In the wake of Jeff Sessions’ appointment as Attorney General, Donald Trump has signed three new executive orders to focus on “public safety” and giving police more authority.
At Sessions’ official ceremony, Trump summarized the first order of business for Sessions’, which included tackling crime, drug cartels, gang members and terrorism.
Trump provided a few details to support his decision for Sessions’ new directive. He said the country faced the “treat of rising crime” and that “things will get better very soon.”
“I am directing the Department of Justice to reduce crime and crimes of violence against law enforcement officers,” he said. “It’s a shame, what has been happening to our great, our truly great, law enforcement officers. That is going to stop today.”
According to reports, Trump failed to mention hundreds the people who die at the hands of the “truly great” officers every year. Just last year, 968 people were killed by police and so far in 2017, 130 people, reports state.
The three new executive orders that Trump introduced during Sessions’ swearing-in ceremony, included an order to the Department of Homeland Security to “break the back of criminal cartels” and instructing the DOJ to create a task force to reduce violent crime.
“Your day is over,” Trump said. “A new era of justice begins and it begins right now.”
Sessions, who was once considered too racist to serve as a federal judge, also provided a few words about the state of America, telling reporters that the US “has a crime problem.”
“I wish the rise that we’re seeing in crime in America today were some sort of aberration or a blip,” he said, providing alternative facts of his own, which have since been debunked. “My best judgment, having been involved in criminal law enforcement for many years, is that this is a dangerous permanent trend that puts the health and safety of America at risk.”
According to reports, over the past two years there has been a slight rise in crime, however, the overall crime rate has decreased significantly over the last several decades and is much lower than the 80s and 90s, the Independent reports.
“We need to end this lawlessness that threatens the public safety and pulls down the wages of working Americans,” Sessions added.
