Not long after the vote to appoint Jeff Sessions Attorney General of the U.S., President Donald Trump served up three executive orders for him to get started on. Two of them involve Sessions assembling task forces to address violent crime and protect police officers. In Trump’s address earlier this week to the Major Cities Chiefs Police Association, he told them:
Those who demonize law enforcement or who use the actions of a few to discredit the service of many are hurting the very people they say that they want to help. When policing is reduced, crime is increased, and our poorest citizens suffer the most. And I see it all the time. When the number of police goes down, crime goes up. To build needed trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve, it is not enough for us to merely talk to each other. We must listen to each other.
One group that’s been trying to grab the president’s ear on this issue is the Law Enforcement Leaders to Reduce Crime & Incarceration, a national coalition of roughly 175 police chiefs, sheriffs, and prosecutors. During its short existence (it was launched in October 2015), this organization has consistently been sending the message that there’s a smart way to reduce violent crime without heavy-handed policing and incarceration-focused punishment.
[For more of this story, written by Brentin Mock, go to http://www.citylab.com/crime/2...listen-to-us/516321/]
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