Donald Trump is managing to get even more tone deaf on police brutality.
Speaking at the National Federation of Republican Assemblies on Saturday, Trump pledged to make police more powerful and aggressive. According to the Washington Post, Trump "presented himself as the 'law and order' candidate in the 2016 presidential race, pledging to 'get rid' of gangs and give more power to police officers."
"I know cities where police are afraid to even talk to people because they want to be able to retire and have their pension," Trump said. "They don’t want to be pulled off the police forces. And then you wonder what’s wrong with our cities. We need a whole new mind-set."
Trump pledged to solve the problem. "We’re going to get rid of those gang members so fast your head will spin," he stated. "One of the first things I’m going to do is get rid of those gang members."
It's not Trump's first time calling for police that are tougher and more powerful. He's brought it up a couple of times now, including at a campaign stop in late June.
"You’re not going to stop [crime] by being nice. You're going to stop it by being one tough son of a bitch," Trump said, according to the Chicago Tribune. "You need tough cookies. These are tough kids. These are not babies. These are tough, tough kids. If they saw you walking down the street, they wouldn't give a damn about you. You can't be so gentle with these people."
Trump then segued into talking about memories he had of seeing cops in Queens at the local White Castle when he was growing up. "Cops would walk in there and they had sticks in those days and they'd break up those gangs and those gang members were petrified of those guys. […] Cops aren't so rough today, to put it mildly, OK? And today the kids are shouting at the cops and calling them all sorts of names and laughing at them like it's a joke. Today if the cops ever did that they'd have them arrested and given the electric chair," Trump said. "They didn't do wrong. They were just forceful. They were strong. And today it's not even politically correct to say that."
It's not that its not "politically correct," Donald, it's just that it's incorrect. Follow below for more.
Police in America are doing just fine. And they don't seem to have trouble getting their job done, either. We incarcerate people at a higher rate than any other country on the planet, we've been outfitting our police in military gear. Over and over, we've watched police kill without reason or provocation and keep their jobs. In fact, some—at least those who have seen the videos and read the stories of people of color getting abused, harassed, and even killed by police—are reasonably convinced the police have too much power.
Take note, too, of Trump's ratcheting up of his racist innuendo, using words like "these people" and referencing "these kids" and gang members in places like Baltimore and Chicago. His audience knows what he means when he uses words like those, especially when he ties it back to the Freddie Gray protests in Baltimore.
"That first night in Baltimore, they allowed that city to be destroyed. They set it back 35 years in one night because the police weren’t allowed to protect people," he said. "We need law and order!"
It's not explicit, but it's not particularly subtle, either. Trump is promising more police and more police power to crack down on people of color, in the midst of an epidemic of police brutality against black people.
Along with being racist and incorrect, Trump is also powerless. All of his narrativizing about what power he would give police as president? The president doesn't even have that power.
Trump once again makes it clear how remarkably little he knows about American government. Police power is a state issue, not a presidential concern. If he wants to strengthen and change the police—if he wants to "get rid of those gang members"—Trump should probably run for state office. Police in America are not regulated or run by the president. Pretty much the most the president can do is propose federal funds for state police and even then he'd need congressional approval.
But this is what Trump is good at doing. He makes loud proclamations about issues on which he has very little knowledge. He makes hazy statements about what it used to be like, or what it should be. And it doesn't matter if he has the power to do what he wants, or if the facts he shouts out are true, or if his ideas are grounded in reality. He doesn't care about any of those things. The question is, do voters?