Justin Herdman, U.S. Attorney for the northern district of Ohio, on how the initiative helps combat crime in U.S. cities.
This is an unofficial transcript meant for reference. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
Instantly clear, everyday congestion:
Emily welcome back
as major cities, see a surge in
violence, the Justice Department,
sending federal law enforcement
to assist local police in nine
cities.
Since its launch in July
operation, Legend has led to more
than two thousand arrests with over four hundred and seventy
charged with federal crimes.
U dot S attorney for the northern
District of Ohio, Justin
Herbertman is one of the several:
U Dot S attorneys leading the
charge on the operation
he joins me now with an update
from Cleveland
Good morning. Justin. Thank you
for joining us today.
Give us that update please
good morning Emily. Thank
you for having me
well. We are underway full
little underway across the
country with operation legend.
As you said, we have had over
two thousand arrests already since we
launched in July.
That includes almost one hundred and fifty people
who have been wanted for murder.
So we are not just arresting
people for low level warrants.
Here
we are talking about very
violent fugitives,
very violent criminals and were
getting them off the streets of
these nine cities across the
country.
Emily there is a narrative
being floated by some that
the this is a federal
overreach,
its encroachment and leading to
more divisiveness on the ground.
Can you speak to that and speak
to potentially the reception you
are receiving in these nine
cities by the residents there
who are receiving this federal
help
yeah? Well, we are in these
cities because we have the
support of the community.
We have the support of the local
leadership
and we have the support of the
local police departments
and what you are seeing across
the country are the results that
speak to that support
and were able to take two thousand
violent fugitives and violent
criminals off the streets,
because we have the support of
the community
and then we can demonstrate to
them that we have had results
here.
We have taken over five hundred guns off
the street.
We have charged almost five hundred
people federally under operation
legend.
We even have taken seven kilos
of fentanyl off the street
thats enough fentanyl to kill
the entire population of Detroit
and Chicago combined
Emily, illustrating some of that
success. Operation. Legend has
made multiple arrests.
Here are a few of the numbers
here are
so defendants charged with
federal crimes?
Eighty nine Kansas City, Missouri, ninety nine
Chicago Illinois. We have one hundred and three:
can you tell us what are some of
the challenges you are facing, or
some more resources that you
would like to see? Moving
forward,
yeah
in these city, thats tremendous
effort, the numbers you read off
there, two weeks, four weeks in
St Louis, that they have been
able to charge that many people
federally.
What we look for in terms of
resources is exactly what the
president and the attorney
general have provided in these
nine cities, which is
supplementing existing federal
tax foxes with federal agents,
providing a place for police
officers to work with our
federal agents, to identify the
most violent criminals on our
streets, to take them off the
streets and to ensure that the
community has some breathing
space here to get through the
remainder of the summer and fall
without the violent crime that
we have seen surging across the
country over the past several
months.
Transcript generated on 2020-09-08.