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Federal Law Enforcement Program Expands to 2 US Cities Amid Spike in Violent
Crime

Masood Farivar

   Federal law enforcement agents are being deployed in two additional
   American cities amid a spike in violent crime.

   The U.S. Justice Department announced Thursday that it was expanding
   Operation Legend, a recently launched effort to fight violent crime, to
   Memphis, Tennessee, and St. Louis, Missouri.

   That brought the number of cities to which federal agents have been
   deployed to crack down on violent crime to eight. Previously, agents
   were sent to Kansas City, Missouri; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Chicago;
   Cleveland; Detroit and Milwaukee.

   Operation Legend was launched July 8 in Kansas City. It is named after
   LeGend Taliferro, a 4-year old African American boy who died while
   sleeping in his bed when someone shot into his family's home in Kansas
   City on June 29.

   'Systematic' initiative

   The Justice Department describes the operation as "a sustained,
   systematic and coordinated law enforcement initiative in which federal
   law enforcement agencies work in conjunction with state and local law
   enforcement officials to fight violent crime."

   Operation Legend is unrelated to the more controversial deployment of
   federal law enforcement agents to Portland, Oregon. Federal agents were
   sent there to protect a federal courthouse from protesters whom Trump
   administration officials had accused of committing acts of violence.

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