POTUS signs order pushing to reduce US police violence
The president has limited power over policing, which is run mostly at a state and local level. However, Trump said that he would use access to federal funding grants as leverage to persuade departments “to adopt the highest professional standards.”
His executive order encourages de-escalation training, better recruitment, sharing of data on police who have bad records, and money to support police in complicated duties related to people with mental or drug issues.
A highlight of Trump’s proposals, which he said could be complemented by legislation being negotiated in the Republican-controlled Senate, was ending choke holds “except if an officer’s life is at risk,” he said.
Trump called his initiative “a tremendous step” toward “safe, beautiful and elegant justice.”
Trump began by announcing he’d just met in private with families of several black people killed in encounters with the police. “We are one nation. We grieve together and we heal together,” he said.
However, Trump’s choice to keep the televised audience overwhelmingly white, male and focused on law enforcement representatives reinforced his main message.
