President Donald Trump announced Wednesday he was increasing the number of federal law officials under Operation Legend to help quell rising violent crime in America’s major cities.
“We just started this process, and frankly, we have no choice but to get involved,” Trump said.
Attorney General Bill Barr confirmed that 100 federal law officials would be sent to Chicago, 35 to Albuquerque, and they would continue the operation in Kansas City. President Trump said that other cities were under consideration.
Operation Legend was named after LeGend Taliferro, a four-year-old boy who was fatally shot in June while sleeping in his Kansas City apartment. The operation was launched by the Justice Department in July in Kansas City.
The president singled out Chicago’s latest spike in murders and shootings as an example of why he was forced to act.
“This rampage of violence shocks the conscience of our nation and we will not stand by and watch it happen,” he said.
Trump welcomed some of the Americans who lost loved ones to the White House and promised to act quickly to reinforce the law.
He reminded Americans that Democrat leaders of many major cities were failing to protect their citizens.
“For decades, politicians running many of our nation’s major cities have put the interests of criminals above the rights of law-abiding citizens,” Trump said.
Trump welcomed LeGend’s mother, father, and grandparents to the White House, thanking them for joining him to promote the restoration of law and order.
“Operation Legend is not to harass, it’s not to harm, it’s not to hurt,” LeGend’s mother Charron Powell, recalling her son’s life. “I want it to be successful.”
“This will be hard, painstaking work,” Trump said. “It will take time. The tide will not recede overnight, but we will marshal all of the strength and focus and determination that we can possibly do.”
The president said that the Department of Justice would provide $61 million to hire more police officers.
“We will not defund the police. We will hire more police,” he said.
President Trump said that restoring law and order in American cities would lead to more economic development in some of America’s toughest major cities.
“We are hiring Americans and we are buying American product. We want to build factories in Baltimore, not Beijing. We want to make our products in Chicago, not Shanghai,” he said. “We want the American dream for American children, and I will fight to deliver that dream.”
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