Trump signs executive order on police reform
WASHINGTON — Following weeks of national protests since the death of George Floyd, President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday that he said would encourage better police practices. But he made no mention of the roiling national debate over racism spawned by police killings of black men and women.
Mr. Trump met privately with the families of several black Americans killed in interactions with police before his Rose Garden signing ceremony and said he grieved for the lives lost and families devastated. But then he quickly shifted his tone and devoted most of his public remarks to a need to respect and support “the brave men and women in blue who police our streets and keep us safe.”
One of the families Mr. Trump said he met with was that of Antwon Rose II, an unarmed 17-yearold who was shot in the back and killed by then-East Pittsburgh police Officer Michael Rosfeld while running from a traffic stop on June 19, 2018.
“I’ve just concluded a meeting with incredible families — just incredible families that have been through so much,” Mr. Trump said. “The families of Ahmaud Arbery, Botham Jean, Antwon Rose, Jemel Roberson, Atatiana Jefferson, Michael Dean, Darius Tarver, Cameron Lamb and Everett Palmer. These are incredible people. Incredible people. And it’s so sad.”
Michelle Kenney, Antwon’s mother, said in a Facebook post that she was in Washington, D.C., to speak with U.S. senators but did not meet with Mr. Trump.
“I am not in the White House, I chose not to meet their president! ... I cant (sic) stand the lies,” Ms. Kenney wrote in her Facebook post.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Matthews clarified Mr. Trump’s comments.
“In the President’s speech, he referenced some of the families represented by Lee Merritt,” Ms. Matthews said in a statement. “While Antwon Rose’s family was not in attendance, today the President heard the devastating stories of many families who lost loved ones. He heard their pain and he’s dedicated to helping these great Americans suffering from unimaginable loss.”
Mr. Trump and Republicans in Congress have been rushing to respond to the mass demonstrations against police brutality and racial prejudice that have raged for weeks across the country in response to the deaths of George Floyd and other black Americans. It’s a sudden shift that underscores how quickly the protests have changed the political conversation and pressured Washington to act.
But Mr. Trump, who has faced criticism for failing to acknowledge systemic racial bias and has advocated for rougher police treatment of suspects in the past, has continued to hold his “law and order.” line. At the signing event, he railed against those who committed violence during the largely peaceful protests while hailing the vast majority of officers as selfless public servants.
Mr. Trump’s executive order would establish a database that tracks police officers with excessive use-offorce complaints in their records. Many officers who wind up involved in fatal incidents have long complaint histories, including Derek Chauvin, the white Minneapolis police officer who has been charged with murder in the death of Floyd. Those records are often not made public, making it difficult to know if an officer has such a history.
The order would also give police departments a financial incentive to adopt best practices and encourage co-responder programs, in which social workers join police when they respond to nonviolent calls involving mental health, addiction and homeless issues.
Mr. Trump said that, as part of the order, the use of chokeholds, which have become a symbol of police brutality, would be banned “except if an officer’s life is at risk.” Actually, the order instructs the Justice Department to push local police departments to be certified by a “reputable independent credentialing body” with use-of-force policies that prohibit the use of chokeholds, except when the use of deadly force is allowed by law. Chokeholds are already largely banned in police departments nationwide.
While Mr. Trump hailed his efforts as “historic,” Democrats and other critics said he didn’t go nearly far enough.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said, “One modest inadequate executive order will not make up for his decades of inflammatory rhetoric and his recent policies designed to roll back the progress that we’ve made in previous years.”
Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the order “falls sadly and seriously short of what is required to combat the epidemic of racial injustice and police brutality that is murdering hundreds of Black Americans.”
Kristina Roth at Amnesty International USA said the order “amounts to a Band-Aid for a bullet wound.”
But Mr. Trump said others want to go too far. He, framed his plan as an alternative
The White House action came as Democrats and Republicans in Congress have been rolling out their own packages of policing changes. Sen. Tim Scott, of South Carolina, the sole African American Republican in the Senate, has been crafting the GOP legislation package, which will include new restrictions on police chokeholds and greater use of police body cameras, among other provisions.
to the “defund the police” movement, which advocates for divesting from law enforcement and reallocating fund to other public safety services, that has emerged from the protests and which he slammed as “radical and dangerous.”
“Americans know the truth: Without police there is chaos. Without law there is anarchy and without safety there is catastrophe,” he said.
The White House action came as Democrats and Republicans in Congress have been rolling out their own packages of policing changes. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the sole African American Republican in the Senate, has been crafting the GOP legislative package, which will include new restrictions on police chokeholds and greater use of police body cameras, among other provisions.
While the emerging GOP package isn’t as extensive as sweeping Democratic proposals, which are headed for a House vote next week, it includes perhaps the most far-reaching proposed changes ever from a party that often echoes Mr. Trump’s “law and order” rhetoric.
It remains unclear whether the parties will be able to find common ground. Though their proposals share many similar provisions — both would create a national database so officers cannot transfer from one department to another without public oversight of their records, for instance — differences remain.
The Republican bill does not go as far as the Democrats’ on the issue of eliminating qualified immunity, which would allow those injured by law enforcement personnel to sue for damages. The White House has said that is a step too far. As an alternative, Mr. Scott has suggested a “decertification” process for officers involved in misconduct.
During the Obama administration, Attorney General Eric Holder opened a series of civil rights investigations into local law enforcement practices that often ended with court-approved consent decrees that mandated reforms. Those included Ferguson, Mo., after the killing of Michael Brown and Baltimore following the police custody death of Freddie Gray.
Hours before he resigned as Mr. Trump’s first attorney general in November 2018, Jeff Sessions signed a memo that sharply curtailed the use of consent decrees.