Policing

Obama Uses Police Shootings to Push for Nationalization of Police

Obama was quick to parlay the recent murders of five Dallas police officers into another attempt to push his agenda to turn state and local police forces into mere subsidiaries of the federal government. “I want to start moving on constructive actions that are actually going to make a difference,” he declared at a press conference in Poland (shown), in response to a question about the killings in Dallas.

Obama referenced a panel he selected to offer “practical concrete solutions that can reduce — if not eliminate — the problems of racial bias” in the aftermath of the 2014 riots in Ferguson, Missouri, stating, “If my voice has been true and positive, my hope would be that ... [the panel identifies] problems, it frames them, it allows us to wrestle with these issues and try to come up with practical solutions."

The panel made its recommendations in the “President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing Report,” published in May 2015.

Not surprisingly, the solutions offered can be summed up succinctly: more federal control of the nation’s police. The report calls for more police training and practices, under the direction of the federal government. Methods to advance this goal include federal lawsuits (the stick) and grants (the carrot). Of course, once local governments become dependent upon these grants, the threat of cutting them off can be used to press for changes in policies to comply with federal dictates. With federal money (the bait) comes federal control (the hook).