President Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday aimed at reforming policing in the wake of the George Floyd protests. He said that federal grant incentives would be provided to police departments that increase training on the use of force, and a national database to track misconduct would be created. “Reducing crime and raising standards are not opposite goals,” Trump said. “They work together... That is why today I’m signing an executive order encouraging police departments nationwide to adopt the highest professional standards to serve their communities. These standards will be as high and as strong as there is on Earth.”
The reforms fall far short of changes demanded by protesters across the country. And Trump littered his Tuesday announcement with praise for police bravery on 9/11, nods to his funding of historically black universities, and a tout of the stock market. He said the number of bad apples in police forces was “very tiny.” The heads of several police unions were in the audience in the Rose Garden. Prior to the announcement, he met with the families of several Black victims of police violence but they didn’t appear to be in the audience.
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