Yahoo News reports:

In remarks delivered Tuesday before he signed an executive order promoting modest police reforms, President Trump lavished praise on the nation’s law enforcement officers, claiming that cops like the ones charged in the killing of George Floyd represent “a small percentage” of the force.

“They have to get our gratitude,” Trump said of the nation’s police officers, “and we have to give them great respect for what they do.”

The event in the White House Rose Garden, which at times felt more like a campaign speech, came after weeks of protest across the country sparked by Floyd’s death beneath the knee of a Minneapolis police officer as other members of that troubled department stood by and watched. Floyd’s death set in motion police reforms in cities and states nationwide as well as calls to radically rethink how law enforcement is carried out, especially against African-Americans.

Trump made clear that he favored less dramatic alternatives.

“I strongly oppose the radical and dangerous efforts to defund, dismantle and dissolve our police departments, especially now when we’ve achieved the lowest recorded crime rates in recent history,” he said. “Americans know the truth: Without police, there is chaos. Without law there is anarchy, and without safety there is catastrophe.” [Continue reading…]