CovOps
Location : Ether-Sphere Job/hobbies : Irrationality Exterminator Humor : Über Serious
| Subject: Why it's so hard for cities to keep federal agents in check Sun Aug 09, 2020 2:45 am | |
| As the U.S. Justice Department starts sending more federal agents to big cities across the country, there’s good and bad news for their mayors and residents. The good news is that the feds in question are not the camo-clad unit that have created such an uproar in Portland by clashing violently with protesters. According to the Justice Department, the influx of agents will expand long-standing partnerships between city cops and agencies like the FBI. The campaign also includes $61 million worth of hiring grants for local officers. The bad news: City officials and prosecutors have no control over these agents and can’t force them to follow local rules on matters like use of force or body cameras. Police officers on the task forces don’t have to abide by those rules, either, and are almost impossible to sue for misconduct. The only way to assert local control, experts say, is to back out of the task forces altogether.
A 2019 Marshall Project investigation into the decades-long expansion of these teams found that they’ve become ubiquitous in cities across the country. According to federal estimates, the U.S. Marshals, the FBI, and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration operate about a thousand task forces. President Trump’s new plan, called Operation Legend, adds manpower to some of these existing teams. The expansion, which began in July and was announced that month, is named after a 4-year-old boy killed by a stray bullet in Kansas City, Missouri, where the surge began. Chicago and Albuquerque, New Mexico, were next to get the increase. On Wednesday, officials said Cleveland, Detroit, and Milwaukee would be getting more agents too. Leaders of cities plagued by soaring gun violence seem likely to welcome the amped-up task forces despite revulsion over what’s happening in Portland. Take Philadelphia, where the local district attorney has threatened to prosecute federal agents. “It would frankly be irresponsible for the mayor to discontinue those relationships simply because of the White House’s misguided attempt to politicize these agencies,” Mike Dunn, a spokesman for Mayor Jim Kenney, wrote in an email.
https://www.mic.com/p/why-its-so-hard-for-cities-to-keep-federal-agents-in-check-30961185
_________________ Anarcho-Capitalist, AnCaps Forum, Ancapolis, OZschwitz Contraband “The state calls its own violence law, but that of the individual, crime.”-- Max Stirner "Remember: Evil exists because good men don't kill the government officials committing it." -- Kurt Hofmann |
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