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The
government is sending federal agents to Chicago and plans to
prosecute firearms cases aggressively, Attorney General Jeff
Sessions told Fox News when asked about Trump's statement about
the plan in an early-morning Twitter post.
"Crime and killings in Chicago have reached such epidemic
proportions that I am sending in Federal help. 1714 shootings in
Chicago this year!" Trump wrote on Twitter.
The president has regularly singled out Chicago's violent crime
problem and in January decried the high crime rate in the
third-most populous U.S. city as "carnage."
In 2016, the number of murders in Chicago exceeded 760, a jump
of nearly 60 percent, and was more than New York and Los Angeles
combined. There were more than 4,300 shooting victims in the
city last year, according to police.
The number of murders, shootings and shooting victims have all
decreased slightly this year in the city of 2.7 million. There
have been 320 murders, down from 322 over the same period last
year. There have been 1,703 shooting victims, down from 1,935,
according to police figures.
Sessions said the anti-crime policies in Chicago have not worked
and police "have been demoralized in many ways."
The federal assistance will come in the form of the Chicago
Crime Gun Strike Force, a collaboration between the police and
the Department of Justice's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms
and Explosives (ATF).
The group, including police officers, federal agents and
intelligence analysts, will work to impede the flow of illegal
guns throughout Chicago and target repeat gun offenders.
"The Trump Administration will not let the bloodshed go on; we
cannot accept these levels of violence," Sessions said in a
statement on Friday afternoon. The group became operational on
June 1, Sessions said.
It will "significantly help our police officers stem the flow of
illegal guns and create a culture of accountability" for the
gangs that drive violence in the city, Police Superintendent
Eddie Johnson said in a statement.
On Monday, the Chicago police announced that the ATF's mobile
ballistics lab had arrived in the city to help process shooting
scenes.
"Six months ago we made it clear that we would welcome
additional federal support, and six months later we appreciate
the 20 new ATF agents that are now arriving," Adam Collins, a
spokesman for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, said.
"But the progress CPD (Chicago Police Department) has made this
year has happened without any of the new resources from the
federal government we requested."
Chicago is also in the midst of reforming its police department
after a federal investigation found officers routinely violated
the civil rights of people, citing excessive force and racially
discriminatory conduct.
Joseph Ferguson, the city’s inspector general, called on Chicago
officials to agree to a consent decree to oversee changes to the
department at a committee meeting on Tuesday – splitting with
the mayor, who has said a court-enforced settlement is not
necessary for reform.
In response to questions about Ferguson’s comments, Emanuel told
reporters on Wednesday that the Justice Department has "walked
away" from doing consent decrees, and so the city has sought a
different strategy.
"There are multiple roads that allow you to make sure you make
the changes and reform," he said.
(Additional reporting by Julia Jacobs in Chicago; Editing by JS
Benkoe and Matthew Lewis)
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