Trump expands Operation Legend, slain Kansas City 4-year-old Taliferro's mother backs task force at WH event
President Donald Trump will be expanding the Justice Department's 'Operation Legend' to Chicago and Albuquerque and has plans to send federal agents to other cities like Baltimore, and Philadelphia.
Operation Legend, named after 4-year-old LeGend Taliferro, who was fatally shot while sleeping in his bed, was announced on July 8. LeGend Taliferro was shot and killed inside an apartment near East 63rd Street and Paseo Boulevard during the early-morning hours of June 29 in Kansas City, Missouri. Police said the toddler was asleep when he was struck by gunfire that came from outside the apartment.
After 'Operation Legend' was launched, Charron Powell, Taliferro's mother has supported the initiative named after her son, revealing that U.S. Attorney of the Western District of Missouri, Timothy Garrison, had reached out for her blessing to name the operation after her son. Hoping that her son's murder would also be solved as part of the initiative, Powell told those opposing Operation Legend, that it was "going to happen, with or without y’all."
She made another emotional appeal on July 22 at the White House after President Trump made the decision to expand 'Operation Legend' to Chicago and Albuquerque. She addressed the press saying: "I stand here today as a mother fighting against violence for my son LeGend Taliaferro. My family and I support ‘Operation Legend’ and we want our community and everyone else behind this." She also addressed the protests in the Black community with regard to the initiative's scope and use. "'Operation Legend’ is not to harass, not to harm or not to hurt. It is to help investigate unsolved murders. My one and only child who fought through open-heart surgery at four months is gone due to senseless gun violence.” Besides mother Charron Powell, LeGend’s father and grandparents also attended the White House event promoting the task force. Hoping that the initiative would be "successful", she said that "every community can reach out to that hotline if you know any information about any murder -- that would be great.”
Trump's decision is already provoking debate, with Philadephia's NAACP opposing 'Operation Legend', calling it a "community siege". Rodney Muhammad, president of the Philadelphia chapter of the NAACP, speaking at a news conference stated on July 22: “It would be only our communities — they’re not going to target white communities when they come in this city." There are also fears that the initiative is a smokescreen for federal occupation and a testing ground for martial law, but only the coming days will see if a Portland-like situation will emerge in these cities too.
However, for Legend Taliferro's family, it is an emotive issue. Taliferro was a survivor of open-heart surgery when he was only four months old, after being diagnosed with a heart defect. He was due for a second procedure and was looking forward to participating in the annual American Heart Association Heart and Stroke Walk. This made his death, the youngest homicide in Kansas city this year, even more tragic.