WASHINGTON — President Trump on Monday assailed a broad movement to defund police departments, invoking the kind of pro-police language that won him support with the law enforcement community in 2016 and ignoring the calls for reform that have helped shape this election. Democrats “want to defund, and they want to abolish,” Mr. Trump told a panel at the White House composed of people who have had positive interactions with the police. The president also said that Democrats were engaging in an “anti-cop crusade” while violent crime was rising in the cities they controlled. That has meant targeting police reform efforts supported by Democrats, such as shifting funding from police departments to social services like mental health and substance abuse counseling. Mr. Trump has called the defunding efforts a fad, but last month, he issued an executive order outlining a series of overarching principles meant to encourage — but not mandate — departments to alter their behavior.

Source: New York Times July 13, 2020 22:52 UTC