First we pardon the racist police

During my drive from Charlotte to Pittsburgh yesterday I did hear a bit of NPR (when not in the West Virginia mountains). That included the news that Attorney General Sessions had removed the ban on giving excess military gear to city police departments.

Obama had signed the ban because he recognized that with some of this gear (such as bayonets) the police looked like an occupying force, quite the wrong impression after the deaths of several black men by police.

Some NPR pundits thought this was a big deal. Others, not so much – very few police depts. buy bayonets or the other previously banned items.

Melissa McEwan of Shakesville says this is very much a big deal, one of the scariest in the nasty guy's tenure. She notes it comes days after the nasty guy pardoned racist sheriff Joe Arpaio, then wrote:

Think about what it means that we're reading about Trump lifting guidelines on police militarization immediately after his pardon of Joe Arpaio. That sends a clear message. And the message is that the president is going to use the nation's police to crack down on the citizenry, and will pardon law enforcement officers who themselves break the law enforcing a new order.