Trump administration lists three ‘anarchist’ cities in US to lose federal funds

The United States President, Donald Trump administration on Monday listed three cities that are scheduled to lose federal funding after the White House accused them of tolerating crime.

On the list of “anarchist cities” are: New York City, Portland and Seattle, according to Trump officials who say have failed to spring from crime connected to a summer of protests, which follows a memo from Trump earlier September this year threatening the move.

The mayors of the cities have vowed to sue, calling Mr Trump’s move a political stunt.

A statement from the Justice Department head by Attorney General William Barr on Monday drafted out recent rates of crime in the cities and how their police reacted to this.

“We cannot allow federal tax dollars to be wasted when the safety of the citizenry hangs in the balance,” Barr said in the statement.

He also called on Portland, Seattle and New York City to “reverse course and become serious about performing the basic function of government and start protecting their own citizens”.

All three cities have seen major protests since the death of George Floyd who was killed by the Minneapolis police in May.

It remains unclear what federal funding may be cut from the cities.

In a joint statement, the mayors of Portland, Seattle, New York and Washington DC – which was on a list of “anarchist cities” but was not included in the Monday’s decision – accused Trump of “playing cheap political games with congressionally directed funds”.

The mayors called the decision “thoroughly political and unconstitutional” and accused the Trump administration of “shirking responsibility and placing blame elsewhere to cover its failure”.

Violent crimes have generally declined in US cities since the 1990s, but have risen steeply in the past year in several cities like Chicago, Philadelphia and New York.

What is the situation in those cities?

The move comes in the middle of a summer of unrest sparked by protests against the police killing of black Americans. Some of the protests have led to major police reforms around the country.

OnyxNews Nigeria citing BBC report that in New York City, the rate of shootings and murders have increased as youth programmes and other social films have been on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic. Cases of looting and vandalism have also made national news as protests for racial justice have at times turned brutal.

Reacting to the Justice department announcement on Monday, New York City mayor Bill de Blasio called the decision “another one of President Trump’s games,” adding: “It’s insulting to the people of New York City and Trump’s effort to withhold our funding is unconstitutional.”

Seattle permitted the creation of a so-called “autonomous zone,” where protesters forbade police from entering six square blocks of the downtown part of the city for closely one month. The area was taken down in early July after many shootings. And nightly protests have continued since then.

Portland, Oregon, has often been invoked by Trump as a “Democrat-run” city that has supposedly allowed violence. Protests have continued nightly there for over 100 consecutive days, sometimes devolving to violence and vandalism as protesters fight with police.