Mayor Lori Lightfoot has urged Chicagoans to literally call the police over any “unconstitutional” actions by federal agents sent by President Donald Trump to help with a crackdown on skyrocketing violent crime.
Residents should call the police or social services if they “see something that doesn't look right,” Lightfoot said at a press conference on Wednesday.
“If we see any steps out of line,” she said, “we are not going to hesitate to take the president to court and stop any unconstitutional actions.” The Democrat mayor singled out the Border Patrol and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for scrutiny.
Chicago Mayor tells citizens to call 911 on federal agents if they "see something that doesn't look right"
"If we see any steps out of line...with DHS or Border Patrol, we are not going to hesitate to take the President to court..." pic.twitter.com/99xxAsd6BP
Her comments came after Trump announced he was “surging” some 150 federal officers from several agencies to the Midwestern city, citing a sharp rise in shootings and homicides in recent months. Over 1,000 people have been shot and more than 400 killed in Chicago just this year, the president pointed out.
The federal intervention is part of Operation Legend, a crackdown on gun crimes named after the 4-year-old LeGend Taliferro of Kansas City, Missouri, killed earlier this month in a shooting. It is not related to the ongoing operation to protect the federal courthouse in Portland, Oregon, which Lightfoot condemned as “tyranny and unconstitutional.”
Trump has signaled the federal government is ready to reinforce police in any city that asks for help, but Lightfoot has repeatedly refused federal assistance, going so far as to argue that the president was only bringing up the violence in Chicago to attack female Democrat mayors and “distract” the public from his “failed” coronavirus policies.
The request for help appears to have come instead from Chicago Fraternal Order of Police president John Catanzara, who posted it on Facebook on Saturday. Catanzara appeared on Fox News on Tuesday and said Lightfoot “became totally unhinged, unprofessional, childish” when she found out, sending him a stream of furious text messages.
“She's literally running the Titanic into an iceberg intentionally,” Catanzara told host Laura Ingraham, bringing up a shooting earlier that evening on Chicago’s South Side, a predominantly African-American neighborhood.
As mourners gathered for a wake of someone who had been shot in gang violence, they were themselves targeted in a drive-by shooting. A total of 15 people were shot, and six remained in serious condition as of Wednesday morning.
Minutes after the incident, Lightfoot tweeted that “under no circumstances” would she “allow Donald Trump’s troops to come to Chicago and terrorize our residents.” She tweeted about the shooting almost four hours later.
Under no circumstances will I allow Donald Trump’s troops to come to Chicago and terrorize our residents.
— Mayor Lori Lightfoot (@chicagosmayor) July 21, 2020
Sending “secret, federal agents” to Chicago will not help and could “spell disaster” if they weren’t under the city’s control and direct command of the Chicago PD, Lightfoot wrote to Trump on Monday. They would be “unfamiliar with the unique circumstances of our neighborhoods” and will only "foment a massive wave of opposition,” she added.
Announcing the expansion of Operation Legend to Chicago, Attorney General Bill Barr said on Wednesday that federal agents had made 200 arrests in Kansas City in just two weeks, but admitted that Taliferro’s killer was still on the loose.
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