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Justice Department to send federal agents to Cleveland, Detroit and Milwaukee

29 July 2020
Dan Ackermann

The Justice Department plans to divide nearly 100 federal agents between Cleveland, Detroit and Milwaukee in an expansion of "Operation Legend," launched last month to fight a "surge of violent crime" in U.S. cities, the agency announced Wednesday.

Why it matters: Democrats have accused President Trump of cracking down on Democratic-run cities as part of a "law and order" message he is stressing as core to his re-election campaign. Attorney General Bill Barr insisted at a hearing on Tuesday that the decisions to surge federal agents to certain cities are "based on neutral criteria."

The big picture: Six Democratic mayors on Tuesday urged congressional leaders to make it illegal for the federal government to deploy militarized federal agents to cities that reject federal involvement, following widespread backlash from federal agents deployed to Portland protests.

  • Cleveland, Detroit and Milwaukee are run by Democratic mayors. President Trump has threatened to send federal law enforcement into other cities run by Democrats after deploying forces into Portland.
  • However, Operation Legend is distinct from the Department of Homeland Security's presence in Portland, which was established under an executive order seeking to protect monuments and federal property from protesters.

Details: The expansion would send the most forces and money into Detroit, with 42 new agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

  • 10 ATF agents based in Detroit have been reassigned to work on violent gun crimes, the agency said.
  • The DOJ is allocating $1.4 million toward reducing violent crime in Detroit and making $2.4 million available to fund hiring 15 new officers for the Detroit Police Department.

What they're saying: “For decades, the Department of Justice has achieved significant success when utilizing our anti-violent crime task forces and federal law enforcement agents to enforce federal law and assist American cities that are experiencing upticks in violent crime," Attorney General Bill Barr said in the agency's press release.

  • "The Department of Justice’s assets will supplement local law enforcement efforts, as we work together to take the shooters and chronic violent criminals off of our streets.”

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.