Let cities police themselves

[struggle4progress]

By STEVE CHAPMAN
CHICAGO TRIBUNE |
JUL 21, 2020 AT 4:25 PM

... Policing the streets is a labor-intensive task that the federal government doesn’t have the personnel to do. Chicago has some 12,000 cops, and there are more than 800,000 nationwide. By comparison, as of 2016, the number of agents in the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and U.S. Marshals Service amounted to fewer than 24,000.

In Portland, Trump deployed officers from Customs and Border Protection, an odd choice for a president who is always warning of the dangers of unauthorized immigration. If the Border Patrol is in Oregon, who’s keeping MS-13 out?

... Trump is willing to stop trying to generate panic about the border so he can try to generate panic about urban crime ...

... “Their presence is actually leading to more violence and more vandalism,” said Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown told the Department of Homeland Security, “Please leave” ...

https://www.chicagotribune.com/columns/steve-chapman/ct-column-trump-portland-chicago-federal-agents-chapman-20200721-k5j27j3hcfg2jgltkriyjtq46e-story.html

[struggle4progress]

1. Orders 'secret' federal police force into Chicago

Jacob Geanous
Tuesday 21 Jul 2020 8:27 pm

... On Monday, Donald Trump hinted that he would be sending federal agents to Chicago and other cities ... ‘What we do not need, and what will certainly make our community less safe is secret, federal agents deployed to Chicago,’ Mayor Lori Lightfoot wrote in a letter to Trump on Monday ...

In response to plan to send agents to Chicago, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said he would not allow them to come to the Windy City. ‘If they’re thinking about sending agents in, federal service agents, into the city, they need to answer to the governor of the state, the mayor of the city of Chicago, to the attorney general for the state of Illinois,’ Pritzker said ...

https://metro.co.uk/2020/07/21/donald-trump-orders-secret-federal-police-force-chicago-amid-row-crime-13020271/

[Thekaspervote]

3. Thx for posting..this is so disturbing. Good to see a unified response by the mayors & govs

Across the country. As long as they hold the line, they will not get away with this

[struggle4progress]

2. Lightfoot Insists Secret Police Action Won't Happen

JUL 21, 2020 1:13PM
Kelly Bauer

... she won’t put anything past the Trump administration.

That’s “why we’ll continue to be diligent and why we’ll continue to be ready,” Lightfoot said ...

“We do not welcome dictatorship,” Lightfoot said. “And we do not welcome unconstitutional arrests and detainment of our residents. That is something I will not tolerate.”

The city would fight the deployment of federal secret agents, Lightfoot said, adding that were they to come to Chicago, the city will “rush into court” ...

https://blockclubchicago.org/2020/07/21/federal-agents-coming-to-help-manage-violent-crime-but-lightfoot-insists-secret-police-action-wont-happen/

[Midnight Writer]

4. Just a note. Chicago Tribune is traditionally a Republican paper.

[struggle4progress]

5. yup