The US Department of Justice warned on Monday that the progressive cities of New York, Portland and Seattle could be deprived of federal funds due to alleged police tolerance of anti-racism demonstrations, in an extension of an order issued earlier. September by Donald Trump.
New York authorities responded that they will take legal action if the Republican government follows through on their threats.
“We cannot waste public funds when the safety of citizens is at stake,” said the head of the US Department of Justice, William Barr.
For the Trump administration, local authorities in New York, Seattle and Portland, which he described as “anarchist cities”They have allowed “anarchy, violence and destruction” to develop in their territories.
Portland and Seattle are blacklisted by the federal government for failing to stop incidents that occurred on the sidelines of demonstrations linked to the death of George Floyd, a black man killed by Minneapolis police in detention.
In the Seattle case, the Trump administration is primarily critical of the “liberated zone” established in a city district several weeks ago, from which police withdrew and later recovered after several incidents, including two murders, by the same police.
As for Portland, the central government denounces the “chaos” caused by the daily demonstrations, apart from which there have been damages in commercial premises.
New York is criticized for failing to prosecute some protesters arrested during the spring marches, as well as for the increase in the number of shootings in the city in recent months.
“All of this is deeply political and unconstitutional,” the mayors of the three affected cities reacted in a joint statement, accusing the Trump administration of “shirking its responsibilities and blaming others for hiding its shortcomings.”
New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo has warned that if the central government tries to deprive New York City of some of its federal funds, it will take legal action.
At a press conference, a legal advisor to the mayor of New York City, who in 2019 received $ 8.4 billion in federal funds, 9.1% of his budget, recalled that these resources depended on Congress, not the Government. .
In its statement, the Department of Justice warned that the authorities of New York and the other two cities questioned they were lenient in the violence of the protests and did not take steps to counter it, like the massive deployment of the National Guard.
The three districts, according to the White House, “They allowed the persistence of violence and the destruction of property and refused to take reasonable measures to counter criminal activities.”
The attorney general and secretary of Justice, William Barr, for his part, welcomed the government’s decision. “We cannot allow federal taxpayer money to be wasted while the safety of the citizenry is not protected“He said in another statement, in which he also highlighted the reduction of the police budget and some reforms in criminal matters approved in those three cities in response to the complaints in the streets.
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, in turn, accused the Trump administration of committing “an erroneous and openly illegal use of federal power.” “Trump, the Justice Department and Barr’s obsession with Seattle and me is irrational and, more importantly, a great distraction,” added the Democratic leader just six weeks before the general election, in which the current President, who presents himself as the candidate of “law and order”, is at stake for his re-election.
This is not the first time that Trump has faced cities ruled by opposition mayors. In 2017, after it announced that it would suspend federal funding to cities that declared or acted as “migrant shelters,” the affected mayors turned to the courts and, after years of legal battles, won the game.
– .
