Trump to Cops: You should do more to physically harm American citizens

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And the cops cheered.

Trump gave a talk to a gathering of police out on Long Island, earlier today. It went horribly. There are cops that are going to take Trump’s lead, take what he said seriously, and because of that, they are going to harm or kill Americans and end their own careers, destroying their own families and parts of their communities along the way.

The President of the United States egged the police on to disdain their civilian bosses, and they cheered him. The President of the United States told the police that they should not avoid harming suspects, and they clapped. The President of the United States encouraged the police to injure suspects, and they cheered.

He called American citizens being harassed by the police “animals.”

This was like and unlike Trump’s over-the-top and embarrassing tirade in front of the Boy Scouts. Similar because this was in both cases Trump being an unmitigated and stupid ass. But different because even though both the cops and the Boy Scouts were blindly cheering and clapping and yowling at these obnoxious comments, we could guess that the leaders of the Boy Scouts were potentially embarrassed. Also, for every Boy Scout there is one or more parental unit of some kind, and we knew many of them would be upset about Trump’s yammerings. And that all turned out to be true, and the Boy Scouts eventually, after some pressure, apologized.

But with the cops we should not assume anything like this is true. The only thing worse than a bunch of cops that show up to hassle some citizens is an organized bunch of cops in the form of an association or union. Today, Trump empowered the police, as a faction on our increasingly fractionated society, to become more violent. I don’t think there is any doubt that they will do this.

The New York City police department did not attend the Long Island event. Some see this as a boycott, since New York is a sanctuary city, and Trump intends to crack down on sanctuary cities. But it is not clear what the position of the New York City, or any other police department or group of police is. As far as I can tell, Trump’s new violence is something cops love. You should see the happy glowing faces of the cops standing behind the president when he tells them to treat suspects like animals, knock their heads on their cruisers, and otherwise, hurt them.

Happy glowing faces of cops clapping and cheering because they just got permission from the head of the United States to be physically harm American citizens.

I have been looking for the name of the organization that sponsored this talk, but I haven’t been able to find it. Whatever organization that is, we should demand that they apologize for Trump’s speech. But they won’t. Because they are cops.

Today is also the day that Donald Trump fired his Chief of Staff and replaced him with the Director of Homeland Security. The top security officer, in a sense, the top cop, of the country is now, apparently, at least according to a set of tweets, going to also be the person closest to the President in any official capacity in the West Wing. I wonder who thought of that idea?

Think about that for a minute. This is what dictators do.

Watch Chris Hays alter the anatomy of a Republican Congress member:

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43 thoughts on “Trump to Cops: You should do more to physically harm American citizens

  1. “You should see the happy glowing faces of the cops standing behind the president”

    Understand these are probably plants

  2. The International Assoc of Police Chiefs, and the Suffolk County LI Chief condemned Trump’s statements. I’m very left wing and my son is a cop. I have a unique perspective. There are lousy people in every profession. Thousands of cops get hurt by suspects daily, including my son, multiple times.

  3. It should not have been possible to get any number. ANY NUMBER of cops to stand behind a president and cheer when he says to physically harm citizens.

    Not any.

    It should also not be possible for the cops to cheer on the idea of doing physical harm to citizens not be reprimanded immediately after and the organization that put on this fiasco to be required to apologize.

    All the excuse making for the cops is easy to do in a society where we’ve learned that the cops can get away with whatever they want. But increasingly, we reject that premise.

  4. This is simply pathetic.
    No person of any rank should expose such idiotic nonsense however this is the leader of the United States of America.
    I feel for a country that has a leader so removed from reality that he can say such totally dispiriting garbage and can still be taken as a leader.
    America you can do better than this and if you can not then you deserve the derision that unfortunately your country is getting now with this joke who thinks he is in a reality TV show.

  5. Trump provides a perfect mirror of the present state of decay of USA today.

    Trump forgets constantly that for civilization and durable peace a firm foundation of social justice is needed.

    To be able to build such a social fabric it is necessary that all people, officials and institutions intentionally cooperate together within the framework of mutual respect and mutual safety without discrimination as laid down in the Universal declaration of human rights. Declaration of the United Nations 10 December 1948. http://www.un.org/en/udhrbook/pdf/udhr_booklet_en_web.pdf

    It has to start with ourselves at home, at work and on this blog. Look how some respondents on this blog treat others on this blog. Many times I see toils and snares in remarks which – to my opinion – don’t serve any other goal than to harm or end a respectable and ethical discussion. Treat your opponent as an enemy and you will sure find yourself being entangled in a drama triangle.

    That is the same kind of behaviour today´s USA President Donald Trump favours and propagates.
    It causes a disrupted world.
    Look at the USA today, there you can find proof of the correctness of this statement in every aspect of life on every corner, every transactional happening and also on this blog.

    Preaching for more civilization is constantly necessary, but the best example is to practice it yourself.

    Don´t give or organize a playground or platform for bullying respondents, nevertheless Mr. Donald Trump hails that kind of behaviour for so called ‘only decent people’ in official capacities and functions as notably ‘civil servants’, who must protect the people.

    If we the people are not on our guard a motto like ‘Vigilat ut quiescant’ (be on your guard so that others are safe), one of our official (Latin originated) motto’s of Dutch police, such a motto – under the influence of dictators and followers – can be deformed into a motto such as ‘practice violence so everybody is in crisis’.

    If we want to change the world we have to begin with ourselves.

    Let us look at this blog as anthropologists, and see what happens if people start losing decency, protected by walls of anonymity.

    If we want to contribute to a profound meaningful discussion and an improvement of the state of civilization of the USA we maybe could change the rules on this blog in favour of more mutual respect and mutual safety.

    If this blog must be a mirror to reflect Trump behaviour, here is my feedback.

    Be this blog a double mirror. That is making America and the world great again. Yes we can.

    Laren NH, Saturday 29th. July 2017, 10.32 AM DT.

  6. “Thousands of cops get hurt by suspects daily, including my son, multiple times.”

    Be thankful he’s not a NYC taxi driver (the USA’s most dangerous occupation) or a miner, then. Because not only do they get paid less and have less protection and no union allowed, they also get worse benefits (usually none) and no respect either.

    The cops get paid a lot and get huge benefits *and get extraordinary powers to boot* and currently seem to have no responsibilities to go with that power. And they get it because the job involves the risk of getting hurt daily.

    Don’t expect us to feel sorry that your son picked a job that puts him in danger. If hes not willing to accept it, then he can leave and get a job as a taxi driver where, if he shoots someone who is unarmed, he could get a life sentence.

    Accept the risk and put yourself to it rather than members of the public (and thereby EARN respect) or don’t accept any risk and piss off out of the job so someone less dangerous to society gets the place.

    99.999% of crimes don’t happen not because of the police but because people with the opportunity DO NOT WANT TO DO IT.

    I’d say to your son “Geez, that’s bad” when he gets hurt, but I won’t respect him for whining about getting hurt in a job he chose to do knowing that this was the scenario and tell him to get out of the job if he doesn’t like it.

  7. GB

    Look how some respondents on this blog treat others on this blog.

    Look how some like to make lists of others and label them anonymous users often without cause and is if their points of view are not valid for that.

  8. I think that message has gone out in the UK too, although it could be argued this has history e.g. Peterloo 1819, as see with the treatment of fracking protesters in Lancashire. Watch long enough (from 2:10) to see a disabled man in a wheel chair being dragged from it and thrown to the ground.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ti0k96VMic

    Commenter Julie Daniels hit nails on the head with:

    Gasfields across our countryside will destroy our agriculture and tourism. It will destroy our already poorly maintained roads. The list goes on…. The risks are to great and our Govt and police have forgotten they are here to serve not rule.?

    I think that special units police from other forces are transported in to prevent local police forces refusing to be so violent.

    A similar scenario played out with the miner’s strikes in the 1980s, plants used to start violent incidents so as to malign all protesters and strikers – a ploy seen many times since.

  9. MikeN, using one gang as an example doesn’t mean his comments mean police should only rough them up, he referred to the criminals and thugs generically.

    Not that the distinction matters to sane people . I know racists and bigots don’t mind encouraging police violence (as you demonstrate) but it should be and is appalling to December the people. The crap about the criminal having more rights than officers or victims is simple right wing bullshit designed for ignorant people — which is, no doubt, why that doesn’t bother you either.

  10. “America” has a “leader” who has a great void where a fully emotionally equipped human being would have empathy. He has a well developed sense of revenge, of sadism, of the ability to hurt others. He has no sense of science. Shortly after his brand new enforcer, Anthony Scaramucci, got his ass brilliantly handed to him, on national television, by Chris Cuomo, Trump retaliated by hurting or attempting to hurt , the transgender military community. This is a group that is vulnerable to his power; a group that has volunteered to serve their country in the military; a group that is not as susceptible to myth and authoritarianism as the Trump base is ; a group that is in touch with their inner emotions; a group that does not lie to themselves about their passions; a group that has great courage in facing who they are in the face of a society overpopulated with ignorant, weak, scared, cowed, gullible people who resonate with the giant, ugly, emotional tuning fork that is Donald J. Trump.

    We are entering an era of Trumps and Putins and Kim Jong-uns and Dutertes. The momentum of human stupidity is great, so it is hard to see a change in direction happening soon without some major countervailing force. It is not easy to see where this is all going to lead to.

    BTW, making murka great again apparently means making it more and more reptilian, something that Trump and his base base can really resonate with.

  11. In a fashion we are our own worse enemy here. How often have told t cops to be tough on crime or elected others to be tough on crime. And how many are scared to death of nothing much and tell the cops to be tough on terror? This has been growing for some time and the proper good cops are becoming the minority. And now the KingLIAR is mouthing off BS that appeals to a specific sort that is becoming more common in our militarized police!
    This is a complex problem with many parts at fault!

  12. I’ve never said cops should be tougher on crime.

    I don’t think anyone has. Or at least not a notably small percentage.

    Politicians often RUN on the plank of such claims, but I’ve never heard anyone actually standing up in the middle of a town hall meeting and berate the mayor or whoever on being soft on crime.

    Maybe crimes like the Wall Street bankers F-ups.

    But mostly because they were not even treated like crimes.

    Have YOU, LLong, berated your politician for not being tough enough on crime?

    I haven’t.

    So at least 50% of “We” aren’t responsible and if you answer “No”, then your claim is false entirely. NEITHER of us are responsible.

    It would be nice to hear where this idea comes from, though.

  13. What I HAVE heard is people demanding more police officers on patrol. And less violence.

    And this is in the UK where violence from the police is bad, but not as bad as France whose problem, bad as it is, is far less deadly than the USA’s.

  14. Make police unions and individual officers, not the cities the cops work for, responsible for any civil judgements that result from police misconduct. Then watch, as union dues start rising rapidly to cover the increase in insurance, the majority good cops start to turn on the bad ones.

  15. May not work. There’s still a “them and us” attitude. Where the good cops accept the bad cops (and become bad cops thereby, hence the aphorism “One bad apple spoils the bunch”) because it’s better to have another cop to help than think the ranks.

    And then to comfort them, they just find a reasoning why the cop was fine all along. Framed, or jealousy, or lefty liberals, or ACLU or “we’re all human” as a last resort (we’re not all humans given the power to shoot people and kidnap under the force of law).

    And having bought that, they can’t afford to let that story fail, because they have to accept their deception and their part in it.

    See religions and the kickback against enlightenment for many.

    It would need training, vetting and putting each and every cop on notice that being afraid is not an excuse at all for your idea to work.

    Because all that would happen otherwise is churn and then abandonment of the job.

  16. Dean, you are the living proof of Americans that contribute to hate and worse. Laren NH, Saturday 29 July 2017, 22.09 PM DT.

  17. Gerrit, I simply have no time for people who buy into “mediums” (a polite name for scam artists) and their fake predictions, or the people who support them. And I certainly don’t have time or respect for those supporters who get butt hurt and tone trollish when the fact that they are pushing pure crap as something to be taken seriously is pointed out. That’s what you’ve done. You’re really no different than the barkers who lure little old ladies and people overcome with grief into shows with evangelists with the promise of cures.

  18. And you are the living proof of the vacuity of woomancer claims, great boogers.

    The irony will go right over your pin head, though.

  19. Many comments I’ve heard regarding being “tougher on crime” have referred to the courts (re sentencing, appeals) and to related bureaucrats (re parole) and not the police. In our country, police are not supposed to be judge and jury, let alone executioners and I’ve seen no evidence that Americans in general want them to be.

  20. Gerrit, Dean is completely correct. You don’t take an apple pie to a gunfight. You are utterly naive and believe that decency and respect for the views of your opponent are imperative, beginning on blogs of all places. You tend to forget that the world is full of selfish, ignorant people who don’t play by your rules. Climate change deniers are a good example. They relentlessly smear the people they don’t like – look at the treatment meted out by deniers on another thread as well as across the denialosphere. I am afraid that you just don’t get it. These debates are like street fights. The climate change debate has never been about science because the science is completely one-sided. So how is one supposed to be sweet and nice and kind to an unmitigated liar? You clearly don’t live in the real world. Your rose-tinted glasses are urgently in need of new shades.

  21. “You tend to forget that the world is full of selfish, ignorant people who don’t play by your rules.”

    I prefer to point you to Billy Conolly.

    I will have to paraphrase from memory.

    People complain that swearing is the lack of education, but show me the English equivalent of “Fuck off” and I’ll HAPPILY use it. It certainly isn’t “Go away”.

    And as to “your rules”, who made great boogers the lord of the universe to dictate these rules? And why does his rules allow the peddling of fatuous woomancering from a fraud peddling lies to the gullible?

  22. to WOW and others: Let’s not be as stupidly dogmatic as the pig in the White House. In 2016, 145 officers were killed and 50000 were injured. Thirty unarmed men were killed by cops. Half were Black. Those are the facts. There are bad people in every profession, including the heart surgeon that fuc**d up my surgery. Everyone here knows that. Ride with a good inner city cop someday. Be balanced people. Be balanced or else you’re just like dt.

  23. Alan, 64 police officers were shot to death in 2016, with a total of 135 killed on duty (the difference is due to traffic accidents and other causes). Both numbers are higher than in 2015, and both are below the 10 year average (the shooting deaths spiked due to several multiple shootings of officers). Some perspective:

    – In the 1970s, an average of 231 officers died each year. In the ’80s, the number who died each year never dipped below 175

    – In 1930 over 329 police officers were killed while on duty, 198 of them shot to death

    – Firearms-related fatalities peaked in 1973, when 156 officers were shot and killed

    – During the Reagan years, for instance, an average of 101 police officers were intentionally killed each year. In the final year of Reagan’s term there were 16 assaults for every officer

    – Under George H.W. Bush the average number of deaths per year fell to 90

    – The number fell further, to 81 deaths per year, under Bill Clinton. At the end of the Clinton years the rate of assaults was 12.7 per 100 officers

    – The number fell again to 72 deaths per year under George W. Bush, and there were 11.3 assaults per 100 officers

    – Finally, the average was 62 per year under President Obama (despite what the tea-baggers and other loons try to tell you), and the assault rate was 9.0 per 100

    None of these numbers should be a surprise — crime rates have been steadily falling, for example, and cars have gotten safer, lowering the numbers of deaths from accidents.

    I’m not sure how you are counting civilian deaths. In 2016 there were 957 civilians killed by police. Slightly more than 50% were white, but an examination of numbers shows that black men were roughly 3 times more likely to be killed. Specifically, 258 black men and women were killed by police in 2016:

    – 39 were unarmed

    – 4 died when police used stun guns

    – 9 while in police custody

    – the rest were shot

    You are correct that not all people in any group are identical, and ethics vary. Your numbers, however, don’t quite tell the whole story.

  24. Alan, it’s like you didn’t even read my post.

    By defending bad cops, they become bad cops. And having done it once, they have to double down, because they’re good people and want this to be the case.

    Instead of ignoring reality like the oval office orangutan, deal with reality as it is.

  25. “There are bad people in every profession, including the heart surgeon that fuc**d up my surgery.”

    Alan, would you say you would prefer that the surgeon be available to fuck up another surgery because at least there’s one more surgeon, or would you want incompetent surgeons removed?

    When it comes to themselves, cops prefer to have more fellow cops over having competent ones. Given they have even more ability to kill and even less risk in fucking things up than a surgeon, we require incompetent cops be removed.

    A cop who is above the law or breaks it merely kills the respect for the law and all cops.

    But in the short term it “feels” like it is better to keep the bad cops than to clean house and lose manpower in the fight against criminals.

  26. , for example, and cars have gotten safer, lowering the numbers of deaths from accidents.”

    And the routine use of body armor …

  27. “And the routine use of body armor …”

    And, unfortunately for those who they swore to protect and serve, shooting before there’s a risk to their lives.

  28. What are the do´s and dont´s of politicians and civil servants who are expected to contribute to the happiness of society?

  29. Same as everyone, since they’re all expected to contribute to the happiness of society.Indeed the only reason to arrest criminals or even execute them for crimes is because it does the opposite of contributing to the happiness of society by their actions.

  30. Gerrit, their primary aim for several decades now has been to prioritize the happiness of certain elite sectors of society. The rest can rot. And of course foreign societies don’t count. Prioritize their misery if that keeps the wealthy happy.

  31. What are the best methods for officials in whatever functions or positions to regulate existing hate within societies and to reduce social hate to best minimum possible?

  32. Why asking all this BS, great boogers? Are you looking for someone to say “Make it mandatory to have and use a unique worldwide pass to identify yourself in blogs so that people cannot be “anonymous” according to the personal and moronic definition of “anon” by great boogers on greg laden’s blog”?

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