Washington, June 12:President Donald Trump has said that an executive order that will “encourage” police departments to meet the “current professional standards for the use of force” is being finalised as pressure mounts for changes to law enforcement practices after nationwide protests over the brutal killing of African-American George Floyd while in police custody.
Floyd, 46, died in Minneapolis on May 25 when a white police officer pinned him to the ground and knelt on his neck while he gasped for breath.
“What happened two weeks ago was a disgrace when you see that. What happened on numerous occasions over the last two weeks — people were killed. A number of people were killed and it was very, very terrible and very, very unfair. A number of them were police officers. It was a very unfair situation. We don’t want to see that,” Trump said during a round table in Dallas, Texas.
He said he wanted people to “work together” on solutions to racial inequality.
“We’re working to finalise an executive order that will encourage police departments nationwide to meet the most current professional standards for the use of force, including tactics for de-escalation,” Trump said at a roundtable with law enforcement in Dallas.
However, he offered few details about the executive order.
“Every child should be able to grow up in a safe community, free from violence and fear. They’ve taken a lot of the police protection away in Chicago, and they have great, great police in Chicago,” he said.
Noting that Americans are good and virtuous people, the president said that they have to work together to confront bigotry and prejudice wherever they appear.
“But we’ll make no progress and heal no wounds by falsely labeling tens of millions of decent Americans as racists or bigots. We have to get everybody together. We have to be on the same path. If we don’t do that, we have problems. We’ll do that. We’ll do it. I think we’re going to do it very easily,” he said.
The United States, he said, has the greatest potential.
“We have the greatest country in the world. But we get off subject. We start thinking about things that don’t matter or don’t matter much. The important things, we don’t even discuss. But we’re here to discuss some very important things,” he said.
Politicians, he alleged, make false charges, and they’re trying to distract from their own failed records.
“They have some very bad records. These are usually the ones that cause the problems or can’t solve the problems. These are the same politicians who shipped our jobs away and took tremendous advantage of all Americans,” he said.
The United States has been swept by protests since Floyd’s custodial death on May 25 in Minneapolis.
Trump also said he would not consider activists’ calls to defund the police.
“We’ll take care of our police. We’re not defunding police. If anything, we’re going the other route. We’re going to make sure that our police are well-trained, perfectly trained, they have the best equipment,” he said, adding that he preferred “dominating the streets with compassion.”
Trump said that in addition to the executive order, he plans to address economic development in minority communities, health care disparities in minority communities and school choice.
Trump said that he is renewing the call on Congress to finally enact school choice now.
“School choice is a big deal because access to education is the civil rights issue of our time. It really is; it’s the civil rights issue of our time. When you can have children go to a school where their parents want them to go. It creates competition. Other schools fight harder because, all of a sudden, they say, “Wow. We’re losing it. We have to fight hard.” It gets better in so many different ways,” he said. (PTI)
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