WASHINGTON – President Trump signed an executive order Tuesday that would force police departments to track misconduct, encourage officers to call mental health professionals to the scene of confrontations and offer federal grants to departments that curtail use of force.
President Trump signs executive order on safe policing for safe communitiesPresident Trump is signing an executive order forcing police departments to track misconduct, encourage officers to call mental health professionals to the scene of confrontations and offer federal grants to departments that curtail use of force.
Posted by WSLS 10 / WSLS.com on Tuesday, June 16, 2020
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“We want law and order, this is about law and order, it’s about justice also and it’s about safety,” President Trump said Monday.
Democrats want more, including a ban on chokeholds. As Democrats call for bold reforms, Republicans will unveil their ideas this week, but push discussion till the end of July. Meanwhile, cities aren’t waiting for Washington to act.
“We can’t wait, we can’t wait,” says Atlanta’s Mayor Keisha Lance-Bottoms. “We were waiting for two weeks for recommendations and then Mr. Brooks was killed on Friday.”
She’s ordering police to intervene when colleagues use unreasonable force and to de-escalate situations like the confrontation that killed Rayshard Brooks. New York’s police commissioner is shifting about 600 police officers from anti-crime to other areas.
“We can do it with brains, we can do it with guile, we can move away from brute force,” says Commissioner Dermot Shea.