Tag: Operation LeGend

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Feds: Operation LeGend Yielded Most Arrests in Memphis

Operation LeGend, the controversial federal surge of money and agents sent to Memphis to combat violent crime, ended recently and yielded more arrests here than any of the seven other cities where it was deployed.

On Tuesday, U.S. Attorney General William Barr announced the results of the operation that began here on August 6th. Then, it was announced that 40 federal investigators from the FBI, DEA, ATF, and Homeland Security Investigations Unit would be deployed in the 

Attorney General Barr

city, and 26 of them would remain in Memphis for the foreseeable future.

The federal investigators were to work with ongoing investigations through the Multi-Agency Gang Unit, the goal of which is to combat violent gangs, gun crime, and drug trafficking organizations.

Operation LeGend was launched in Kansas City, Missouri; Chicago, Illinois; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Cleveland, Ohio; Detroit, Michigan; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; St. Louis, Missouri; Memphis; and Indianapolis, Indiana.

Here are some stats on the operation in Memphis, shared by Barr’s office Tuesday:

• 266 arrests

• 124 charged with federal offenses

• 53 for drug crimes

• 46 for gun crimes

• 24 for violent crimes like carjacking, business robbery, and using a firearm during a violent crime

• 210 firearms were seized

• $670,270 in criminal proceeds were seized

Here’s a list of the drugs that were seized:

• 31,063 grams of methamphetamine

• 1,572 grams of cocaine

• 4,665 grams of fentanyl

• 5,021 grams of heroin

• 9,205 grams of marijuana

• 2,822 pills of various controlled substances, primarily opioids

Here’s a list of the grants brought here by Operation LeGend:

• City of Memphis Police Department — $9,823,624 (COPS Hiring Program funds, to hire 50 new officers)

• Shelby County Sheriff’s Office — $1,628,571 (Operation Relentless Pursuit/Operation LeGend)

• Shelby County District Attorney General’s Office — $398,864 (Project Guardian)

U.S. Attorney D. Michael Dunavant

U.S. Attorney D. Michael Dunavant said the efforts have “undoubtedly saved lives.”

“Although this marks the end of the formal [Department of Justice] Operation LeGend initiative, we will continue our targeted enforcement actions and coordination in the future with the federal agents permanently reassigned to Memphis, as well as our LeGend Task Force model,” Dunavant said. “Despite rising violent crime rates in 2020, as a result of Operation LeGend, drug traffickers, trigger-pullers, gang members, and violent offenders are going to prison, law enforcement is energized, and the public is better protected.”

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U.S. Atty. Dunavant Announces $2 Million to Combat Violent Crime

U.S. Attorney D. Michael Dunavant

U.S. Attorney D. Michael Dunavant has announced that more than $2 million in Department of Justice grants are headed to the Western District of Tennessee to help prevent violent crime. The grants come from a $458 million support pledge from Attorney General William Barr to help in supporting local, state, and tribal law in enforcement efforts to combat violent crime.

“One of the fundamental missions of government is to protect its citizens and safeguard the rule of law,” said Barr. “The Department of Justice will continue to meet  this critical responsibility by doing everything within its power to help our state, local and tribal  law enforcement and criminal justice partners fight crime and deliver justice on behalf of all  Americans.”

The funding is a part of the Trump Administration’s commitment to combat violent crime and improve public safety nationwide. Upon taking office, the President elevated community safety to the top of his domestic agenda. Recent data from the FBI and the Bureau of Justice statistics for 2019 show a drop in crime and serious victimization for the third year in a row.

To date, funding from the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) has gone to Operation Relentless Pursuit, Project Guardian, and Operation LeGend.

“We are thankful to Attorney General Barr for providing these additional OJP grant resources to combat violent gun crime in Memphis, and we will continue to coordinate with our state and local law enforcement partners to use these  resources to effectively target the real crime drivers in Memphis and Shelby County: gangs, guns, and drugs.”

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AG Barr, in Memphis, Touts Operation LeGend, Is Protested

Attorney General Barr

On Wednesday, U.S. Attorney General William Barr, who normally makes news pushing legal agendas backed by President Donald Trump, came to Memphis and, in the presence of local law-enforcement officials, touted Operation LeGend, a joint federal-local operation in which Memphis is one of several high-crime cities targeted by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

Speaking at the Memphis Police Department’s Ridgeway Station, Barr began with a tribute to the law-enforcement profession in general.

“Today, it’s probably ten times harder than it’s ever been.” he said. “Part of that climate is characterized by media coverage that often distorts the world and somehow has taken some very unfortunate incidents and and used them to create a false narrative in which you were the bad guys.”

Barr said that, despite a general impression that law enforcement was “on a treadmill,” discernible progress had been made.

“I was Attorney General 30 years ago when crime was at its peak. Victimization rates in 1991 and 1992 were 70 per 1,000 persons. Today it’s more like 30.”

Protesters at the event

“Thousands and thousands of lives” had been saved by carefully applied law enforcement, Barr said.

“A lot of that progress was getting back to basics and going after violent offenders who were responsible for a disproportionate number of crimes,” he said. “We can acknowledge that we’re not the only solution, but I think people have to recognize there can’t be the solution without us.”

The Attorney General then gave a rundown on the effects of Operation LeGend, in which the Justice Department decided to intervene with agents and other forms of support.

“That’s why we came to Memphis, we put in 96 additional federal agents, $9.5 million, approximately, to support 50 additional police positions, additional monies for technology upgrades and brought in additional forensic specialists and investigators to work on crimes.”

He boasted good results.

“In just several months, in just a couple of months, we’ve had over 5500 arrests nationwide. And 1100 of those were charged federally. Here in Memphis, we’ve had 64 suspects charged. I know, in Memphis, some of the crime has proven to be particularly stubborn. The homicide rate is still very high.”

But he said, there had been significant abatement in other areas like robbery and rape.

“And leads developed for over 1500 gun crimes.”

Barr concluded his brief remarks by saying, “We look forward to continued joint operations.”

Not looking forward to that prospect at all was Hunter Demster, one of several local activists protesting the occasion, who said of their demonstration, “Decarcerate Memphis is hosting this event in response to William Barr coming in town and pushing the harmful Trump policies and using Memphis as a testing ground for these federal agencies.”

Demster said his group had “major concerns” about Operation Relentless Pursuit and LeGend.

“We have major concerns around these task forces in general and with their accountability and purpose — Memphis being as poor as it is and people being food-insecure, job-insecure, health-insecure. Memphis needs help and it’s not more police. So we want them to redistribute the money they’re using for these federal operations into social services that actually prevent crime and address people’s basic needs.”

Demster was critical also of Mayor Jim Strickland for cooperating with Operation LeGend and, he said, with the objectives of the Trump administration.

“It fits right in line with Mayor Strickland’s policies the entire time, he’s invited [former Attorney General] Jeff Sessions with open arms. He’s invited William Barr with open arms, he’s invited [U.S. Senator] Marsha Blackburn with open arms. … I think it’s a ploy to to make it look like the Trump administration is doing something significant, when in actuality they’re doing more harm.”

The remarks by Demster, who was later taken into custody by police, paralleled those made in a recent article in MLK50 by University of Memphis professor Tony Velasco, who also saw a synchronicity of sorts in the policies of the Memphis Mayor and the President.

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Dunavant: Feds Don’t Need Council Permission for Operation LeGend

CREDIT: City of Memphis

City of Memphis

Dunavant meets with the Memphis City Council Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee.

The federal government does not need the Memphis City Council’s permission to bring more law enforcement to the city.

That’s what Michael Dunavant, the United States Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, told council members Tuesday, August 18th. Dunavant was defending a new violent crime reduction effort — called Operation LeGend — that will bring 40 federal agents from a variety of agencies to Memphis. The council heard from Dunavant Tuesday as they reviewed a resolution in opposition to the operation here.

“With all due respect to the council, no one’s permission is needed to do this,” Dunavant said, noting federal law trumps local law. “We will do this.”

Operation LeGend was announced for Memphis on August 6th. It will bring 40 agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Department of Homeland Security. 

U.S. Attorney D. Michael Dunavant

Sixteen of them will be here for 90 days and 24 of them will remain here permanently. They will work with local police to blunt what Dunavant said was a rise in violent crime this year. Some agents are already on the ground, and some have already made arrests.

Operation LeGend is not, Dunavant said, to send federal troops to occupy Memphis.

“This is not Portland,” he said during remarks to the council’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee.
[pullquote-1-center] He noted the operation was planned in December 2019 well before protests began in the wake of the police murder of George Floyd.

Council member J.B. Smiley asked if the federal agent have placed surveillance devices around the city.

“I’m not aware of that, but even if I was I couldn’t discuss it with you for operational safety,” Dunavant said.

Council member Michalyn Easter-Thomas said she hoped local law enforcement agencies would seek federal grants for re-entry and rehabilitation programs as aggressively as Dunavant’s office is on suppressing violent crime.

Dunavant said he believes crime is not driven primarily by poverty but by lack of consequences, which is what he said he’ll bring to criminals here with Operation LeGend. He said calls to defund police are “reckless and dangerous” and could embolden criminals and increase violent crime.

“What good is a living wage if you’re not living?” Dunavant asked. “What good is an education if children are dying in their beds in drive-by shootings?”

He said homicides in Memphis are up 49 percent form where they were in 2019. So far this year, 170 have been murdered here. Twenty-four of those were children. Twenty-one of those were African Americans. The murder count this year is on track to surpass the 228 murders in 2016, the year with the highest murder count in Memphis history.

“Operation LeGend will suppress violence here now,” Dunavant said. “We must stop the bleeding now. Children are dying now.”

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Operation LeGend Hopes to Curb Violent Crime in Memphis

Thursday Afternoon United States Attorney D. Michael Dunavant announced Operation LeGend will be expanding into the City of Memphis.

Operation LeGend is 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.

U.S. Attorney D. Michael Dunavant

“The most basic responsibility of government is to protect the safety of our citizens,” said Attorney General William P. Barr. “Today, we have extended Operation Legend to Memphis and St. Louis, two cities experiencing increases in violent crime that no resident of those cities should have to accept as part of everyday life.”

The move will lead to 40 federal investigators from the FBI, DEA, ATF, and Homeland Security Investigations Unit being deployed in the city, 26 of which will remain in Memphis for the foreseeable future.

The federal investigators will be working with ongoing investigations through the Multi-Agency Gang Unit, the goal of which is to combat violent gangs, gun crime, and drug trafficking organizations.

The Bureau of Justice Assistance has also pledged $200,000 to support Operation LeGend’s violent crime reduction efforts in the city of Memphis, in addition to a prior grant award of $1.4 million to Shelby County to help bolster their law enforcement infrastructure.

Memphis has experienced a significant increase in violent crimes over the year with homicides in the city up 49 percent since 2019. The Shelby County District Attorney General stated that Memphis has a “public health crisis” as well as a “public safety crisis.”

“In the midst of a public health crisis, we are dealing with a public safety crisis. This help from our federal partners will mean justice for more families devastated by all of this violence. For that I am grateful. But for lasting change, we need the community to do more. We need a coordinated community reaction to the disturbing number of murders —- to the number of children we have buried. We need everyone to do their part to combat the growing number among us who embrace violent behavior.”

Operation LeGend began following the murder of 4-year-old LeGend Taliferro early on June 29th. Operation LeGend was first launched in Kansas City on July 8th and has expanded to Chicago, Albuquerque, Cleveland, Detroit, St. Louis, and Milwaukee.