Local reaction to President Trump's executive order on violence against police

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- President Donald Trump signed three executive orders Thursday aimed at cracking down on gang violence, drug trafficking and violence against police.

At a time when killings of police officers are at a five-year high, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, Trump's executive order seeks to define new federal crimes and penalties.

Upper Darby Police Super Intendent Michael Chitwood says he applauds that goal, but says it won't stop everyone.

"That does not stop the nut that wants to take out a police officer, or blow a police officer away for some crazy militant idea, regardless of what it is, whether it's mental illness, criminal behavior, or just hatred for police," Chitwood said.

Asa Khalif, a national organizer for the Black Lives Matter movement, admonished the president for not talking about the people killed by police, some of them wrongly.

"He talked about the law enforcement murders and again, those officers should be honored, if they were in the line of duty and were murdered, but he failed to mention that countless, hundreds of bodies, black and brown bodies, poor people and particularly black people, unarmed men and women," Kahlif said.

Philadelphia Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins, one of many NFL players who protested at games during the playing of the National Anthem, also criticized the president on Twitter saying, 'How do you ignore the 968 lives lost at the hands of law enforcement? You can support police & hold them accountable simultaneously.'

Khalif went a step further.

"His administration is anti-black and this is a time for us in the Black Lives Matter movement to rise up; this is a time for us to resist," Kahlif said.

Chitwood offers an observation of his own.

"We need police departments in America to have a better relationship with the communities that we serve," Chitwood said.

Newly confirmed Attorney General Jeff Sessions has been charged with formulating the shape and scope of the new initiative. Undoubtedly, a lot of voices will want to be heard as it begins to take shape.