Operation Legend in KC to help local officials with violent crime wave: U.S. attorney
Four-year-old LeGend Taliferro laid his head on his pillow on a Sunday night last month in what should have been the safest place in the world – his own home. Instead, this child who had bravely survived surgery for a heart defect, could not escape the fatal violence of an anonymous bullet fired from outside his family’s apartment.
LeGend’s family tragically joined more than 100 other families in Kansas City who have lost loved ones to violence in 2020. Alongside a record-breaking pace of murders in the city this year, our community suffers an epidemic of gun violence as the numbers of non-fatal gunshot victims escalates.
I have met with LeGend’s parents and grandparents. As they mourn his loss, they demand action. They deserve justice. LeGend’s killer, as in most of the homicide cases this year, has not been identified.
An unprecedented level of violent crime warrants an unprecedented law enforcement response. With the support of Kansas City’s police chief, the governor and the state’s attorney general, the Department of Justice is coming alongside local law enforcement to provide additional resources. Operation Legend brings federal law enforcement agents from the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and U.S. Marshals Service to Kansas City this week. They have already started making arrests and taking violent criminals off the street.
Two events this week underscore the urgent necessity of Operation Legend.
Just when you might think the level of violent crime couldn’t sink to any more depraved depths, a drive-by shooter fired upon a pregnant woman pushing her baby in a stroller across a 7-Eleven parking lot on Monday afternoon. A mother and her baby became the targets of senseless, wanton violence. A mother was killed, and now another child will grow up in the shadow of this lawlessness.
On the same day, my office filed the first federal case charged as part of Operation Legend. Federal and local law enforcement, working together, apprehended a wanted fugitive who previously assaulted law enforcement officers and escaped in a high-speed chase. He was caught driving a stolen car and carrying two stolen handguns. A confessed drug user, he has initially been charged with being an unlawful user of illegal drugs while in possession of firearms. As I said at the time the complaint was filed, illegal drugs and illegal guns are a lethal combination.
Operation Legend partners federal agents to work alongside local officers in a supportive investigative role. These agents won’t be patrolling the streets. They won’t replace or usurp the authority of local officers. They are here specifically in response to unsolved violent crimes, not in response to protests or marches or demonstrations.
Those who describe this as a federal occupation, or martial law, are either misinformed or willfully spreading falsehoods. I haven’t heard any of these critics offer a better solution for solving more than 100 murders and more than 300 non-fatal shootings. Operation Legend is a necessary, measured response to lawless violence.
Law-abiding citizens can rest assured these federal agents are here in their defense. Victims of crime can take heart they will receive justice. Those who perpetrate violence, on the other hand, should be fearful.
It’s true that we can’t arrest and prosecute our way out of the problem of violent crime. There are legitimate calls for additional social services, for investing in housing and education and employment to address the root causes of crime and violence. But first, we have to stop the bleeding. None of these social reforms can be successful until our citizens feel safe in their homes and walking their neighborhood streets.
The rule of law matters. Some neighborhoods in Kansas City have become lawless. We must restore safety in these neighborhoods, and the protection for all citizens that it provides. We must bring justice to the victims of violent crime. We must stop the spread of violence in our community.
When we accomplish that mission, we will create an environment to implement other needed reforms. Operation LeGend is a necessary first step in that direction.
Tim Garrison is United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri.
This story was originally published July 22, 2020 at 2:57 PM with the headline "Operation Legend in KC to help local officials with violent crime wave: U.S. attorney."