Operation Legend

Overview

Operation Legend refers to the Trump administration's June 2020 initiative to deploy federal law enforcement agents to various cities across the United States in response to claimed increases in crime amid the 2020 George Floyd protests. The operation is named after LeGend Taliferro, a four-year-old who was fatally shot in late June 2020 in Kansas City, Missouri. Online, the operation sparked debates over whether it represented an authoritarian overreach by the federal government or was a necessary response to crime increases across the country.

Background

Death of LeGend Taliferro

On June 29th, 2020, LeGend Taliferro was shot as gunfire erupted outside of the apartment he was sleeping in. He was pronounced dead after being transported to a hospital shortly after. According to the Kansas City Police Department, the shooting was "not random" and "the apartment was targeted" (shown below).

On July 3rd, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas tweeted a letter sent to Kansas Governor Mike Carson, which stated "We are at a crisis point in Kansas City and we need state legislative action" (shown below).

Operation Legend Announcement

On July 8th, 2020, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany announced the launch of Operation Legend to send federal law enforcement to Kansas City, noting it had been named after LeGend Taliferro and reading Kansas City crime statistics showing a 40 percent increase in homicides in 2020.

Developments

Donald Trump Press Conference

On July 22nd, 2020, President Donald Trump delivered remarks about the operation, announcing he would be implementing "a surge of federal law enforcement of American communities plagued by violent crime" (shown below).

That same day, Attorney General William Barr claimed "within two weeks we've had 200 arrests" in Kansas City. Following the announcement, the Kansas City Star^[2] reported that they were unable to substantiate Barr's claim and quoted Kansas City Mayor Lucas as stating "you can't verify it because nothing can be verified."

Online Reactions

On July 10th, 2020, the YouTube channel Liberal Hivemind uploaded a video celebrating the operation titled "Feds Finally Launch Taskforce Targeting Violence in Democrat Cities" (shown below).

On July 21st, Redditor Orpheus80 posted an article about the operation titled "What is Operation Legend? Trump May Use Federal Forces in US Cities" to /r/politics,^[3] where many criticized the operation as "authoritarian" and "fascist." The following day, Redditor formeraide submitted a post titled "Barr says feds arrested 200 people in Operation Legend. KC officials can't confirm it" to /r/politics.^[1] Also on June 22nd, Forbes reported Jesse Damiani posted a Twitter thread^[4] about the operation, which garnered more than 6,100 retweets and 4,800 likes over the next 24 hours. Meanwhile, artist John Legend tweeted^[5] about the operation, joking "Dare I look this up or should I carry on thinking the president is starting some sorta stan campaign for me" (shown below). Within 24 hours, the tweet gained over 19,000 likes and 1,400 retweets. Meanwhile, Twitter user @Strandjunker^[6] tweeted that the operation was "state-sponsored terrorism and must be stopped immediately," garnering 29,000 likes and 8,300 retweets in the same timeframe (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References