City leaders have updated Chicago aldermen on the Johnson Administration's plans in the event President Trump sends National Guard or other federal forces into the city.
Downtown Alderman Brian Hopkins (2nd Ward) says the city is doing the best it can to get ready in the absence of any communication from Washington.
"We're doing everything we can right now to try and have an early warning system," Hopkins said, "so that we're not caught by surprise in the event that troop carriers and HUMVEES with federalized National Guard troops show up in the Loop."
Hopkins describes as "reckless" President Trump's discussion of a potential National Guard deployment in the city: "We're nowhere near that level of crisis ... there's no need to take a military type of response and put it in an urban environment."
Chicago police Superintendent Larry Snelling has said he intends to follow procedures enacted during last summer's Democratic National Convention, as the department deals with potential protests against federal forces. Hopkins says Chicago police were successful in not being provoked by outside agitators during the convention -- but expressed concern that National Guard troops and other federal forces have not been trained in the same way.
"We don't want some of the more radical protest organizations that act as agent provocateurs ... seeking out confrontations with federal troops in the event they come to Chicago," Hopkins said.