2020-07-23 07:00:00
Unlike Portland, Operation Legend is said to be dedicated to fighting violence in cities like Albuquerque and Kansas. (GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA)
For minutes, the president reported on the number of victims and crime statistics – in Chicago alone, violent crime had risen by 50 percent within a year, he said. Trump announced that he would send a strong force of security forces from the Department of Homeland Security to Chicago – but also to Albuquerque in New Mexico and Kansas City in Missouri.
Comment: Trump wants to set an example in Portland
Every night since the death of George Floyd, demonstrators in Portland have been protesting against police violence and racism. Donald Trump sent special forces. According to Thilo Kößler, these are methods of state arbitrariness that are actually only known from dictatorships.
Operation Legend, which Donald Trump officially announced, is named after LeGend Talifero, a four-year-old boy who was shot dead in his sleep in a robbery in Kansas City in June. Trump accused mayors and local politicians of turning a blind eye to the violence and not doing what is absolutely necessary.
Own interpretation of the events
Days ago, Donald Trump had threatened a number of cities led by the Democratic Party with intervention by paramilitary units, such as in Portland, Oregon. His Attorney General William Barr also spoke of a wave of violence since the death of African American George Floyd under the knee of a white police officer in Minneapolis at the end of May. Without saying a word about the heated debate over police brutality and racism, Bill Barr lamented that police forces were being demonized in nationwide demonstrations, he said. According to his interpretation of the events, the increase in violence is the result of attacks on the police.
Focus is on fighting crime
Unlike Portland, Operation Legend isn’t primarily about quelling riots. According to Barr, Chicago, Kansas City and Albuquerque want to concentrate entirely on classic crime fighting.
But the controversial deployment of the special forces of the Department of Homeland Security in Portland has already brought the entire Operation Legend into disrepute – the brutal intervention of the paramilitary combat units there was criticized in particular because of the questionable practices of picking up individual demonstrators and turning them into civilian ones without giving reasons to transport vehicles.
opposition from within their own ranks
The conservative ex-governor Tom Ridge, who was a minister in the Department of Homeland Security under Republican President George W. Bush, criticized Donald Trump in a radio interview with sharp words: The Department of Homeland Security was founded after September 11 to stop terrorism fight – but not to be at the President’s disposal as a personal militia.
The instrumentalization of the units of the Department of Homeland Security for campaign purposes is disturbing, the mayor of Seattle explained in a CNN interview: Democrat Jenny Durkan said it was dangerous for America
Several lawsuits against the deployment of federal troops are already pending in Oregon. The mayor of Chicago announced that if in doubt she would follow suit. It is probably due to the public outcry after the events in Portland that Operation Legend, in cooperation with local security forces, is to concentrate on classic police work for the time being.
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