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Nevilledog

(50,670 posts)
Thu Sep 3, 2020, 11:24 PM Sep 2020

Kenosha visit reality: Trump is anything but a 'law and order' leader




https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/09/02/kenosha-visit-trump-not-law-and-order-president-column/5681545002/

In heading to Kenosha, Wis. to address unrest there, Donald Trump has claimed the mantle of “law and order” for his presidency. In fact, he has shown only disdain for both. He has failed to keep people safe — the central reason we care about law and order and the most basic and important duty of a president. As former federal prosecutors and law enforcement officials with 100 years of collective experience, we offer some thoughts about what it means to truly lead on public safety issues.

Trump is not pro-law enforcement

First, Trump is not “pro-law enforcement.” He has spent much of the past three and a half years smearing law enforcement when he dislikes the subject of their investigations or their conclusions. Trump repeatedly called a legitimate investigation into Russia’s attacks on our election a “rigged witch hunt;” compared FBI agents to “stormtroopers” when carrying out a court-authorized search warrant; mischaracterized FBI work with loaded words like “infiltrating” or “spying”; and suggested that “flipping” cooperators (a practice upon which many significant criminal cases are built) should be illegal. He heralded the intelligence community when it successfully targeted terrorists overseas, but vilified the intelligence community when it concluded Russia interfered with the 2016 election. Support of law enforcement is not supposed to be transactional, but that is Donald Trump’s worldview.

Even when professing to support law enforcement, Trump and his Attorney General William Barr have done so in ways that are designed to inflame tensions between law enforcement and the people they serve. Trump encouraged police not to be “too nice” in handling suspects. Barr threatened communities that don’t show law enforcement “more respect” with the loss of police protective services.

Actions by law enforcement should be scrutinized critically to be sure, and officers held accountable when they violate their duty of trust. But the unfair and categorical attacks by the president can and will impede the progress of everyday cases that we need to protect public safety from murderers, sexual predators, human traffickers and terrorists. In other words, the antithesis of law and order.

*snip*

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Kenosha visit reality: Trump is anything but a 'law and order' leader (Original Post) Nevilledog Sep 2020 OP
Oh, he's definitely a "law and order" president... regnaD kciN Sep 2020 #1
He is flawed and odious Blue Owl Sep 2020 #2
K&R, The guy who ran a take charity doesn't get to claim law and order uponit7771 Sep 2020 #3

regnaD kciN

(26,035 posts)
1. Oh, he's definitely a "law and order" president...
Thu Sep 3, 2020, 11:30 PM
Sep 2020

To paraphrase an anti-Wallace campaign spot in 1968: "He makes the law, we take the orders."

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