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Whether in the streets of Washington or Chicago, crime has dominated the headlines in recent months in America’s largest cities. President Trump has hinted that he has had enough with the situation in the Windy City. He could finally make good on his threat to send the National Guard to the nation’s third-largest city in just a couple of days. Does Trump have the legal authority to do so, and what are the ramifications on both sides of the issue? WOR White House correspondent Jon Decker appeared on 710 WOR’s Mendte in the Morning program to discuss the latest on the fight to restore law and order to Chicago.
Decker, who has a law degree, explained to host Larry Mendte how Trump can legally make the claim to send in the National Guard over the objections of city and state politicians: “I think one of the areas of pretext is dereliction of duty on the part of the governor of Illinois, JB Pritzker. Why do I say that- because of the substantial increase in crime statistics that we’re seeing in the city of Chicago. Over the Labor Day weekend, you had 58 shootings; that’s just unheard of, even in Third World countries… If the governor’s not going to do something to crack down on crime, the President, as commander-in-chief, could do something like that, and I think that’s really what he’s weighing.”
While Decker says the Guard can’t directly handle law enforcement, there are other things they can do that would make the plan legally above board: “If they’re being sent in to protect federal buildings [or] do work which could augment what the metropolitan police force in Chicago is doing, that’s a different story entirely. I think it’s really up to the President as to whether or not he wants to do in Chicago what he says has happened right here in Washington, DC.”
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