AG may prosecute telecommunication use to “participate in” or “encourage” riots

Can the administration try doing something useful instead of punitive, like say trying to help improve police training so it has less 'kill the public' in it? Maybe being less hostile to scary liberal things like keeping accurate statistics of police actions?

I don't think this is particularly newsworthy, nor that it reflects poorly on the Trump administration.

18 U.S. Code § 2101, the relevant law, clearly stipulates:

As used in this chapter, the term “to incite a riot”, or “to organize, promote, encourage, participate in, or carry on a riot”, includes, but is not limited to, urging or instigating other persons to riot, but shall not be deemed to mean the mere oral or written (1) advocacy of ideas or (2) expression of belief, not involving advocacy of any act or acts of violence or assertion of the rightness of, or the right to commit, any such act or acts.

They aren't barring your freedom of speech. This isn't some obscure twist of a law, this is the intended usage of that law. There are plenty of legitimate things to criticize about the response, but this isn't one of them.

It's also worth noting that this law is superceded by a state conviction/acquittal for rioting charges. You can't be charged under both state and federal law for it.