As it works to unscramble the mess the Obama and Biden administrations made of law enforcement, the Trump administration is lifting so-called consent decrees that required police forces and fire departments in North Carolina, Georgia, Maryland, and Indiana to impose diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in their hiring requirements.
Randy Sutton of The Wounded Blue says the consent decrees were a way to virtue signal.
"It was utilized to punish police agencies for perceived issues involving civil rights, police brutality," he explains.
The trend started during the Obama administration. As Black Lives Matter and Antifa riots tore U.S. cities apart, the Justice Department issued invasive directives that tied the agencies up in red tape and burdensome requirements like endless reports and officer retraining – "incredible amounts of records and imposed policies that are very restrictive of actually the law enforcement function," says Sutton.
And it cost taxpayers "millions and millions of dollars."
The Biden administration used consent decrees to spread DEI issues, a major part of its agenda, to the nation's law enforcement agencies.
Those are the specific polices the Trump administration is undoing with this first set of revocations, and Sutton does not expect it will be the last.
"There's no doubt that the decision made by the Trump administration to lift these particular consent decrees is probably just the beginning," he tells AFN.
DOJ Chief of Staff Chad Mizelle recently announced the move in a series of social media posts, citing the Trump administration's commitment to prioritizing merit-based hiring over race-based preferences.
