Trump encourages cops to commit police brutality
Donald Trump’s speech was made more disturbing as Suffolk County cops cheered the idea of police brutality
Updated July 28, 2017 6:45 PM
By Mark Chiusano
President Donald Trump loves his crowds big and beautiful, boisterous and larger-than-usual. He likes the nice surprise they present around every corner. But it was a very specific crowd that awaited him at Suffolk County Community College on Friday: one made up almost entirely of uniformed police.
They lined the stage behind him, their white-gloved dress-uniform hands folded. They sat in the small auditorium in front of the podium. They were guests from out of state, federal officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and local cops from Suffolk County, some of them actively engaged in the fight against the violent MS-13 street gang that has killed 17 Long Islanders within a few miles of where the president was about to speak.
As expected Trump praised their work on that front, which has helped to prevent that vicious gang’s crimes and bring criminals to justice. But then he went further: encouraging officers “not to be too nice.” To be “rough” when throwing someone “into the back of a paddy wagon.” When they were pushing a suspected killer’s head into the squad car with a hand over the perp’s head, don’t worry about hitting the head. “You can take the hand away,” Trump said.
Leave aside the crude cops-and-robbers understanding of police work and the vehicles they now use that this suggests. Forget that Trump was suggesting behavior that, if caught on body-camera or bystander video, might get an officer fired. Let’s pretend that Suffolk County’s last police chief wasnt convicted in federal court for beating up a guy who took a gym bag from his car.
http://www.newsday.com/opinion/columnists/mark-chiusano/donald-trump-s-speech-was-made-more-disturbing-as-suffolk-county-cops-cheered-the-idea-of-police-brutality-1.13864824
