Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday welcomed federal assistance to help stem the city's violence but rejected the idea of the National Guard patrolling Chicago as "antithetical" to the trust he's trying to build in law enforcement.
The mayor's comments came after President Donald Trump on Tuesday evening took to Twitter to suggest he would "send in the Feds!" if Chicago doesn't "fix the horrible 'carnage' going on."
The president's tweet, however, did not specify what form that could take. At a Wednesday press briefing, White House spokesman Sean Spicer didn't respond directly when asked whether Trump was talking about deploying National Guard troops to Chicago.
"There's no one thing," Spicer said. "There can be aid, if it was requested up through the governor through the proper channels that the federal government can provide on a law enforcement basis. But there's other aid that can be extended as well through the U.S. attorney's office or other means that will ensure the people of Chicago have the resources to feel safe. That's what he means. And part of it is that no American, whether or not you live in Chicago or Nebraska, shouldn't feel like you can walk down the streets of a city in this country and fear for your life. And I think too often that's happening in Chicago."
At City Hall, Emanuel said the National Guard "has nothing to do with public safety" and that he was "against it, straight up."
"The place you want _ if it comes to safety and security when dealing with gangs and guns _ you want the federal resources that are set up to deal with that," Emanuel said while speaking to reporters at a news conference that included more national media outlets than usual in the wake of the Trump tweet. "That is the ATF, Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. That is DEA, Drug Enforcement Agency. That is FBI, the Federal Bureau of Investigations."
Spicer indicated Trump was waiting for Emanuel to ask for help dealing with Chicago crime, referencing a meeting the two had in New York prior to Trump's inauguration. "I think the president-elect at the time extended his support to Mayor Emanuel to say that the resources of the federal government are here for you," Spicer said. "To the best of my knowledge, that return call for help has not occurred."
Emanuel on Wednesday said he talked with Trump during that early December meeting about the kind of federal help Chicago would like to receive, though he did not offer specifics on what he asked for.
"I've been very clear about what I think we need to do, and I think you can say this, and I'm saying it correctly: I'm not a shy person," he said. "But I look forward to working with the new administration on expanding what exists today. We have a partnership. There are resources."
Emanuel repeatedly has pointed out that though Chicago has received much of Trump's public crime-fighting focus, other American cities are statistically more violent and also seeing spikes in the number of shootings. The mayor brushed off a question Wednesday about why the president is so fixated on Chicago.
"Look, that's not for me to answer. You should ask your colleagues out in Washington," he said. "Here's the thing: You want to focus on Chicago? OK. I'm going to focus on Chicago."
Aldermen reacted cautiously to the presidential tweet, saying the city could use more federal money and assistance but that armed troops patrolling the streets would be a mistake.
"I don't think we need troops in the city," said Alderman Pat Dowell, 3rd. "Nobody wants to be subject to a curfew, home-to-home searches, cordoning off neighborhoods. I think we need more investment in terms of jobs, investment in our schools."
South Side Alderman Toni Foulkes said sending National Guard units into the city's African-American neighborhoods would worsen conditions in those communities, where there is already a distrust of law enforcement.
"When the National Guard gets involved, you end up with curfews, militarization of neighborhoods," said Foulkes, 16th, who represents parts of Englewood, West Englewood, Chicago Lawn and Gage Park. "And especially in places like Englewood, neighborhoods where residents already feel like there's a racial basis to some of these decisions, that will not help matters."
Cardinal Blase Cupich, who was at City Hall to be honored for his recent elevation to cardinal, said the situation is "more complex" than one that can be dealt with simply by posting federal troops on Chicago streets. "The problem is surely much more complex than that type of a solution," he said. "I surely would welcome, and I think a lot of people would welcome, assistance on a multilevel basis, simply because the problem is not simple. It is complex and it can be improved if we all pull together."
Emanuel is in a tough spot. With Chicago's ongoing crime problems eroding local trust in his administration and garnering so much national attention from Trump and others, it could be difficult for the mayor to reject outright offers of help. But he might not want to be seen as turning over crime fighting to federal officials.
And the mayor is trying desperately to increase some residents' trust in law enforcement that was badly hurt by the Laquan McDonald police shooting and other incidents in the past year, a process he said the National Guard would undermine.
"We're going through a process of reinvigorating community policing, building trust between relationships in the community and law enforcement," he said Wednesday. "(The National Guard) is antithetical to the spirit of what community policing is."
Trump's tweet came after Fox News' Bill O'Reilly on Tuesday aired a segment on "chaos in Chicago," concluding that "President Trump can call in the National Guard because the governor won't."
And it also came a day after Emanuel questioned Trump's focus on the size of the crowd at his inauguration ceremony and for missing a chance with his speech to appeal to "our better angels as a country."
In August, candidate Trump told O'Reilly "very top police" in Chicago had told him the city's crime problem could be stopped in a week with tougher tactics.
During the campaign, Trump frequently brought up Chicago violence as an example of rampant urban crime that would be dealt with if he were elected.
In a September TV interview, Trump said Chicago "is out of control" and needed to employ controversial stop-and-frisk police practices.
Earlier this week, Emanuel said police need to have professional standards and public support, and acknowledged the "Ferguson effect" in which some officers may patrol less aggressively to avoid having their actions second-guessed. But Emanuel saw no need for departments to enact stop-and-frisk tactics.
"Clearly police _ there was a reaction of what happened across the country," Emanuel said. "On the other hand, the choice isn't just 'Go back to stop-and-frisk.' And this is not a bipolar, two camps. We need our police to have high professional standards, the training to support them in those high professional standards and the certainty to be pro-actively involved."
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