Have the Police Become More Authoritarian Under Trump?

Lead image via Wikimedia Commons

All of America was troubled by the video of Chicago airline police assaulting United Airlines passenger David Dao last week. Sadly, incidents like these seem to be more and more common across the country. This is only one of many egregious and ridiculous overreaches by police since President Trump took office in January. The self-proclaimed “law and order candidate” has gone so far as to name some of his executive orders after the “blue lives matter” movement. Some law enforcement officials have responded to Trump’s support as though his presidency somehow gives them free reign to unleash their darkest, most violent, and most absurd impulses. Of course, a given police officer’s individual actions cannot be directly attributed to Trump, but the Commander-in-Chief’s attitude towards crime and law enforcement has already set the tone for power abuse.

In less than one hundred days in office, the president has emboldened police across the country to double down on the authoritarian tendencies that President Obama’s Justice Department fought against. While police violence became a national concern under the Obama administration,…