President Donald Trump believes that his fellow politicians are not as supportive to police as they should be, and he said Monday that officers on the beat are subject to “unfair defamation and vilification” that have made their jobs more dangerous.
Trump spoke at an annual memorial for officers slain in the line of duty, and according to the Washington Post, he said that his administration would make it a priority to provide more federal resources for local law-enforcement departments.
“You are the thin blue line between civilization and chaos,” Trump said. “Because you don’t hear it nearly enough, I want you to know that patriotic Americans of all backgrounds truly support and love our police. The very sad thing is that today many politicians don’t want to say that, they don’t want to talk about that, because it’s not politically correct, and they think it might hurt them with voters. I will say it, and I will talk about it proudly.”
Trump signed a proclamation announcing that the White House would be lit up in blue lights Monday evening to honor the 394 officers who were killed in action last year.
“We will protect you, and we will say, ‘Enough is enough,’” Trump said.
From the Post:
Though he did not mention it by name, Trump’s remarks appeared to allude to Black Lives Matter and other civil rights movements that arose out of high-profile shootings by police of African-American men in cities across the country in recent years, including the 2014 killing of teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., which set off protests and clashes between residents and police.
Trump’s predecessor, President Barack Obama, had struggled to balance his rhetorical support for the police with empathy for the protesters. But Trump has more vocally offered backing to the police.
“We must end the reckless words of incitement that give rise to danger and violence, and take the time to work with cops, not against them, not obstruct them—which is what we’re doing,” Trump said.
The Post reports that Trump also made reference to the violence in cities like Chicago and Baltimore, and said that poorer, more disadvantaged residents often suffer the most.
“We cannot stand for such violence; we cannot tolerate such pain,” Trump said. “My administration is totally determined to restore law and order and justice for all Americans, and we’re going to do it quickly.”
Clearly that justice doesn’t apply to Jordan Edwards, Alton Sterling, Michael Brown, Philando Castile, Sandra Bland or any of the other citizens who have died because of the actions of police.
“Black lives matter” are considered reckless words of incitement, but telling police they matter above all else is not?
This administration’s rhetoric and policies are pointedly and decidedly anti-black, and they feed into the already rampant anti-blackness that’s becoming more open across America.
We just had Attorney General Jeff Sessions dial back sentencing guidelines to the era of President Ronald Reagan. It appears that the police and our “criminal justice” system are going to be used to usher people of color into a newly clothed form of slavery.
Read more at the Washington Post.