President Trump Wants To "Send In The Feds" To Stop Shootings In Chicago

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Scott Olson / Getty Images

President Donald Trump tweeted Tuesday night that if the murder rate in Chicago doesn’t decrease he will “send in the Feds.”

Trump’s tweet came after Fox News’s O’Reilly Factor asked how the federal government could combat violent crime in cities. The segment featured a clip from Trump’s speech at the Republican National Convention where he claimed “the crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon — and I mean very soon — come to an end.” At his inauguration, he said, “carnage stops right here and stops right now.”

The numbers that Trump cites in his tweet come from a Chicago Tribune report from Monday that said at least 228 people have been shot, resulting in 42 deaths, in January. The Tribune reported that shootings are up 5.5% and homicides are up 23.5% compared to January 2016, which had the highest number of shootings and murders in the city in more 16 years.

But officials are pushing back on these numbers. A Chicago police spokesman told BuzzFeed News that as of Tuesday, Jan. 24, the city has had 38 murders in 2017. The spokesman said he was not sure where the higher numbers were coming from.

According to a report obtained by BuzzFeed News from the Cook County Medical Examiner, as of Tuesday, there have been 41 homicides in the city for the month of January. Their homicide number is likely higher than the police's because the medical examiner includes what the police call justified homicides, such as officer-involved shootings of people who police said threatened another person or the officer's life. The police only track what they call criminal killings.

Earlier this month, following an announcement from the Chicago police that there were 762 murders in the city in 2016 and 4,331 shooting victims, the highest totals in two decades, Trump criticized Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel in a tweet and said that the city should seek federal help to fix the issue of violence.

Asked about Trump’s tweet Tuesday night, Emanuel’s office told BuzzFeed News, “The Mayor has addressed how the federal government can help address violence several times, as recently as tonight,” pointing to a local television broadcast.

Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said in a statement that the police department ”is more than willing to work with the federal government to build on our partnerships with D.O.J., F.B.I., D.E.A. and A.T.F. and boost federal prosecution rates for gun crimes in Chicago.”

Civil Rights leader Jesse Jackson also lashed out at Trump’s comment on Twitter on Tuesday.

BuzzFeed News has reached out to a Trump spokesperson and asked the administration to clarify what the president means when he tweets “send in the Feds!”

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