In a speech before law enforcement officials in Long Island, New York on Friday, President Donald Trump celebrated his administration’s crackdown on immigration and encouraged police officers to be “rough” with those they detain—a statement that was widely seen as an explicit call for police brutality.
“Don’t be too nice,” Trump said after referencing “thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon.”
Donald and Melania Trump wave to reporters before boarding the Air Force One to Brussels, at the end of a 2-day visit to Italy, May 24, 2017. (AP/Riccardo De Luca)
In his speech in Saudi Arabia on Sunday during his first foreign trip as president, Trump claimed to have accomplished record spending on the armed forces, even though Congress has yet to pass a budget that reflects his plans and promises. Trump releases a detailed budget proposal Tuesday after having come up only with an outline before, and nothing is achieved until and unless Congress passes something.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions speaks to members of law enforcement Friday, April 28, 2017, in Central Islip, N.Y. Sessions discussed the street gang that’s gripping the suburban area. (AP/Frank Franklin II)
Before uttering a word of his speech on Salvadoran gang violence, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions already has opened up old wounds of a Long Island immigrant community still scarred by a 2008 hate crime.
Sessions has chosen the island’s federal courthouse, about 50 miles outside New York City Hall, as the site for his talk on MS-13.
