
On Friday, Donald Trump visited Suffolk County, NY, to deliver what were billed as remarks on the street gang Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13. He also told a group of cops that it would be good if they roughed up suspects. The crowd loved it.
Over the course of a freewheeling, frequently incoherent, and altogether horrifying display of raw nationalistic militarism, the president managed to shoehorn in digs at President Obama, Hillary Clinton, Senate Republicans, and New York City mayor Bill de Blasioâmuch of which was greeted with applause from the room full of police officers, sheriffs, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents.
But perhaps no moment was quite as alarming as when the self-proclaimed âlaw and orderâ president urged the assembled police officers to brutalize suspects during their arrests.
âWhen you see these towns, and when you see these thugs being thrown in the back of a paddy wagon, you just see them thrown in, rough, I said âplease donât be too nice,â Trump told the crowd, shortly after celebrating the uptick in police purchases of military equipment.
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âLike when you guys put somebody in the car and youâre protecting their head, you know, the way you put your hand over,â He continued. âLike, donât hit their head and theyâve just killed somebody. Donât hit their head? I said, âYou can take the hand away, OK?ââ
At this the auditorium, burst into sustained applause.
Trump picked the right crowd for the comments. In 2016, Suffolk County Police Chief James Burke was found guilty of conspiring to obstruct justice, and of civil rights violations, after he threatened to beat and kill a thief who had stolen a duffle bag of pornography from Burkeâs vehicle. Burke was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison.
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Just yesterday, the FBI charged Suffolk County police officer Christopher McCoy for âdepriving an arrestee of the right to bodily integrityâ after a woman claimed sheâd been forced to perform oral sex on him during an arrest.
Update, 7/31, 5:45PM: Donât worry folks, he was only kidding!