Dem
47
GOP
53
Everyone remembers "defund the police," a slogan that caught fire after the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, and that was easily, and often deliberately, misinterpreted. The kind of aggressive overhaul of policing that Black Lives Matter and other activist groups wanted was not going to happen, in part because Americans don't like rapid change, and in part because the general notion became politically toxic.
So, the Biden administration did what it could to steer a middle course. The Merrick Garland-led Department of Justice launched investigations of 12 different police departments, completing four of those before Biden and Garland left office: Minneapolis, Louisville, Phoenix and Lexington, MS. In all cases, the DoJ found evidence of systemic police misconduct. The Biden administration also reached accountability agreements with the Minneapolis PD (killed Floyd) and the Louisville PD (killed Taylor). These agreements called for enhanced training, greater accountability for problematic cops, and improved data collection of police activity. That list actually sounds an awful lot like the agenda of the "defund the police" folks, except without the radioactive slogan.
Well, it's all over now. Yesterday, the Department of Justice's "Civil Rights" Division announced that the eight uncompleted investigations will be canceled. The two investigations that were completed, but not yet acted upon (Phoenix and Lexington) will be tossed into the garbage. The two accountability agreements (again, Minneapolis and Louisville) will be torn up.
In the item above, we describe the Trump administration as a government by white people, for white people. That is a pretty provocative thing to write. But when the evidence becomes this overwhelming, what can we do? Pretend there is NOT a racial dimension to the Trump regime? He's leading the most overtly racist administration since, quite possibly, that of Woodrow Wilson. And we gotta call 'em as we see 'em. (Z)