by WorldTribune Staff, September 21, 2020
Portland, Seattle and New York City stand to lose federal funding for failing to control rioting and moving to defund police, the Department of Justice said.
The three cities which have been devastated by Black Lives Matter and Antifa rioting have been declared “anarchist jurisdictions” by the DOJ.
“We cannot allow federal tax dollars to be wasted when the safety of the citizenry hangs in the balance,” Attorney General William Barr said on Monday. “It is my hope that the cities identified by the Department of Justice today will reverse course and become serious about performing the basic function of government and start protecting their own citizens.”
The White House will issue guidance on withdrawing funds from “anarchist jurisdictions” in less than two weeks, budget director Russ Vought said.
Portland made the DOJ’s list over its more than 100 consecutive nights of rioting and because Mayor Ted Wheeler has rejected federal assistance to quell the rioting.
In June, the Portland City Council voted to cut its police department budget by at least $15 million.
Seattle was included on the list because of a long-running “autonomous zone” and associated crime, the Trump administration said.
In a Sept. 2 memo, President Donald Trump instructed Vought to issue guidance within 30 days “to the heads of agencies on restricting eligibility of or otherwise disfavoring, to the maximum extent permitted by law, anarchist jurisdictions in the receipt of Federal grants.”
“In New York City, city officials have allowed violence to spike. In light of this unconscionable rise in violence, I have offered to provide Federal law enforcement assistance, but both Mayor de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo have rejected my offer,” Trump wrote.
New York City gets about $7 billion in annual federal aid.
The New York City Council approved a budget in July that cut $1 billion from the NYPD’s $6 billion annual budget. Also in July, the number of shootings in New York City skyrocketed 177 percent over the same period last year, and there was a 59 percent rise in murders. In August, city shootings soared 165 percent, while murders jumped about 50 percent.
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