DOJ Designates New York City, Portland, Seattle as ‘Anarchist Jurisdictions’
Barr: “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.”

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On September 2, President Donald Trump directed his administration to investigate New York City, Portland, Seattle, and Washington, DC, to see if they should pull federal money due to the violence and destruction.
The Department of Justice announced this morning it has designated New York City, Portland, and Seattle “as jurisdictions permitting violence and destruction of property.”
Trump’s memo on September 2 outlined the problems with the four places. He noted the spike in violence in NYC, which has seen unprecedented gun violence.
Portland witnessed 100 nights of nonstop destruction. Rioters destroyed small businesses and set fires to government buildings.
Trump declared:
The Federal Government provides States and localities with hundreds of billions of dollars every year, which fund a wide array of programs, such as housing, public transportation, job training, and social services. These funds have been collected from American taxpayers who entrusted their money to the Federal Government to serve our communities and our citizens.
My Administration will not allow Federal tax dollars to fund cities that allow themselves to deteriorate into lawless zones. To ensure that Federal funds are neither unduly wasted nor spent in a manner that directly violates our Government’s promise to protect life, liberty, and property, it is imperative that the Federal Government review the use of Federal funds by jurisdictions that permit anarchy, violence, and destruction in America’s cities. It is also critical to ensure that Federal grants are used effectively, to safeguard taxpayer dollars entrusted to the Federal Government for the benefit of the American people.
Trump instructed the Director of the Office Management and Budget (OMB) “to issue guidance to the heads of executive departments and agencies (agencies) for each agency to submit a report to the Director of OMB detailing all Federal funds provided to Seattle, Portland, New York City, Washington, D.C., or any components or instrumentalities of the foregoing jurisdictions.”
Attorney General Bill Barr said: “When state and local leaders impede their own law enforcement officers and agencies from doing their jobs, it endangers innocent citizens who deserve to be protected, including those who are trying to peacefully assemble and protest. We cannot allow federal tax dollars to be wasted when the safety of the citizenry hangs in the balance. 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.”
The DOJ identified New York City, Portland, and Seattle. However, the agency might add more if the cities meet the criteria:
- Whether a jurisdiction forbids the police force from intervening to restore order amid widespread or sustained violence or destruction.
- Whether a jurisdiction has withdrawn law enforcement protection from a geographical area or structure that law enforcement officers are lawfully entitled to access but have been officially prevented from accessing or permitted to access only in exceptional circumstances, except when law enforcement officers are briefly withheld as a tactical decision intended to resolve safely and expeditiously a specific and ongoing unlawful incident posing an imminent threat to the safety of individuals or law enforcement officers.
- Whether a jurisdiction disempowers or defunds police departments.
- Whether a jurisdiction unreasonably refuses to accept offers of law enforcement assistance from the Federal Government.
- Any other related factors the Attorney General deems appropriate.
New York City fell under the criteria because of the rise in violence, Mayor Bill de Blasio and the city council slashing $1 billion from the NYPD, and prosecutors not going after those accused “of disorderly conduct.
Portland has an increase in shootings and the city council also reduced the police budget.
Seattle’s mayor allowed people to run rampant, even declaring it the “summer of love” when people set up CHAZ and CHOP. This forced the police “to abandon their precinct within the CHOP.” Two teenagers died in the zone.
Trump has tried to help these three cities get everything under control. None of them accepted.
In fact, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo threatened Trump’s safety if the president ever stepped foot in New York City. He told Trump to “have an army” if he ever walked the streets of the city.

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Comments
How, if at all, will this designation impact insurance policies in these cities? At least one poster runs an agency in Washington State, I believe, and I am curious.
It shouldn’t affect them at all, because no insurance policy could possibly have a clause referencing a designation that was only invented last week.
With freedom comes responsibility. Everyone wants to be free, but far fewer want or accept the responsibility that comes with it. We call them children, for a reason.
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I wonder how the Insurance Companies will handle these anarchist” cities.
I mean, we don’t have this problem in my town, but we have the same Insurance Companies.
I wouldn’t want to be swimming in the same cesspool with them, I believe they should be set aside as special.
Otherwise, I wind up eating rates that I don’t deserve.
They don’t even address the core matter – equal protection under the law.
In many cases it’s not a matter of unequal protection — everyone is equally unprotected.
Let’s see….the DOJ has designated cities and is withholding funding due to the cities not supporting their citizens. Not providing law enforcement, etc. So…the next step is going after sanctuaries cities. See how this works. Watch when the left has a self realization on this point. They will forget about RBG’s replacement. The left won’t know be able to cope with this play by the President. As Flounder said, “boy this is fun”.
RGB what?
They’re the primary colors in a spectrum created with white light.
I know. Darn transposition…..
Bet those “sanctuary cities” are nostril deep in all of this also, including human sex trafficking.
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No, they can’t do that. There are no grants the cities are getting for helping ICE, so they can’t cut those off. The cities have a constitutional right to refuse to help ICE, they can’t be compelled by cutting off federal funding, and they can’t even be persuaded by doing that unless (a) Congress itself imposes the condition; (b) it does so unambiguously; and (c) the cut is small enough that they can afford to absorb it. The cuts DOJ tried to make were quite properly quashed in court because Congress had not make them; DOJ has no authority under the constitution to do so itself.
Thanks for your insightful comments here, Milhouse. You probably aren’t told that often enough but I really do appreciate your (legal) perspective on things.
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