Following an executive order signed by President Donald Trump earlier this month, New York City was officially designated on Monday as an “anarchist jurisdiction” by the US Department of Justice, together with Seattle, Washington, and Portland, Oregon.
At the time the executive order was signed, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and other mayors around the country threatened they would take President Donald Trump to court if he made good on his threat — which he has — and marked any of their cities for withholding of federal funds.
“If you persist in trying to deny the funding that’s keeping New York City going in the middle of this crisis, we will see you in court and, once again, we will beat you in court,” de Blasio warned.
But Trump has now done just that, with a directive that so far has resulted in three cities — including the Big Apple — being designated as places which “have permitted violence and destruction of property to persist and have refused to undertake reasonable measures to counteract criminal activities,” the DOJ said in a statement.
Cities that are so designated could indeed potentially lose their federal funding under the law: along with the executive order signed on September 2, Trump directed the DOJ to identify jurisdictions that were not enforcing the law appropriately.
All three of the named cities are led by Democrats. The administration has said state and local officials have defunded police departments, refused offers of help from the federal government and also failed to rein in the violence taking place for weeks at a time.
According to a report by USA Today, the Office of Management and Budget is expected to send guidance on restricting the cities’ eligibility for federal funding.
“We cannot allow federal tax dollars to be wasted when the safety of the citizenry hangs in the balance,” Attorney General William Barr said Monday in a statement.
“It is my hope that the cities identified by the Department of Justice today will reverse course and become serious about performing the basic function of government and start protecting their own citizens,” Attorney General William Barr said in a statement.