United States President Donald Trump has authorised the deployment of national guard troops to Chicago to address what the White House calls “lawlessness” in the Democrat-run city.
“President Trump has authorised 300 national guardsmen to protect federal officers and assets” in Chicago, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement on Saturday local time (Sunday AEST), following weeks of threats from the president to send troops into the city as part of a nationwide crackdown on crime. “President Trump will not turn a blind eye to the lawlessness plaguing American cities.”
Illinois governor JB Pritzker had earlier warned that he had received an ultimatum from the Trump administration to “call up your troops, or we will”.
“It is absolutely outrageous and un-American to demand a governor send military troops within our own borders and against our will,” he said.
It’s just the latest episode in Trump’s ongoing effort to deploy US troops into cities he claims are overrun with crime and disorder.
Trump deployed troops to Los Angeles against the wishes of local leaders to quell protests that erupted over anti-immigration raids.
Judge blocks Trump’s Portland effort
A judge on Sunday blocked the Republican president’s attempt to send the military into Portland, Oregon, another city Trump had set his sights on.
Trump has repeatedly called Portland “war-ravaged” and riddled with violent crime, but in Sunday’s court order, US district judge Karin Immergut wrote “the President’s determination was simply untethered to the facts.”
Although the city has seen scattered attacks on federal officers and property, the Trump administration failed to demonstrate “that those episodes of violence were part of an organised attempt to overthrow the government as a whole,” Immergut wrote in granting a temporary restraining order.
Recent protests in Portland did not pose a “danger of rebellion” and “regular law enforcement forces” could handle such incidents, Immergut wrote.
Oregon Senator Ron Wyden applauded the order, saying the “victory supports what Oregonians already know: we don’t need or want Donald Trump to provoke violence by deploying federal troops in our state.”
Incident in Chicago shortly before Trump’s move
Hours before Trump authorised the deployment of troops to Chicago on Sunday, a federal officer shot a motorist in the city after a group of cars boxed in law enforcement vehicles, according to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson.
“Agents were unable to move their vehicles and exited the car. One of the drivers who rammed the law enforcement vehicle was armed with a semi-automatic weapon,” DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a social media post.
“Law enforcement was forced to deploy their weapons and fire defensive shots at an armed US citizen who drove herself to the hospital to get care for wounds,” McLaughlin said.
She also accused local Chicago police of leaving the scene and refusing to assist with securing the area.
The Chicago Police Department said officers had attended the scene but weren’t involved in the incident or its investigation, which they said was being handled by federal authorities.
— With additional reporting from Agence France-Press news agency