This Is Not The Path To Law And Order In America

On Tuesday, The Washington Examiner posted an article detailing the next executive order dealing with police reform that President Biden is expected to sign in the near future.

The article reports:

Seven GOP senators, including Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, signed a letter to Biden on Friday that raised a series of concerns about the restrictions outlined in a leaked draft of the order.

…If implemented as written, the order would prevent police departments from purchasing flash or stun grenades, which are nonlethal tools used by law enforcement to disorient suspects in dangerous situations. The order also bans armored cars, which police use to navigate in active shooting situations, almost all drones, and long-range acoustic devices.

The group of Republicans also took issue with the draft order’s enforcement structure of denying local police departments access to money from the Community Oriented Policing Services grant program and the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance grant program if police departments don’t comply with many of the order’s provisions.

Those would include “supporting alternatives to arrest and incarceration” and implementing diversity recruiting and training programs.

The news of Biden’s expected implementation of the order, which could reportedly be as soon as next week, comes as Biden has faced growing pressure from activists to pursue liberal policies in the absence of legislative action.

The article concludes:

When reform talks fell apart in September, Scott said he opposed the idea of cutting police departments off from grants in some circumstances because doing so would amount to defunding the police.

The Biden administration requested a significant increase in COPS grant funding for fiscal year 2022 — asking for $537 million, up $300 million from the previous fiscal year.

While the White House is likely to tout that request as an effort to increase police funding, Republicans are likely to argue that the Biden administration is still effectively cutting police funding by tying the grants to liberal reforms that not all police departments may be willing or able to adopt.

Federal money always comes with strings. We can see how well liberal law enforcement policies have worked in cities such as New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles to name a few. Law enforcement works best at the local level where elected officials can be held accountable for their successes and failures. Cities that continue to elect people who will not hold criminals responsible for their crimes will continue to see crime increase.