President Trump’s Police Reform Proposal Woefully Inadequate

Statement of Karen Hobert Flynn, President of Common Cause 

President Trump’s executive order on police reform is a small but woefully inadequate step toward addressing the huge problem of police brutality which has spurred national outrage in the wake of the ongoing violence against Black communities. The scope of the problem demands comprehensive reforms, not piecemeal gestures from a man who stoked the fires of civil unrest with his inflammatory rhetoric in response to nationwide protests. This is the same man whose administration ordered a violent police assault on peaceful protestors in Lafayette Square to accommodate a photo op for the President.

We applaud the people who have taken to streets to voice their hurt, anger and pain and to call for police reform following the murders of George Floyd, Beonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks, and far too many others at the hands of police. Our elected officials are beginning to listen. Comprehensive reforms have been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives and tomorrow there will be a committee markup of the Justice in Policing Act. These comprehensive reforms are long overdue and we call on the Senate to follow suit and move forward with companion legislation. Now is not the time for photo ops with uniformed law enforcement officers, now is the time for real reform. Americans are demanding it.