Feds will be identifiable when making arrests in Kansas City, U.S. Attorney says
The U.S. Attorney in Kansas City said Monday that any federal agents making arrests as part of a new operation to reduce violent crime locally will be clearly identifiable and will not bear any resemblance to the operation playing out in Portland, Oregon.
As protests against excessive use of force by police following the death of George Floyd continue to rage in the Pacific Northwest city, the U.S. Attorney for Oregon announced an investigation into reports alleging a number of protesters were detained without probable cause by federal law enforcement agents who did not identify themselves last week.
Timothy Garrison, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, said in a written statement Monday that unlike the response in Portland, a new federal effort called Operation LeGend in Kansas City is in response to record violent crime numbers, not local protests.
“These agents won’t be patrolling the streets,” he said. “They won’t replace or usurp the authority of local officers.”
“When they are making arrests or executing warrants, these federal agents will be clearly identified by their agency’s visible badges or insignia,” Garrison continued. “The only people federal agents will be removing from the street are those they arrest in the course of their investigations of violent crimes.”
On July 8, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany held a news conference announcing Operation LeGend. Attorney General William Barr directed agents from the Department of Justice’s law enforcement agencies — the FBI, the United States Marshals Service, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — to arrive in the city within the following weeks.
The operation, named after 4-year-old LeGend Taliferro who was fatally shot while sleeping in a Kansas City apartment late last month, will send national law enforcement officers into Kansas City to quell a “surge of violent crime,” Barr said.
At a press conference Wednesday, Garrison explained that the additional 225 federal agents from the FBI, DEA, Marshals Service and ATF will soon join 400 agents already working and living in the metro area.
They will assist local law enforcement with investigating both new and old unsolved shooting cases with the goal of increasing the clearance rate of unsolved crimes, such as LeGend’s killing, he said.
“This operation is not tanks on the streets,” Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas added at the Wednesday press conference. “This operation is not a substitute patrol force. This operation is not over-enforcement from federal law enforcement.”
The same day, unidentified federal agents in Portland reportedly approached a number of citizens on the street and detained them in unmarked vehicles.
“Trump’s use of unidentified and unwanted federal agents in Portland, pulling protesters into unmarked vans without cause, is not only unconstitutional—it’s dangerous,” Representative Joaquin Castro of Texas, said in a tweet Sunday.
The tweet included a video from Portland of two men in helmets, camouflage attire and a patch across their chests that read “police.” They approach a man dressed in all black on the street, put his hands behind his back and guide him into an unmarked vehicle.
“I know that the concern is real,” William J. Callahan III, special agent in charge of the DEA office in St. Louis, said Monday when asked whether any aspects of the local Kansas City operation will be similar to the one in Portland. He pointed to Garrison’s comments for further details.
“That’s a horrible question and not something I would ever answer,” Deputy U.S. Marshal Mike Stokes said when asked whether methods of detainment seen in Portland will be used in Kansas City. He declined to elaborate further and referred all questions to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The FBI and the ATF also referred all questions to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Asked Monday if he had any concerns about the federal assistance in Kansas City given the recent situation in Portland, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said he would take any help he could get to help protect the life of a child such as Taliferro.
”We’re talking about violent criminals. We’re not talking about traffic offenses; we’re not talking about everyday crimes,” he said. “I’ll take all the help I can get and all the resources I can get to take bad people off the streets.”
On Saturday, hundreds of demonstrators gathered at Kansas City Police Department headquarters downtown, many in protest of Operation Legend, saying a larger law enforcement presence will endanger Black people in the city.
Instead, the protesters demanded a 50% cut to the KCPD budget and for that money to be redirected to education, healthcare and other services to help community members.
“You’re just taking people, putting them in a vehicle,” Rachel Riley, President of the East 23rd Street neighborhood in Kansas City said of the Portland arrests. “That’s called kidnapping because I don’t know who you are. You’ve got to announce who you are, why you’re taking me.”
Riley said she doesn’t understand the benefit of federal officers coming to either Portland or Kansas City. This cannot become business as usual, she added.
“Are we under martial law?” she asked.
On Monday, New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Washington, D.C., Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton announced they would soon introduce legislation requiring that on-duty federal law enforcement officials identify themselves, according to an article by The Nation.
The Star’s Luke Nozicka contributed reporting.
This story was originally published July 20, 2020 at 4:12 PM.
