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US President Trump signs police reforms order that seeks to cut use of choke holds
Trump’s order will also seek to address the use of force. “Choke holds will be banned except if an officer’s life is at risk, the president said.
President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order to reform policing in the United States that seeks to discourage the use of choke holds to subdue suspects and creates a national database of tainted officers as antiracism demonstrations continue across the country and a protestor was shot in New Mexico by a private militia.
“This is a big, big step -- a step that hasn’t been taken before,” Trump said before signing the order. “We have to break the old patterns of failure.”
But, he went on to add, siding with law enforcement, “I strongly oppose the radical and dangerous efforts to defend, dismantle and dissolve our police departments, especially now when we achieved the lowest recorded crime rates in recent history,.”
Trump’s executive order has essentially three key elements. It seeks to create a national database of police misconduct so that an officer with a record of aggressive behaviour doesn’t simply move to another state or department, as has been also envisioned by a sweeping police reforms legislation put forward by Democrats.
Trump’s order will also seek to address the use of force. “Choke holds will be banned except if an officer’s life is at risk, the president said. Federal funding will be provided to police departments based on certification of their use of force. And training will be provided to officers on de-escalating situations.
And, finally, the order will recommend a greater role for social workers and mental health professionals; for them to work closely with officers, when responding to certain calls.
The US president said that he had met families of victims of police violence before coming out to sign the order.
Earlier in New Mexico, the victim in the shooting, who was among protestors trying to pull down a statue of the Spanish conquistador in Albuquerque, is in critical but stable condition. Four shots had been fired at the protestors from the direction of a group of men in military garb and armed with semi-automatic weapons.
State governor and city’s mayor, both Democrats, have condemned the shooting and said the statute will be pulled down. No arrests have been announced yet.
Antiracism protestors have encountered counter protests in many instances. A bunch of them marched in support of law enforcement in Miami Sunday; they also chanted slogans in Trump’s support. Another group, which included motorcycle gang members, showed up in Bethel, Connecticut.
President Trump’s executive order comes amidst rising calls to reform the police, sensitise its handling of minorities, specially African Americans, and de-militarise it. Minneapolis, where George Floyd was killed by a white police officer triggering these countrywide protests, has decided to disband its police department, for one.
New York city police has announced it is disbanding its anti-crime units, whose plainclothes personnel have been involved in many shootings across the city. The 600 officers of these units will be reassigned to other other department, commissioner Dermot F Shea said Monday, calling it a “seismic shift”.
And congressional Democrats earlier introduced a sweeping legislation to outlaw choke holds, a technique used by police officers to subdue suspects, create a national database of tainted police officers to prevent them from being employed elsewhere and discontinue the practice of no-knock warrant, which allows law enforcement personnel to enter a property without a knock on the door or a warning.
The order is already been called “police friendly” by critics. President Trump has been extremely supportive of law enforcement through this civil unrest, as before, and has shown little support for protestors or their cause.
On Monday, the US embassy in Seoul, South Korea, removed a huge “Black Lives Matter” banner that had hung down the front of the building for several days attracting attention around the world. The orders to pull it down came reportedly from the state department leadership.
