Attorney General Barr announced today that at least 217 people have been charged with a federal crime, and more than 1,000 have been arrested in major metropolitan cities, since the Department of Justice launched Operation Legend in July. The operation is named after 4-year-old LeGend Taliferro, who was shot and killed in his sleep on June 29 in Kansas City, Missouri. The Kansas City police announced the arrest of a suspect in Taliferro’s murder last week.
Operation Legend targets traditional serious crime. It is not directed at crime resulting from the civil unrest sparked by BLM and Antifa.
Pursuant to Operation Legend, the federal government has dispatched more than 1,000 additional agents from the FBI, ATF, Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. Marshals Service to nine U.S. cities. There, the feds work with with state and local law enforcement personnel.
Most of the 217 defendants are charged with drug and gun-related crimes. However, federal investigators have also assisted state and local authorities in bringing homicide charges against more than 90 defendants, according to Barr.
In Chicago, 61 defendants have been charged with federal crimes. In Kansas City, the total is 43 defendants. In addition, 32 have been charged in Cleveland, 25 in St. Louis, 16 in Albuquerque, 11 in Milwaukee, and 7 in Memphis. I call that a good start.
Fox News’ report on the operation is here. ABC News’ is here.
Note this passage in the ABC News report by Alexander Mallin:
During the news conference, Barr addressed the recent uptick of violent crime across several parts of the country, at one point saying, without providing evidence, that he believed it might be a result of a combination between “pent up aggression” to state and local quarantine orders, the “premature release of dangerous criminals by the courts” during the COVID-19 pandemic and the “Defund the Police” movement.
(Emphasis added)
I’m not sure why evidence should be expected when someone lists things that “might” be the cause of a recent increase in serious crime. What would count as evidence at this early stage of the surge? Completed questionnaires from criminals?
I wonder what ABC News’ Mallin thinks has caused the increase in crime, if not the things Barr mentioned as possibilities. Bad luck?
