President Donald Trump has signed an executive order on police reform on Tuesday (June 16). As the nation continues to reel from the recent police-involved death of George Floyd, the order will now ban chokeholds, unless an officer’s life is at risk.
Before signing the order, Trump expressed his strong support for the police in this country. “I strongly oppose the radical and dangerous efforts to defund, dismantle and dissolve our police departments. Especially now when we’ve achieved the lowest recorded crime rates in recent history.” The President acknowledged that there were a “tiny” number of bad police officers. ”Without police there is chaos, without law there is anarchy and without safety there is a catastrophe,” he said.
Trump also shared that he met with the families of the late Ahmaud Arbery, Botham Jean, Antwon Rose, Jemel Roberson, Atatiana Jefferson, Michael Dean, Darius Tarver, Cameron Lamb and Everett Palmer.
“These are incredible people … and it’s so sad,” he continued. “Many of these families lost their loved ones in deadly interactions with police. All Americans mourn by your side, your loved ones will not have died in vain. I can promise to fight for justice for all of our people and I gave a commitment to all of those families … We are going to pursue what we said we will be pursuing it and we will be pursuing it strongly.”
According to Fox News, the order will also help police departments acquire “less-than-lethal weapons” so that the number of fatal encounters with police will decrease. Additionally, departments will have to share information on officers who abuse their power “so that officers with credible issues do not simply move from one police department to the next.”
In Tuesday (June 16) night’s episode of “REVOLT BLACK NEWS,” from slave patrols to the unbalanced legal protection of police, host Eboni K. Williams dissects the problematic history of policing in our communities. Watch tonight on REVOLT’s YouTube channel and REVOLT TV at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT.