Social Injustice Protests Results in FBI Pulling Agents from Organized Crime Units #Portland

Portland, Oregon's FBI chief said Wednesday he is shifting the agency's resources to focus more heavily on the nightly racial injustice protests in Oregon's largest city that often end in vandalism, clashes with local police and dozens of arrests.

Special Agent in Charge Renn Cannon said he is pulling agents from fraud and organized crime teams to focus on "acts of violence and federal crimes" committed during nearly three months of unrest. The FBI respects the rights of peaceful protesters to assemble and demonstrate, but near nightly acts of violence and vandalism associated with the protests have created a dangerous and volatile situation, he said.


"We do investigate major threats of violence and federal crimes. And sometimes a major threat of violence is a cumulative threat that happens over a period of time. It starts to have a really negative impact on the community," he said in an interview with The Associated Press.

"Here in Portland, we're ... making the assessment that we should be trying to do a little more than we have, because the cumulative effects and the nature of the problem indicate that the community needs help," Cannon said.

He declined to provide specifics about the numbers of agents being shifted to protest cases or which cases, or how many cases, the agency was investigating. The FBI has previously released wanted posters related to two incidents on May 29.

The announcement came as Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler prepared to make a statement the day after protesters smashed windows and vandalized City Hall inside and out. Police made 23 arrests as they dispersed the crowd, officials said.

Demonstrators in the crowd of about 150 also threw bottles and eggs at police, put metal bars in the street to try to damage police vehicles and smashed a security camera on the City Hall building, police said in a statement. The statement said officers used "crowd control munitions" in response but did not say what kind.

The day before, local police used tear gas to repel protesters who repeatedly set fire to a police union headquarters building and arrested 25 individuals. And last weekend, protesters clashed violently in downtown streets for several hours with members of a right-wing group that showed up to confront them. Video recorded during the Saturday melee shows one man pointing a gun into the crowd, but no shots were fired.

Cannon declined to say if the FBI was looking into Saturday's events, but he said his agency does help local, state and federal law enforcement with "threat assessments" in situations such as those.

Portland has been gripped by nightly protests for nearly three months since the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Demonstrators have repeatedly targeted police buildings, police union buildings, city and county offices and federal buildings with vandalism that includes setting fires, spraying graffiti and smashing windows and security cameras.

Some protesters want to eliminate or drastically reduce the city's police budget — saying the police protects property over Black lives — while the city's mayor and others in the Black community have decried the violence, saying it is counterproductive.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump renewed calls to have Gov. Kate Brown and Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler call in the state's National Guard. "They must stop calling these anarchists and agitators 'peaceful protestors'. Come back into the real world! The Federal Government is ready to end this problem immediately upon your request," Trump wrote on Twitter.

Brown responded on Twitter to Trump's demand, calling it "political theater."

In July, Trump sent agents to protect federal property in downtown Portland, including a courthouse that was a target of protesters. Crowds grew into the thousands. Agents repeatedly clashed with people over a two-week period, deployed tear gas and arrested those they said were hurling objects and trying to hurt agents and damage property.

The American Civil Liberties Union on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against Trump and other federal officials related to the agents' actions, alleging they used excessive force and illegal detentions to try to stamp out Black Lives Matter protests.

The agents pulled back from a visible presence downtown on July 31. But it's unclear how many remain in Portland.

The Oregon State Police, which took over policing the protests from the federal agents, left after the agreed upon two-week monitoring period. Portland police have continued to clash with protesters almost every night in August.

Thanks to Gillian Flaccus.

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Operation Legend Targets Increased Violent Crime in #KansasCity #Albuquerque #Chicago #Cleveland #Detroit #Indianapolis #Memphis #Milwaukee #StLouis

In support of Operation Legend, the FBI is combining resources with its federal, state, and local law enforcement partners in nine cities where there has been a troubling uptick in violent crime.


The initiative was named after a 4-year-old boy, LeGend Taliferro, who was killed by gunfire while asleep in his Kansas City, Missouri, home. LeGend’s city was the first area to receive additional resources when Attorney General William Barr announced the launch of Operation Legend on July 8, 2020.

The operation has since expanded to include support for Albuquerque, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, Memphis, Milwaukee, and St Louis.

“There’s been a significant increase in violent crime in various parts of the country,” said Calvin Shivers, the assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division. “Operation Legend is an initiative to surge resources across the Department of Justice to those cities to address that spike in crime.”

Shivers said the FBI has provided additional agents, but has also brought in support from across the Bureau. The FBI’s intelligence analysts, digital evidence experts, field office personnel, and professional staff are supporting efforts to get to the root causes of the crime increases in Kansas City, Chicago, and other Operation Legend cities.

“What we bring to the table is the ability to target some of the most violent offenders in the short term while pursuing a longer term strategy to dismantle entire criminal organizations,” Shivers said.

“Operation Legend has allowed us to surge additional resources to these areas that are seeing an unacceptable increase in violence,” said FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich. “These crimes unsettle communities and threaten the sense of safety we all deserve to have when we put our children to bed at night or when we step out in our neighborhoods.”

Operation Legend has already produced results. One of the most heartening developments was the arrest of a suspect in the murder of LeGend Taliferro on August 13.

Within the first 30 days, efforts in Kansas City resulted in more than 200 arrests, according to U.S. Attorney Tim Garrison. Among those apprehended were suspects in homicides, assaults, robberies, and drug trafficking.

"There is a significant uptick in violent crime in Kansas City, and while every agency participating in this operation has a different role and responsibility, fighting violent crime is a responsibility we all share,” said FBI Kansas City Special Agent in Charge Timothy Langan.

Shivers said that since mid-July, the FBI has opened 111 new cases, made 116 arrests, and recovered 92 firearms across the Operation Legend cities.

“What we want to do,” Shivers said, “is have a significantly positive impact on an entire community that’s being affected by violent crime.”

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The FBI’s former head of counterintelligence delivers a field-tested playbook for unlocking individual and organizational excellence, based on the FBI’s fiercely protected code of conduct and illustrated through dramatic stories from his own storied career

Frank Figliuzzi was the "Keeper of the Code," appointed the FBI’s Chief Inspector by then-Director Robert Mueller. Charged with overseeing sensitive internal inquiries, shooting reviews, and performance audits, he ensured each employee met the Bureau's exacting standards of performance, integrity, and conduct. Now, drawing on his distinguished career, Figliuzzi reveals how the Bureau achieves its extraordinary standard of excellence—from the training of new recruits in "The FBI Way: Inside the Bureau's Code of Excellence" to the Bureau's rigorous maintenance of its standards up and down the organization. Unafraid to identify FBI execs who erred, he cites them as the exceptions that prove the rule.

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Operation Legend Expanded to Saint Louis #OperationLegend #StLouis

Jeff Jensen, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, joined the Department of Justice in officially announcing the expansion of Operation Legend to St. Louis. Operation Legend, 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, will be expanding into the City of St. Louis.

“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. For decades, the Department of Justice has achieved significant success when utilizing our anti-violent crime task forces and federal law enforcement agents to enforce federal law and assist American cities that are experiencing upticks in violent crime. The Department of Justice’s assets will supplement local law enforcement efforts, as we work together to take the shooters and chronic violent criminals off of our streets.”

“Operation Legend has come to St. Louis,” said U.S. Attorney Jeff Jensen. “Today we expand our ever-present federal commitment to the City of St. Louis by welcoming federal agents and money to our City for the purpose of fighting gun and gang violence. This expansion will greatly enhance on-going crime fighting by our Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, the Joint ATF-St. Louis Metropolitan Strike Force, and the United States Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force. Our children are being caught in the crossfire and murdered in senseless acts of gun violence. I am very grateful to work with our federal, state and local law enforcement partnerships in a dedicated effort to achieve safety and security for our community. I want to thank Chief John Hayden as well as the various federal and state agencies that make this initiative possible.”

Operation Legend is named in honor of four-year-old LeGend Taliferro, who was shot and killed while he slept early on the morning of June 29 in Kansas City. The operation was first launched on July 8 in Kansas City, Missouri, and is now underway in Chicago, Albuquerque, Cleveland, Detroit, and Milwaukee. The expansion of Operation Legend was announced in St. Louis and Memphis.

In the City of St. Louis, the Department of Justice will supplement state and local law enforcement agencies by sending more than 50 federal investigators from the Department of Homeland Security to the City. Under the leadership of U.S. Attorney Jeff Jensen, these investigators will complement the work already underway by existing joint federal, state and local task forces focused on combatting violent gangs, gun crime, and drug trafficking organizations.

St. Louis is currently experiencing a significant increase in violent crime, with homicides up over 34% and non-fatal shootings are up over 13%. These resources will be utilized to address the spike in violent crime.

During a press conference to announce the expansion of Operation Legend, FBI Special Agent in Charge Richard Quinn announced that as part of the initiative, a reward of up to $25,000 would be made available for information leading to the identification and arrest of the individual or individuals responsible for the homicides of Kayden E. Johnson, two years of age at the time, and his mother Trina’ty A. Riley, 18, inside their home on April 30, 2019.

“I just need closure. My family needs peace. We just want justice. If you know anything, please contact the detectives,” said Taiesha Campbell, mother of Trina’ty and grandmother of Kayden, in connection with today’s announcement.

The Bureau of Justice Assistance will make available $1 million to support Operation Legend’s violent crime reduction efforts and shot spotter responses in St. Louis. The City is also receiving two Special Assistant United States Attorneys from the Missouri Attorney General’s Office to support violent crime prosecutions.

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