I think a lot of us watched in dismay as the Obama administration used a few highly visible incidents to carry out nothing short of an outright war on police departments in America. One can fully support bringing the hammer down on some of the bullies, a**holes, cretins, and criminals that have wormed their way into possessing a badge without agreeing that the federal government has any substantive role to play in the operations of local police forces.

During the campaign, Donald Trump was a booster for police forces across the nation (like this from the February 7 debate)

Trump also won the endorsement of the Fraternal Order of Police.

Now the Trump White House seems to be trying to deliver on his rhetoric. Where the Obama White House boasted about giving criminals federal jobs and the steps it was taking to rein in policing, the Trump White House website has this page: Standing Up For Our Law Enforcement Community.

One of the fundamental rights of every American is to live in a safe community. A Trump Administration will empower our law enforcement officers to do their jobs and keep our streets free of crime and violence. The Trump Administration will be a law and order administration. President Trump will honor our men and women in uniform and will support their mission of protecting the public. The dangerous anti-police atmosphere in America is wrong. The Trump Administration will end it.

The Trump Administration is committed to reducing violent crime. In 2015, homicides increased by 17% in America’s fifty largest cities. That’s the largest increase in 25 years. In our nation’s capital, killings have risen by 50 percent. There were thousands of shootings in Chicago last year alone.

Our country needs more law enforcement, more community engagement, and more effective policing.

Our job is not to make life more comfortable for the rioter, the looter, or the violent disrupter. Our job is to make life more comfortable for parents who want their kids to be able to walk the streets safely. Or the senior citizen waiting for a bus. Or the young child walking home from school.

Supporting law enforcement means supporting our citizens’ ability to protect themselves. We will uphold Americans’ Second Amendment rights at every level of our judicial system.

(Interesting that support for the Second Amendment is included under the topic of policing, no?)

While some of the initiatives the Obama administration pursued, such as body cams, were useful. Most of them carried a palpable hate for police officers and police departments. The best example of this was sending White House staffers to the funeral of deservedly deceased thuglet, Michael Brown, when, by the time of the funeral it was clear that the “hands up, don’t shoot” story was a bald faced lie.

The end result has been tragic. Crime data makes is pretty obvious that informal “no police” zones are being established by police officers, areas avoid and avoid contact with the residents. This only makes sense. It is much easier to respond to a murder that you have no intention of investigating rather than risk disciplinary action or prison if things wrong while you are policing an area.

If this is the policy Trump’s Justice Department pursues, it will be a welcome change and many communities in America will be much, much safer because of it.