Trump Orders Justice Department to Intensify Fight Against Cop Killers

Attorney General Jeff Sessions warned of a rise in crime in America, after being sworn in at the White House on Thursday (February 9).

The three executive orders President Trump signed Thursday aren’t really policy documents. Putting them into the criminal justice system “is an outdated way of thinking”, Chettiar added, and will only increase the likelihood of recidivism.

One order calls for the creation of a task force on crime reduction.

The third order states that the Trump administration will “pursue appropriate legislation” that will define new crimes, and increase penalties for existing crimes, to prevent violence against federal, state, tribal and local law enforcement officers. Traffic-related incidents have been the leading cause of on-duty officer fatalities during this period, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

Late Wednesday the Senate voted 52-47 to approve Attorney General Sessions, after Democrats stalled for weeks on a nominee whose civil rights record has come under intense scrutiny.

Multiple executive orders already signed by Mr. Trump have included specific oversight roles for the attorney general. These orders only concern the apparatus of the executive branch itself. A second directs federal agencies to review ongoing efforts pursuing worldwide drug cartels and criminal syndicates to make sure they are sufficiently effective, and to report back to Trump in a few months on the results. There’s no new law or restriction that applies to persons in the USA that did not already exist last week.

Sessions will immediately take over the Justice Department’s defense of Trump’s order. He was the first Republican senator to back Trump when he was seen as a long-shot during the presidential primaries.

“The president’s confident this task force would develop a systematic strategy to help further protect the American people”, he said.

The orders do not stand alone in Trump’s efforts in week three to enact “law and order” and “respect to law enforcement”, as he said he would do in October.

The nonpartisan Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, based in Washington, D.C., criticized the orders as “perpetuating the false notion that there is a war on cops in our country and that violent crime is systemic and widespread”.

Nonetheless, the past couple of years have seen a sustained movement to hold police accountable for killing around 1,000 or more people each year and for engaging in force that disproportionately impacts black communities. It directs the Justice Department “to identify, interdict, disrupt, and dismantle transnational criminal organizations and subsidiary organizations”.

All in all, some might say that the orders are “no big deal”.

In an attempt to reduce government red tape, Trump issued an executive order requiring federal agencies to repeal two regulations for every one regulation issued. It also called for the withholding of federal funds from sanctuary cities.

“We face the menace if rising crime and the threat of deadly terror, ‘ the president said”.

Accordingly, the organized interests that do have clout in Trumpland have less competition (and more influence) than they would under another president.

It is not clear which recommendations of the group the Trump administration will adopt, if any.

Detroit Police Chief James Craig (center) greets Dallas police officers after the funeral for one of the city’s five officers slain by a gunman. Unfortunately, Trump seems to view the Constitution’s separation and division of powers as bugs instead of features.