Operation Legend focuses on non-fatal killings and shootings during the 60-day era before and after the program begins. The city had 75 homicides and 325 non-fatal shootings in the two months before Operation Legend, Schneider said. Those numbers were reduced to 54 homicides and 240 non-fatal shootings in the next two months.
“Statistics show that it works. It will continue to work,” he said.
In Miwaukee, weekly crime totals are not available, however, police reported that there had been 136 homicides from January to mid-September, which already exceeds the annual totals of the past two years. There have been more than 500 non-fatal shootings as of date, also overshadowing the 2019 and 2018 totals through a few dozen.
In the two months since the start of Operation Legend in Milwaukee, the Department of Justice has prosecuted 47 people. The city has noticed 40 homicides and 137 non-fatal shootings at this time. During the same time last year, there were only 16 homicides and 83 undead. -Deadly shots.
Barr reported last week that federal aid in Milwaukee would continue as “we violent offenders on the streets. “
“Let’s bend and keep pushing, ” said Barr.
Swecker, a former chief of the FBI’s criminal division, said the federal government had for years allocated investigative resources to communities to solve criminal problems.
The Department of Justice has channeled millions of dollars to the Safe Neighborhoods Project, federal collaborations with local law enforcement that focus primarily on gangs of criminals and armed criminals.
“The purpose is to identify 10% of those involved in 90% of the crimes,” Swecker said. “But it takes time for such methods to work. Typically, the federal government sends research resources and analysts who track mobile phones or read about other evidence. They don’t send other people to stand guard on the street.
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“It may take a year or more for violence to be minimized, and that’s whether the program is effective and well done,” Swecker said.
Laurie Robinson, a former deputy attorney general who led the Decomposing of Justice studies and local grant programs, said components with law enforcement are a component of dismantling operations.
“But the truth is that in most cases there is no immediate impact,” said Robinson, who co-chaired the White House Working Group on Police Surveillance in the 21st century under the Obama administration. “It takes time to measure the results.
“Unless you haven’t done so on the dismantling of drug gangs, to have a long-term impact, you’d like to give it five or six months. You should also take a look at operations that gain advantages from the federal government’s unique ability to deal with -level players. »
In Chicago, South Side resident McDonald said he felt safer.
“Everyone thinks the way to solve the crime is to lock other people up and put them in jail.
‘It’s like saying, ‘Okay, you have a disease, take this Tylenol for pain. »»
Two months after the publication of the federal initiative in Chicago, McDonald said he was petrified every time his wife told him she was taking their children for a walk.