President Donald Trump authorized deployment of troops to Chicago after a federal agent shot an allegedly armed motorist Saturday, while a judge blocked the Republican leader’s attempt to send the military into Portland, another Democratic-run city.
The escalating crisis across the country pits Trump’s increasingly militarized anti-crime and migration crackdown against opposition Democrats who accuse him of an authoritarian power grab.
“President Trump has authorized 300 national guardsmen to protect federal officers and assets” in Chicago, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement, after weeks of the Republican threatening to send troops to the Midwestern city over the wishes of local leaders.
“President Trump will not turn a blind eye to the lawlessness plaguing American cities.”
Portland and Chicago are the latest flashpoints in the Trump administration’s rollout of raids, following the deployment of troops to Los Angeles and Washington.
Trump has repeatedly called Portland “war-ravaged” and riddled with violent crime, but in Saturday’s court order, US District Judge Karin Immergut wrote “the President’s determination was simply untethered to the facts.”
Although the city has seen scattered attacks on federal officers and property, the Trump administration failed to demonstrate “that those episodes of violence were part of an organized attempt to overthrow the government as a whole,” Immergut wrote in granting a temporary restraining order.
Protests in Portland did not pose a “danger of rebellion” and “regular law enforcement forces” could handle such incidents, Immergut wrote.
Oregon Senator Ron Wyden applauded the order, saying the “victory supports what Oregonians already know: we don’t need or want Donald Trump to provoke violence by deploying federal troops in our state.”
Earlier Saturday, a federal officer in Chicago shot a motorist after law enforcement agents were “boxed in by 10 cars,” the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said.
“Agents were unable to move their vehicles and exited the car. One of the drivers who rammed the law enforcement vehicle was armed with a semi-automatic weapon,” DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.
“Law enforcement was forced to deploy their weapons and fire defensive shots at an armed US citizen,” she said.
AFP could not independently verify the DHS version of the event.
The agency said the motorist “drove herself to the hospital to get care for wounds.”
McLaughlin also accused Chicago police of “leaving the shooting scene” with officers refusing “to assist us in securing the area.”
Chicago police told local broadcaster Fox 32 that officers responded to the scene but the department “is not involved in the incident or its investigation. Federal authorities are investigating this shooting.”
AFP
