DIGITAL SOLDIERSPreview
Open in TheBrain

George Floyd protests in Seattle

In advance of the July 4 holiday, CBP sent agents in support of FPS forces to the Henry M. Jackson Federal Building in downtown Seattle.[106] CBP deployed 50 total agents that were then distributed among Seattle, WA; Portland, OR; and Washington, D.C.[106] State and city officials and the Seattle Police Department were not informed of the activity.[106] They did not make any arrests in Seattle.[106] DHS sent BORTAC agents and ICE tactical officers to both Seattle and Portland.[107] The Washington Post reported on July 20 that the federal agents, sent in anticipation of clashes on Independence Day, had mostly been withdrawn from Seattle.[107]

On July 23, an unspecified number of CBP agents were sent to an undisclosed location in the Seattle area.[108] Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan learned of the deployment from the agency late in the day on July 23, despite an earlier claim from DHS Acting Secretary Chad Wolf, who told her the agency had no plans to send federal agents to the city and that he would inform her of any changes.[109]

On July 25, thousands of protesters gathered in Seattle (one of several U.S. cities) where demonstrations took place in solidarity with Portland, Oregon after tensions escalated due to the Trump administration's decision to deploy federal agents against the wishes of local officials.[110][111] The federal agents were not a visible presence in the protests, during which city and county police arrested 45 people.[110][111]

The following week, the federal security detail sent to Seattle was withdrawn, following continued pressure from local and Washington state officials.[112]

Reactions

Washington Governor Jay Inslee responded to the deployment in a tweet stating "President Trump sent federal officers to Seattle because he is itching for a confrontation. He wants attention. We shouldn't give him either. Keep it peaceful, keep the attention where it belongs – on building a better, more just Washington for everyone."[113][114] Washington U.S. Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell co-sponsored a bill to limit the activities of federal agents to federal property and the immediate vicinity, unless requested by the mayor and governor, and to prevent unmarked vehicles from being used in arrests.[115]

In response to the withdrawal of federal officers, King County Executive Dow Constantine said the "apparent swift departure of Trump's uninvited and unneeded federal forces is a welcome turn of events."[112]

Operation Legend

Main article: Operation Legend

See also: George Floyd protests in Missouri

The President's action of deploying federal law enforcement to various U.S. cities was code named Operation Legend.[4] (The operation was named after, although not capitalized the same as, LeGend Taliferro, a Kansas City-native child victim of gun violence.)[116]

On July 8, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that federal law enforcement would first be dispatched to Kansas City, Missouri.[117][118] The federal assistance was at the request of governor Mike Parson, although Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas stated that he was neither consulted nor notified about the operation.[118] Kansas City activist Skyler B. Harrington from the organization Black Rainbow wrote in an editorial, "We are on the verge of a federal occupation in Kansas City—and you should be alarmed...We are the guinea pig for President Donald Trump's promise to 'take over cities'...Healing our communities has never been and never will be achieved through increased policing...We must fundamentally divest from our broken policing system to invest in our communities."[119]

Attorney General Barr directed agents from the FBI, U.S. Marshal Service, Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to help local law enforcement to quell a "surge of violent crime."[118][120] Agents were expected to be on the ground by July 18.[118]

On July 20, the first federal arrest under Operation Legend was announced.[120] That same day, Trump publicly praised the Portland policing and said he may send "more federal law enforcement" to "New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, Baltimore, Oakland, and other cities to deal with unrest".[121] Trump said, "I'm gonna do something, that I can tell you, because we're not going to let New York and Chicago and Philadelphia and Detroit and Baltimore and all of these—Oakland is a mess. We're not going to let this happen in our country."[122] Trump further said the listed cities were "all run by liberal Democrats".[91]

On July 21, U. S. Attorney Timothy Garrison specified that an additional 225 federal agents from the FBI, the DEA, the USMS, and the ATF would join 400 agents already working and living in the Kansas City area.[120] Garrison argued that the operation will not bear any resemblance to those in Portland, insisting that agents will be clearly identifiable.[123]

On July 22, President Trump announced that forces would be deployed to Chicago and Albuquerque as part of Operation Legend.[124] In an interview with Sean Hannity the next day, Trump added that if invited, "We will go into all of the cities, any of the cities. We're ready. We will put in 50,000, 60,000 people that really know what they're doing. And they're strong. They're tough. And we could solve these problems so fast."[125]

On July 29, the Department of Justice announced that Operation Legend had expanded to Cleveland, Detroit, and Milwaukee. More than two dozen federal officers were sent to each city from a combination of the FBI, DEA, ATF, and the U.S. Marshals to work on existing local law enforcement efforts aimed at combating gang violence, gun crimes, and drug trafficking. The expansion also included several millions dollars in funding, some of it going to hire additional local law enforcement officers.[126]

Reactions

State

The deployment was jointly condemned by the Mayors of Portland, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, D.C., and Kansas City.[127] Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot condemned the plan, arguing "What we do not need, and what will certainly make our community less safe is secret, federal agents".[128] On July 27 mayors Wheeler, Durkan, Lightfoot, Lucas, Keller and Muriel Bowser of Washington, D.C., jointly called on Congress to make it illegal for the federal government to deploy militarized agents to cities against those cities' wishes, describing the deployment as an "egregious use of federal force on cities over the objections of local authorities".[129]

The Oakland Police Department stated it had not requested federal assistance, and the San Francisco chapter of the National Lawyers Guild denounced the plan as "not only unconstitutional but a dangerous escalation towards fascism."[130][91]

Philadelphia's mayor Jim Kenney denounced the plan and said his city would "use all available means to resist such a wrong-headed effort and abuse of power", and district attorney Larry Krasner issued a statement warning that "Anyone, including federal law enforcement, who unlawfully assaults and kidnaps people will face criminal charges".[131]

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said of a potential deployment, "It would backfire, it wouldn't make us safer, and we would immediately take action in court to stop it...From my point of view, this would be yet another example of illegal and unconstitutional actions by the President."[132]

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in a news conference on July 23 said that during a phone call with the President on July 22 that both were able to agree that no federal action would be necessary to address the rising crime rates in New York City, and that if Trump had changed his mind he would talk with Cuomo first.[133]

Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller opposed the expansion, saying "There's no place for Trump's secret police in our city"; Albuquerque Police Chief Mike Geier likewise opposed the plan.[134] U.S. Senator from New Mexico Martin Heinrich condemned the expansion, writing: "If we can learn anything from Portland, it's that we don't need this kind of 'help' from the White House. The President is currently using federal law enforcement agents like a domestic paramilitary force. That's precisely how fascism begins and none of us should ever encourage or accept it."[134]

Federal

United States House of Representatives Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer released a statement saying, "In deploying federal law enforcement to patrol American cities like Portland and Chicago and silence those exercising their First Amendment rights, Donald Trump is drawing from the playbook of the worst dictators of the past century. Like others we have seen in some of the darkest periods of history, he is perpetuating a myth of disorder and mob violence–which is not occurring—to justify his deployment of heavily armed, anonymous, military-style agents into our communities who pull peaceful citizens into unmarked vehicles and detain them without lawful cause. These actions are never justified in what is supposed to be the world's greatest and freest democratic republic."[135]

House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerrold Nadler said, "The legal basis for this use of force has never been explained...it is not at all clear that the Attorney General and the Acting Secretary are authorized to deploy federal law enforcement officers in this manner." U.S. House Homeland Security chairman Bennie Thompson and U.S. House Oversight and Reform chairwoman Carolyn Maloney wrote a letter calling for investigation into the deployment. House and Senate Democrats revealed plans for the "Preventing Authoritarian Policing Tactics on America's Streets Act" requiring federal officers to identify themselves and limit their activities to directly nearby federal property. House Democrats also included a requirement for identification in the year's National Defense Authorization Act.[136]

Legality

Boston College constitutional law professor Kent Greenfield said, "The president is not the king...The president does not have the ability to require states to enforce their laws in a certain way, or to elbow aside their law enforcement abilities." University of Notre Dame law professor Jimmy Gurulé said, "There is no federal statute agents are enforcing by engaging with protesters. My concern is whether their protection of federal property is a ruse to interfere with protesters' free speech."[137]

Drexel University law professor Anil Kahlan said, "The rhetoric is basically labeling people who are fellow citizens as domestic enemies and then deploying these paramilitary forces to aggressively engage in a show of force against them...There are serious, substantive legal concerns with these activities." Rutgers University professor of law and director of Rutgers' Constitutional Rights Clinic Alexis Karteron said, "Federal troops descending on American cities, that is very troubling, outside of historic practices, and almost certainly illegal."[138]

Harvard legal scholar Andrew Crespo analyzed on Lawfare, "The argument... is that these [federal] agents complied with the Fourth Amendment because they did not need probable cause to put [protestors] in the van in the first place. This assertion is glaringly wrong. It has been glaringly wrong for at least forty years, ever since the Supreme Court's opinion in Dunaway v. New York."[139]

Attachments