The Trump administration has absolutely no idea what it’s doing. Of course this is super obvious, kind of like saying water is wet, but it bears repeating over and over again until we can finally make the madness stop. While Jeff Sessions goes to work systematically dismantling all the progress that the Department of Justice once made under the Obama administration, it’s clear that his path is so chaotic and unclear that not even some folks within the law enforcement community agree with his direction.
Take this week’s actions, for example. On Monday, Sessions ordered the DOJ to review its reform agreements with police departments around the country. Such a move signals the possibility that this administration will scale back investigations into police misconduct and no longer honor agreements designed to ensure police accountability and citizen safety. And, as with nearly all things Trump, it raises many more questions than answers. Some of which come directly from those who have to do the their jobs despite being directly impacted. Here’s one example:
Chris Magnus is the Police Chief in Tucson, Arizona, and, to be clear, his tweet does not represent his work or department in any official capacity. But as someone working in a border state who no doubt worries about the impact of immigration on his job, his tweet does point out the glaringly obvious contradiction in Sessions’ approach to the law. Sessions suggests that it is not the responsibility of the federal government to manage non-federal police departments which is his entire basis for this review (aka his attempt to undo) of the DOJ agreements with certain police departments. He’s parroted this same thing over and over again: too much government oversight, police can’t do their jobs effectively, an encroachment of the feds on the cops, not enough respect for the local cops … blah blah blah. … We’ve heard it all before. Yet, at the same time he’s made a YUGE (to use an overused Trumpism) deal of trying to defund sanctuary cities and expecting local police to enforce immigration law.
So which is it, Jeff? Do you even know? Do you want complete DOJ control of police departments or not? Are you willing to allow them to do the work they need to do to reform and protect citizens in a responsible and ethical way or are they going to be Trump’s deportation force running loose in the streets rounding people up without any accountability whatsoever? Who knows? Presumably, you will change your mind next week when you come up with some other random, nonsensical policy proposal on a whim.
Again, it bears repeating until the madness stops—this administration has absolutely no idea what it is doing.