Activists, Law Enforcement Condemn Trump’s Call for Police Violence

By Kenrya Rankin Jul 31, 2017

On Friday (July 28), President Donald Trump advocated for violence against arrestees during a speech to cheering members of law enforcement in Long Island, New York. In the video below, Trump says:

When you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon, you just see them thrown in, rough, I said, “Please don’t be too nice.” Like when you guys put somebody in the car, and you’re protecting their head, you know, the way you put [your] hand, like don’t hit their head, and they’ve just killed somebody. Don’t hit their head. I said, “You can take the hand away, okay?”

 

According to The Washington Post’s fatal police force database, at least 232 people of color have been killed by American police so far in 2017. In April 2015, Freddie Gray died after a “rough ride,” when Baltimore police threw him into the back of a paddy wagon and drove him around unrestrained.

Activists, journalists, actors and politicians immediately responded to the speech:

Law enforcement agencies and organizations—including those that have been implicated in fatal instances of police violence—also reacted to the comments with statements that seem to run counter to the current state of policing in America:

 

Meanwhile, the Fraternal Order of Police tweeted its support for Trump and said that media and “professional police critics” are taking the president “too literally”:

And Vanita Gupta—the president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights who used to head the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division—called out Attorney General Jeff Sessions—who is charged with overseeing the nation’s law enforcement practices—for his silence: