Next steps after the federal government’s report on excessive force within the Memphis Police Department (MPD) are not known, of course. But at least one big sign points to “not much,” as far as the next White House occupant is concerned.
President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign ran on “law and order” as a central theme. His campaign said ”there is no higher priority than quickly restoring law and order and public safety in America.” He even just tweeted those words in all capital letters four years ago:
However, the American Civil Liberties Group (ACLU) has said that “law and order” in a second Trump administration is a “shorthand message promising repression of the Black community.”
”Specifically, Trump’s law enforcement policies call for further protections for abusive police, including condoning the use of force against protesters, which he once described as a ’beautiful thing to watch’,” reads an ACLU analysis of Trump policies in July. “This rhetoric risks encouraging state actors to take a similarly brutal approach.”
If the ACLU is correct on the premise, this means Trump’s “brutal approach” to law enforcement could, maybe, trickle down to state and local leaders, emboldened by the President to allow tough justice to be doled out across the country without major repercussions to law enforcement officials — i.e. police officers.
To get there, Trump promised to ”strengthen qualified immunity and other protections for police officers.” Qualified immunity allows government actors (i.e. cops) to perform their jobs without the risk of civil liability. This means, basically, that if a cop breaks some laws while they are making an arrest, they can’t be sued for it in court. So, Trump would give cops extra protection against the citizens they serve even if they hurt those citizens during the course of their work.
Germane to the DOJ’s report on the MPD, Trump promised on his campaign site to:
1. Sign a record investment in hiring, retention, and training for police officers. The bill will increase vital liability protections for America’s law enforcement officers.
2. President Trump will require local law enforcement agencies receiving DOJ grants to return to proven policing measures such as stop-and-frisk, strictly enforcing existing gun laws, cracking down on the open use of illegal drugs, and cooperating with ICE to arrest and deport criminal aliens.
”…to qualify for this new funding and all other Justice Department grants, I will insist that local jurisdictions return to proven common sense policing measures, such as stop and frisk — very simple — you stop them and you frisk them….,” Trump said in a campaign video.
City leaders and President Joe Biden’s DOJ are now tussling on whether or not the two will approve a consent decree for MPD. An agreement like this would bring in federal monitors to watch over the police department on a day-to-day basis to ensure it adhered to new policies for improvement. The city’s attorney has said the city will not approve a consent decree.
First, the city argued, the investigation didn’t take long enough. These can last up to three years. The DOJ wrapped up the MPD review in 17 months. Memphis officials said, also, they need a legal avenue to question the DOJ’s investigation methods.
Leaders here, though, won’t likely have to worry with threats of a lawsuit to enact the consent decree. Only one such decree was enacted in Trump’s first term. So far, 17 have been issued under Biden. Trump also cancelled a consent decree enacted during Barrack Obama’s Adminstration against the city of Baltimore.
City leaders also argued that such a consent decree would cost too much. Memphis taxpayers would be on the hook to pay for all the federal monitors and programs to adhere to the agreement. Leaders said this could cost millions of dollars.
That cost would come, too, as city taxpayers face paying out a $550 million civil penalty to the family of Tyre Nichols. The beating death of Nichols at the hands of MPD officers drew the eye of the DOJ investigation in the first place.
As of Thursday afternoon, Trump did not make any statement about the DOJ on his Truth Social platform.