President Donald Trump posted on his Truth social platform on Sunday that he ordered various government agencies to reopen Alcatraz to serve as a symbol of law, order and justice.
“For too long, America has been prey to vicious, violent and repeated criminal offenders, the lie of society, which will never contribute anything other than misery and suffering,” he wrote.
As he himself is a criminal of 34 counts, it is strange that the president does not seem to believe in rehabilitation or the second chance. And it is easy, as many have done quickly, to raft this thrust to embellish and fill the park of the prison which has become the most notorious in America as a just bloviant or distraction.
The truth is there
But like the sharks surrounding this island in the bay, the true danger of the idea hides below the surface.
Trump in recent weeks, has increased to the cancellation of years of reform of criminal justice. It makes changes that increase the power of the police, signaling a thrust to fill federal prisons and detention centers with black and brown people and to slow down people affected to request the reparation of the courts.
None of this concerns justice or security – Most violent crimes rates decrease in reality, despite what the president would like us to believe. It is a question of allowing the authorities to act without fear of consequences, and of defeating the changes of culture and law triggered by the murder of George Floyd.
The real -time results of these movements can already be seen in Los Angeles.
My colleagues Brittny Mejia, James Querely and Keri Blakinger reported last week that the office of the new American prosecutor of Trump for Los Angeles, Bill Essayli, made the decision extraordinary to offer an advocacy agreement to a deputy for a sheriff – who had already been found guilty by an excessive strength jury.
Yes, he asks a judge to make the decision of a jury.
The idea that the new American lawyer would essentially say to a jury of things that he is not only arrogant. It’s alarming. He sends the message that if people want to hold local authorities responsible for brutality, the federal authorities will simply replace them.
This is what Trump promised the police during his campaign, and he delivers. Do you remember in 2017 when, for cheers, he asked the police “don’t be too nice” during the arrest?
The case in question seems perfect for the advocacy of Trump.
The incident who landed the former deputy Trevor Kirk in court was born out of an arrest in a Lancaster grocery store in June 2023. Answering a possible flight call, Kirk caught a black woman who corresponded to the description of a suspect, threw her face on the ground while turning him and had struck the pepper. The woman was then treated for a brunt trauma to the head and was never accused of a crime.
The case was the subject of an investigation by the FBI and, in April, Kirk was found guilty of an accusation of deprivation of rights under color.
The judge has not yet sentenced, but Kirk could incur up to 10 years in prison.
Sweet on the police
Unless the judge accepts the questionable advocacy agreement, in which case Kirk would plead guilty to an offense, which could lead to probation rather than time behind bars.
This would also mean that Kirk would not be prevented from working again in the application of laws.
An organization which represents certain deputies of the sheriff and which contacted Trump about the case, the professional association of sheriff of Los Angeles, long argued that the accusation was “politically charged” and Kirk did nothing beyond the limits of training or law. Many of his former officers agree.
But the prosecutors saw him differently, arguing in a three -day trial that the deputy had gone too far. The jury accepted.
Sometimes, and I rarely mean, a prosecutor can move to cancel a conviction if new evidence appears after the trial. But that does not seem to be the case here, as the Times notes. It really looks like a prosecutor named Trump trying to cancel the will of the people.
Like any other accused, Kirk has the right to appeal his conviction. By intervening now, it is difficult to see Essayli’s actions as something other than political. Three lawyers resigned from his office following his unusual request.
To bring the point home, also last week, Trump signed an executive decree on the police who promised to “unleash” the American police to a “firmly police” criminal activity.
“When local leaders demonize the police and impose legal and political handcuffs that make law impossible, prosperous crime and innocent citizens and small businesses suffer,” Trump wrote.
This same decree has promised to provide new legal protections for the police and even to help cover the costs if an officer is prosecuted.
So when we talk about Alcatraz, do not write it like a joke or another empty decree. Alcatraz closed in 1963, a year before the adoption of the civil rights law.
Reopening is nostalgia for an America where power has grown brutal on true justice, and the police were an authority not to be questioned – or to remember.
Anita Chabria is a columnist for Los Angeles Times. © 2025 Los Angeles Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency.
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