As calls for police accountability mount over the killing of Sonya Massey, the Black woman who was shot by a sheriff’s deputy in her Illinois home, I’ve thought about the stubbornness of police violence — how this issue can seem intractable and insurmountable, given how frequently incidents like this seem to occur.
And as presidential election talk rages on, I think it’s natural for people to feel a bit helpless. To believe presidential elections don’t have much of an effect on policing at the local level. Certainly, not as much as races at the local and state levels.
And but not for Donald Trump’s remarks about police, I’d largely agree with them. This election is unique in that he is vowing to use presidential power to influence local police departments — and in ways that could make it far more difficult to achieve justice for victims of police violence in the future.
“We’re going to give our police their power back,” Trump recently vowed at a Wisconsin rally, “and we’re going to give them immunity from prosecution.”
Donald Trump: “We're going to give our police their power back and we are going to give them immunity from prosecution.” pic.twitter.com/8hPsLy0wkc
— Republican Accountability (@AccountableGOP) May 1, 2024
One could argue that Trump wouldn’t have any federal authority to do such a thing as president. But after the Supreme Court’s Trump-friendly immunity ruling, few things seem out of bounds, legally speaking.








