AG Bill Barr of the DOJ has announced that he is sending over 100 agents to Kansas City at the request of their mayor because the crime rate in his city is rising quickly due to gang activity.
Barr is sending a combination of FBI, U.S. Marshals Service, Drug Enforcement Administration and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents.
The Trump administration has instructed mayors and governors if they need help, all they have to do is ask.
Kansas City has already had 100 homicides this year, a 40% increase over last year. Barr said that Kansas City is experiencing a disturbing uptick in crime.
This holds a bit of danger to violent protesters because if they attack federal agents instead of city cops, they are facing a much stiffer penalty plus they have to deal with federal prosecutors who do not drop charges against domestic terrorists.
It has been labeled Operation Legend, named after 4-year-old LeGend Taliferro, who was shot and killed as he was sleeping in his parent’s home.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said during a news briefing that the initiative came in response to a letter Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas (D) sent to the Missouri governor asking for more resources to combat what he called a “crisis point.”
Lucas, however, said that he was not in touch with the Justice Department about the new program and learned about it through Twitter.
