WASHINGTON — In January, President Donald Trump threatened to “send in the Feds” if Chicago could not stop its “horrible carnage,” and on Thursday, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that’s just what he did.
In a Twitter post Friday morning, Trump said, “Crime and killings in Chicago have reached such epidemic proportions that I am sending in Federal help. 1714 shootings in Chicago this year!”
Crime and killings in Chicago have reached such epidemic proportions that I am sending in Federal help. 1714 shootings in Chicago this year!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 30, 2017
According to the Sun-Times’ count, 1,737 people have been shot this year, 306 of them killed.
The city of Chicago requested additional federal enforcement help last year. It has taken Trump six months to send more agents to the city.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel has made several White House visits to prod Trump and his team to bolster law enforcement resources in Chicago.
Emanuel spokesman Adam Collins told the Sun-Times Friday morning, “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.
“But the progress CPD has made this year has happened without any of the new resources from the federal government we requested.”
City Hall was aware the Trump administration was mustering additional resources for the city. The Sun-Times reported Thursday that authorities had “confirmed that about 20 additional agents with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have been sent to Chicago to combat gun violence here.
From reporter Frank Main’s story:
The ATF agents are working with about 20 counterparts from the Chicago Police Department and Illinois State Police on a strike force whose mission is to solve shootings and hunt down gun traffickers through ballistics technology. Prosecutors from the U.S. attorney’s office and Cook County state’s attorney’s office have been assigned to the force to decide whether suspects in gun crimes should be charged in state or federal court. The goal is the prosecute as many of these guys as possible federally where they will serve longer prison terms, said Anthony Riccio, head of the Chicago Police Department’s organized crime unit.
In January, Trump said he would “send in the Feds” if city officials didn’t fix the “carnage.”
Here’s the cover
