Trump’s War on Urban ‘Carnage’ Was a Ruse
April 16, 2017
One of President Trump’s favorite themes is what he calls “American carnage” — typified by “the violence” and “the gangs.”
<p>To that end, he’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/01/26/trump-calls-chicago-violence-very-easily-fixable-and-blames-it-on-political-correctness/?utm_term=.005fafd82ec1" target="_blank">repeatedly highlighted</a> the violence in Chicago. A few days after he was inaugurated, he even issued <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/29/us/donald-trump-chicago-rahm-emanuel-violence.html" target="_blank">this warning via Twitter</a>: “If Chicago doesn’t fix the horrible ‘carnage’ going on… I will send in the Feds!”</p><p>Trump, a vocal <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/donald-trump-stop-and-frisk-228486" target="_blank">supporter of stop-and-frisk</a>, additionally <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/law-enforcement-community" target="_blank">pledged</a> that his administration will “stop the gangs and the violence” and “stop the drugs from pouring into our communities” by empowering police offers.</p><p>To be sure, Chicago is facing a <a href="http://www.vox.com/2017/1/29/14416026/donald-trump-race-crime-chicago-tweets-feds-dog-whistle-politics" target="_blank">uniquely violent moment</a> in its history: The city witnessed 762 murders and 4,331 shooting victims in 2016 — more than in New York and Los Angeles <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/02/24/trump-mentioned-chicagos-violence-again-police-say-they-hope-the-president-finally-sends-help/?utm_term=.00e6b450e989" target="_blank">combined</a>. The homicide rate was the highest it’s been since 1996.</p><p>Yet the police are a critical component of this violence. A 2016 Justice Department investigation revealed <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/benjamin-wallace-wells/crime-in-chicago-and-americas-policing-crisis" target="_blank">scores of abuses</a> by Chicago police, from racial discrimination to witness intimidation to endangering civilians.</p><p>In a particularly memorable anecdote from 2013, an off-duty Chicago cop watched a man enter a vacant building. Deeming him suspicious, the officer pursued the man. When confronted, the man produced a shiny object, prompting the officer to fire his weapon, killing the man on the spot.</p><p>As for the shiny object, it wasn’t a gun: It was the man’s watch.</p><p>Despite not waiting for backup and initiating a deadly confrontation, the officer was put back on the beat. Last November, the same cop killed another man he claimed had brandished a gun. No gun was found.</p><p>Under the Obama administration, the federal government played a key role in exposing abuses like these in scores of local police departments.</p><p>Yet Trump’s attorney general, Jeff Sessions, has promised to “<a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ag-sessions-says-trump-administration-pull-back-police-department-civil-n726826" target="_blank">pull back on</a>” suits against police departments over civil rights violations. He recently <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/sessions-orders-justice-department-to-review-all-police-reform-agreements/2017/04/03/ba934058-18bd-11e7-9887-1a5314b56a08_story.html?tid=sm_fb&utm_term=.26a2a050ab3a" target="_blank">ordered a review</a> of all reform arrangements the Department of Justice reached with local police under Obama, which could imperil programs that have been shown to produce <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/04/jeff-sessions-consent-decree-review" target="_blank">enduring positive changes</a>.</p><p>Why? “It is not the responsibility of the federal government to manage non-federal law enforcement agencies,” <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/04/jeff-sessions-consent-decree-review" target="_blank">Sessions insists</a>.</p><p>All this exposes Trump’s promises to curb violence in America’s cities to be what <a href="http://www.vox.com/2017/1/29/14416026/donald-trump-race-crime-chicago-tweets-feds-dog-whistle-politics" target="_blank">many suspected</a> all along: a meaningless ruse. After all, when it comes to civil rights, he’s actually pulling the feds <em>out</em>.</p><p>Need more evidence? The administration has also proposed depriving the Department of Justice of over <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-presidential-budget-2018-proposal/?utm_term=.87217aea535c" target="_blank">$1 billion</a> in funding, including major cuts to the <a href="http://time.com/money/4639544/trump-nea-sesame-street-budget-cut/" target="_blank">Civil Rights Division</a>, which is in charge of managing police reform. And it’s attempting to vacate another reform arrangement with the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/baltimore-police-trump-doj_us_58e50a18e4b0f4a923b440bd" target="_blank">Baltimore Police Department</a>, where the last administration found many similar civil rights abuses.</p><p>It’s no great surprise that choosing an attorney general like Sessions, another <a href="https://www.aclu.org/other/jeff-sessions-facts" target="_blank">stop-and-frisk proponent </a>who’s complained that civil rights protections <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/10/jeff-sessions-police-reform-excessive-force-racial-bias-justice-department" target="_blank">undermine police officers</a>, spelled trouble for police reform. Now trouble has come — and it seems like more is on its way.</p>
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