Launched in July of this year, Operation Legend deployed agents from various federal agencies to assist local law enforcement.
While violent crime in America is still much lower than its most recent peak in the mid-1990s, rates rocketed upward in 2020 against the backdrop of a global pandemic and the insane “defund the police” movement that has had some successes in demoralizing and defunding local police departments.
In 2020, across major U.S. cities homicide rates increased 42% over the summer, and 34% during the fall (compared to the summer and fall of last year). A preliminary FBI report has the nationwide homicide rate up 15% during the first half of the year.
Operation Legend is named after LeGend Taliferro, a four-year-old who was killed by gunfire while sleeping in his bed in Kansas City, Missouri.
The Department of Justice is now reporting that the operation had legendary results this year. According to Just The News:
Operation Legend has resulted in over 6,000 arrests, according to the agency.
The department in a release described 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.”
Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee and St. Louis are among the nine cities included in the effort.
“Operation Legend removed violent criminals, domestic abusers, carjackers and drug traffickers from nine cities which were experiencing stubbornly high crime and took illegal firearms, illegal narcotics and illicit monies off the streets,” Bill Barr said in his last day as AG.
Of those 6,000 arrested, 1,500 have been charged with federal offenses, and 500 were charged with homicide.
