Chicago Mayor Says Facts Don't Support AG Barr's 'Victory Lap'

CHICAGO — U.S. Attorney General William Barr swept into Chicago Wednesday touting the July launch of Operation Legend — a mission to decrease violent crime here and other big cities — as being directly responsible for the Chicago's recent decline in murders.

“Operation Legend is working. Crime is down and order is being restored to this great American city," Barr declared.

When asked why he wasn't flanked by Chicago police officials, Barr blamed the well-known political feud between the Trump Administration and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

"One of the odd things about our program in this city are some of the politics involved. I'm sure that was an element of it. I think you’ll have to ask the mayor and the police chief," Barr said.

On that point, Mayor Lightfoot agreed. "We will never be used as a prop." the mayor said. "Never."

Lightfoot accused the Trump administration of staging a "victory lap" around Operation Legend as political theater to bolster the President's re-election campaign. She said the city wouldn't participate in that.

"What message would [participating in the Barr news conference] send when our police department knows very differently about what the circumstances on the ground are?" Lightfoot said. "We're not going to be used in that kind of orchestrated presentation to mislead the public about what the realities are."

Lightfoot said she's grateful for the additional federal resources that the Trump administration as sent to fight violent crime, but questioned the validity of Barr's claims that the operation is directly associated with Chicago's recent dip in violent crime.

"Nobody should be taking a victory lap. Really that does a disservice to the many victims of violent crime, in particularly gun violence, in our city. We are absolutely making progress. We are absolutely leaning into those federal relationships. But the cause and effect that Attorney General Barr tried to make today, I think the facts don't bare that out. Not yet," she said.

"I'm hopeful these relationships and these additional resources will really bear fruit. We're still in the early stages. We're essentially about a month of them being here on the ground, that's not enough time for them to have significant impact yet."

The mayor said Chicago police strategies had started to result in crime reduction before Operation Legend was announced in late July.

Patch reporter Payton Potter contributed.