In an attempt to amplify his law-and-order agenda, Donald Trump told hundreds of New York Police Department officers that “no one will be safe in Biden’s America” if Biden wins in November.
This is one of numerous tactics Trump’s campaign has used to raise doubts about Biden and his recently announced pick for vice president, Kamala Harris’ ability to keep the peace in America’s biggest metropolises, a clever move on his end.
A move so clever that it helped him gain the endorsement of the New York Police Benevolent Association, the union representing some 24,000 rank-and-file officers, the announcement was made during an event at his New Jersey golf course on Friday.
“This guy has been taking your dignity away and your respect,” Trump said of former Vice President Joe Biden. “And I’m telling you on Nov. 3 you’re going to be getting it back.”
It seems that Trump learned this strategy straight from Richard Nixon’s law-and-order campaign in 1968- a time when the U.S. was rife with racial protests. It was Nixon who vowed to crack down and restore order during his campaign, which mainly targeted white voters.
President of the Union, Pay Lynch said it was the first time the union has ever endorsed a president and added that he has been on the job for 36 years, 21 as the president of the “fine organization,” Fox News reports.
“Many times, people say that a union like ours, law enforcement groups, give endorsements. Not in the New York City PBA, sir,” Lynch continued. “In the New York City PBA, Mr. President, you earn the endorsement, and you’ve earned this endorsement. I’m proud to give it.”
“I’ve admired you my whole life, watched you do a job like nobody else, nobody else done it. Best of the best, and I’m grateful happy you’re here,” the president said to the group of officers in attendance.
Trump coaxed the audience by reminding them again that “No one will be safe in Biden’s America.”
The endorsement received a lot of criticism from New York Democrats, who say the union’s endorsement of such a highly unpopular politician will cause tensions between them and the community.
“NYPD union endorsed Trump. I’m sure this is part of their neighborhood outreach plan,” tweeted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose district spans the Bronx and Queens.
“Also, does anyone else see a potential problem with police unions – enforcement arms of the state with lethal weapons – promoting “preferred” candidates for office, or is that just me?” she added.
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And another, “I’m speechless. NYC is a beautifully diverse, working-class, democratic city. The NYPD is clearly showing they are not interested in working with the people of our city,” tweeted Jamaal Bowman, a progressive newcomer who overthrew longtime Rep. Elliot Engel in a June primary. Adding, “This explains their continued aggression against innocent people. It’s time for dramatic change.”
Trump has long been vocal on violent protests and placed the blame on big-city mayors mainly governed by Democrats, including New York, Portland, Seattle, and Chicago, for undermining the police.
Earlier this year in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death and nationwide protests, New York politicians cut $1 billion from the police budget, among other police reforms. Crimes, including murder, burglary, and grand larceny, have increased while other crimes such as rape, robbery, and assault have gone down.
Mayor Bill de Blasio and other city council members recently barred officers from using chokeholds and other forms of restraints when they detain suspects.
“In New York, you have New York’s finest, but they’ve totally taken away their incentive,” Trump said earlier this week. “They’ve taken away their lives, in a sense, because they don’t allow them to do their job.”
Trump has repeatedly and falsely accused Biden of supporting the defunding of police in the past several weeks, NBC News reports. And has gone as far as airing campaign ads in battleground states of a woman calling the police for help while an intruder breaks into her home but she gets a 911 voice recording informing her that due to the defunding of the police no one was available to take her call. Sadly, Trump and his devoted following will likely fall for it.
In another attempt to garner support, Trump warns “suburban housewives” that Biden will destroy their communities by requiring communities to build lower-income housing as part of new development, this follows his revoking an Obama-era housing regulation designed to eliminate racial disparities in the suburbs.
He also made sure to add in a few comments about Kamala Harris, a former California attorney general, claiming that she as a history of being hostile to police and suggested that she and her running mate Biden were at the center of “a left-wing war on cops.”
“Probably she’s a step worse, Kamala,” he stated.
The NYC PBA is proud to endorse @realDonaldTrump for President of the United States. pic.twitter.com/DpT8v8bJtz
— NYC PBA (@NYCPBA) August 15, 2020
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