Federal agents, assigned to help Chicago officials address an ongoing spike in violence, have arrested and charged three individuals with federal gun crimes, the Chicago Sun-Times reports — the first such arrests under the new “Operation Legend” initiative.
Chicago’s Mayor Lori Lightfoot and President Donald Trump agreed, on Thursday, to bring federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF); the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA); and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) into a partnership with the city’s crime control efforts to help stem the bloodshed that has rocked Chicago since late May, when coronavirus-related lockdown measures were lifted.
Code-named “Operation Legend” after 4-year-old LeGend Taliferro who was killed in the ongoing violence in Kansas City, Missouri, last month, the initiative is designed “to fight the sudden surge of violent crime” in many major cities, according to the Department of Justice.
After several days of heated back-and-forth with President Donald Trump and other federal officials — and after 15 mourners were wounded in a drive-by shooting at a funeral service on the city’s south side — Lightfoot begrudgingly agreed to allow Operation Legend to operate in Chicago, provided assigned agents assist Chicago police officials, rather than station themselves to aggressively defend federal property, as Customs and Border Patrol is doing in Portland, Oregon. – READ MORE
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