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That sentiment characterized much of the red meat speech, in which Trump contrasted himself frequently to his predecessor.
“We have your backs 100 percent,” Trump said near the beginning of his remarks. “Not like the old days.”
Trump mentioned an executive order from former President Barack Obama — signed after police clashed with protesters in Ferguson, Missouri — meant to control the flow of military weaponry to local police forces.
“When you want to take over used military equipment, they were saying you couldn’t do it,” Trump said. “You know what I said? That was my first day: You can do it. In fact, that stuff is disappearing so fast, we have none left. You guys know — you really knew how to get that.”
And the President praised acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Tom Homan for being “a tough guy” — “I said, that’s what I’m looking for. That’s exactly what I was looking for” — and applied the same praise to ICE agents: “Rough guys. They’re rough,” he said.
Trump’s description of the gang members on ICE’s radar was practically apocalyptic.
“One by one, we are liberating our American towns,” he said, referring to the deportation of gang members. “Can you believe that I’m saying that? I’m talking about liberating our towns. Like you’d see in a movie. They’re liberating the town. Like in the old wild west, right? We’re liberating our towns. I never thought I’d be standing up here talking about liberating the towns on Long Island where I grew up. But that’s what you’re doing.”
Worse than the gang activity in Long Island, he said, was Chicago. He employed his audience to make the point.
“Do you see what’s happening there? Do we agree? Is there something —” he began, waiting for applause in agreement
He told the story of a “really respected officer, police officer” in Chicago who volunteered as a motorcycle escort for his campaign.
“It’s a problem that can be straightened out,” Trump recalled the officer telling him, presumably a reference to violent crime in the city. “If you gave me the authority, a couple days […] We know all the bad ones.”
Hot-take: Trump's police joke, 'don't be too nice' was pretty funny
I laughed and lamented.
Laughed, because Trump's joke was funny. It was well-timed and the police officers enjoyed it.
Lamented, because the commentariat reaction was sadly predictable.
First off, Trump was clearly joking. Even if he wasn't, however, the police are sworn to uphold the law. As I've explained before, they are not sworn to uphold Trump's law. Consequently, the officers regarded Trump's words as a joke, even if he didn't mean them to be a joke. Which I think he did.
Still, there's a broader tragedy in the boring reaction to Trump's joke.
After all, it comes from a place of insufferable ignorance. As with Joan Walsh's attack on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, Thursday, the outrage crowd come across as clueless. For one, their reaction suggests that they simply do not understand what officers go through every day. They do not understand, for example, what it is like for officers to deal with scumbags day in and day out for years. As any cop will tell you, it takes a toll on the psyche.
That toll is why police officers have a dark sense of humor. It's either that, or they become depressed at humanity's capacity for gross inhumanity. Trump gets this, and played to the dark side of humor. The cops laughed.
Nevertheless, it's clear what's really going on here. Put simply, many in the commentariat view the police as little more than thugs. They see police brutality as a norm rather than an exception, and police officers as agents of injustice rather than servants of safety. Most crucial of all, they ignore the fact that the police are often the only thing between criminal gangs and young minority men.
For reasons of populist conformity, the commentariat pretend that blue hats are the biggest threat to young black men. But while that lie might be easy, the cost is bloody and high.
As proved by urban centers across the nation, the biggest threat to young black men or young Hispanic men is not cops -- It is other young black men and other young Hispanic men.
Does more need to be done in order to ensure police professionalism? Absolutely. Do we need criminal justice reform? Yes. Do too many police officers pull over minorities without adequate cause? Just ask Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C.
But today Trump made a good joke. And the cops were right to laugh.
stringer bell;c-9908134 said:https://twitter.com/tariqnasheed/status/891028126632890368
In his speech, Trump said laws are “stacked” against law enforcement, which make their jobs more difficult.
“For years and years, [laws have] been made to protect the criminal,” Trump said. “Totally protect the criminal, not the officers. You do something wrong, you’re in more jeopardy than they are. These laws are stacked against you. We’re changing those laws.”
There have been numerous, highly publicized cases of police officers shooting or brutalizing unarmed African-American citizens, which has eroded public trust in law enforcement among black communities, according to a Pew Research Center poll.
Officers rarely face jail time after these incidents.
In 2015, Freddie Grey’s spine was severed and he died in a Baltimore police van after being arrested. The officers involved were acquitted of all charges.
In June, Minnesota police officer Jeronimo Yanez was acquitted of second-degree manslaughter after shooting Philando Castile during a routine traffic stop. Castile had an open carry permit for a gun and informed the officer he was carrying it.