The mayor of Chicago suggested sexism is behind President Trump’s decision to send federal law enforcement into cities that have seen a spike in violent crime since the beginning of the summer.
“The president has been on a campaign now for some time against Democratic mayors across the country,” said Mayor Lori Lightfoot during a Wednesday news conference. “Whether it’s me, whether it’s Keisha Lance Bottoms in Atlanta, whether it’s Muriel Bowser in Washington, D.C., whether it’s Jenny Durkan in Seattle — do you see a common theme here?”
Trump, on Wednesday, announced he has instructed the Justice Department to deploy federal police to cities such as Chicago and Kansas City to quell an outbreak of violent crime.
“This bloodshed must end. This bloodshed will end,” Trump said.
More than 400 people have been murdered in Chicago this year alone, and this week, 14 people were injured in a mass shooting outside a funeral home on the city’s South Side.
“President Trump has made clear: The federal government stands ready and willing to assist any of our state and local law enforcement partners across the nation responding to violent crime,” said Attorney General William Barr. “Operation Legend will combine federal and local resources to combat the disturbing uptick in violence by surging federal agents and other federal assets into cities like Kansas City, a city currently experiencing its worst homicide rate in its history.”
Lightfoot was one of several mayors of major cities who wrote a letter to the White House earlier this week telling the executive branch to stay out and let them police their own streets.
“The murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked a national uprising and reckoning,” they said in the letter. “The majority of the protests have been peaceful and aimed at improving our communities. Where this is not the case, it still does not justify the use of federal forces. Unilaterally deploying these paramilitary-type forces into our cities is wholly inconsistent with our system of democracy and our most basic values.”
Trump and his Republican allies, however, say Democrats running America’s largest cities are derelict in their duties and need help keeping the peace.
“Extreme politicians have joined this anti-police crusade and relentlessly vilified our law enforcement heroes. 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,” Trump said. “We’ll work every single day to restore public safety, protect our nation’s children, and bring violent perpetrators to justice. We’ve been doing it, and you’ve been seeing what’s happening all around the country. We’ve just started this process, and, frankly, we have no choice but to get involved.”
