LOS ANGELES—Amid ongoing legal and social media battles with President Donald Trump over his administration’s crackdown on crime and illegal immigration, California Gov. Gavin Newsom this week announced he would escalate operations to combat criminal activities and homelessness in the state’s biggest urban centers, in an apparent attempt to stave off more federal intervention.
Since taking federal control of policing in Washington, D.C. earlier this month, Trump has repeatedly proposed expanding National Guard deployment to combat what he said is a crime emergency in Democrat-run cities across the country.
In what appears to be a response, the governor’s office announced Aug. 28 that it would deploy new California Highway Patrol “crime suppression” teams to work with local law enforcement in major cities—including Los Angeles, San Diego, the Inland Empire, Central Valley, and San Francisco Bay Area….