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As calls for police accountability mount over the killing of Sonya Massey, the Black woman who was shot by a sheriff’s deputy in her Illinois home, I’ve thought about the stubbornness of police violence — how this issue can seem intractable and insurmountable, given how frequently incidents like this seem to occur.
And as presidential election talk rages on, I think it’s natural for people to feel a bit helpless. To believe presidential elections don’t have much of an effect on policing at the local level. Certainly, not as much as races at the local and state levels.
And but not for Donald Trump’s remarks about police, I’d largely agree with them. This election is unique in that he is vowing to use presidential power to influence local police departments — and in ways that could make it far more difficult to achieve justice for victims of police violence in the future.
“We’re going to give our police their power back,” Trump recently vowed at a Wisconsin rally, “and we’re going to give them immunity from prosecution.”
One could argue that Trump wouldn’t have any federal authority to do such a thing as president. But after the Supreme Court’s Trump-friendly immunity ruling, few things seem out of bounds, legally speaking.
Trump has also vowed to indemnify police officers “against any and all liability,” seemingly meaning that police who mete out violence on the job — even deadly violence — would be even more shielded from lawsuits than they already are.
And there’s a clear contrast here. Under the Biden-Harris administration, the Justice Department has taken the opposite approach when it comes to police. The DOJ has issued scathing reports on civil rights abuses committed by various police departments, like in Louisville, Kentucky, where officials are currently negotiating a consent decree with the federal government, and in Phoenix.
It stands to reason that, as president, Kamala Harris would want a Justice Department similarly committed to police accountability. After all, the de facto Democratic presidential nominee has been outspoken about the Trump administration’s opposition to such accountability.
And that’s a notable contrast as we consider cases like Sonya Massey’s.