US President Donald Trump issued an order to improve policing Tuesday, calling for a ban on dangerous chokeholds, but he stopped well short of demands made at nationwide protests against racism and police brutality.
“We have to break old patterns of failure,” Trump said in a Rose Garden ceremony attended by police and Republican congressional allies, though no black civil rights representatives or political opponents.
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 the 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 chokeholds “except if an officer’s life is at risk,” he said.
Trump called his initiative “a tremendous step” toward “safe, beautiful and elegant justice.”
Source: Guardian Newspaper.
