Trump signed a piece of paper that didn’t mean shit a while ago. CNN’s account of the Sharpie action notes that by signing an executive order on “police reform,” Trump is taking “his first concrete steps on Tuesday to address growing national outcry over police brutality.”
Yeah, right. It’s a bullshit feint at “reform” because Trump doesn’t give a shit about changing a broken system, but he does very much want to be reelected. To his surprise, the unrest isn’t helping him like it helped Nixon in 1968 — no matter how many times a day Trump tweets “LAW & ORDER” and “SILENT MAJORITY.” That’s because, unlike Nixon, Trump is the incumbent.
He’s also mind-bogglingly stupid. Here’s a quote from the idiotic signing ceremony that shows how unserious/dumb/deluded/inarticulate Trump is on the topic:
Trump on how prevalent bad cops are: "They’re very tiny. I use the word tiny. It’s a very small percentage. But nobody wants to get rid of them more than the really good and great police officers."
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) June 16, 2020
If “the really good and great police officers” wanted to get rid of the shitty cops, they’d speak up instead of ignoring or covering up for psychopathic colleagues. Until that starts happening a lot more frequently, it’s not unreasonable for the public to assume all cops are okay with the status quo. More from CNN:
Trump said Americans “demand law and order” and hailed the efforts of law enforcement to quell violence during protests against police brutality earlier this month.
“Without police, there is chaos,” Trump said.
There was a lot of chaos WITH police last week. In Tampa, they repeatedly chased, tear-gassed and fired projectiles at peaceful protesters and needlessly arrested people. In Bethel, Ohio, local cops stood by while violent, gun-toting pro-Trump creeps assaulted peaceful protesters right under their noses. In New Mexico, cops referred to armed right-wing agitators who menaced protesters as “heavily armed friendlies.”
Trump signed a piece of paper today. It didn’t mean shit. Nothing will change at the federal level until Trump and his GOP enablers are out of power. But the real fight will happen at the local level, if it happens at all. And it will take more than paper and a Sharpie to fix this mess. Open thread.