Editorial: Trump advocated for police brutality. No good cop would agree

The Editorial Board, Chicago Tribune on Oct 3, 2024

Published in Op Eds

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It’s hardly news when Donald Trump says something objectionable, outrageous and disqualifying for occupying the highest office in the land.

But his statement over the weekend at a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, regarding police struck us as worthy of highlighting — and condemning. Speaking in the context of giving police more latitude to combat retail theft, Trump called for cops to be given “one really violent day” in response. “One rough hour — and I mean real rough — the word will get out, and it will end immediately,” he said.

It’s easy to grow numb to Trump’s tough-guy rhetoric, but we should resist that impulse in this case in particular — and more generally. Let’s be frank: The Republican nominee for president of the United States just advocated for police brutality.

In addition to being morally reprehensible, Trump’s support for police beatings of those suspected of stealing is ineffective.

That point of view leads to hundreds of millions in taxpayer-funded settlements and legal judgments to victims of police misconduct — a trend with which Chicagoans are all too familiar. That direction also undermines public support for cops, which impedes police investigations into more serious crimes due to lack of witness cooperation.

At the same time, let’s be honest that those supporting, say, felony prosecution of retail theft only if the value of what’s stolen exceeds a large sum of money (in outgoing Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s case, it’s $1,000) are frustrating, too, to those of us seeking commonsense public safety solutions.

What most outside the ideological extremes want are real and meaningful consequences for criminal activity accompanied by professional conduct by law enforcement and the constitutionally guaranteed presumption of innocence until proven otherwise.

The 2020 murder of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer and the subsequent demonization of police prompted a painful reckoning that, among other things, led to loss of morale in police departments around the country, including Chicago’s, and a surge in crime. We are finally beginning to emerge from that period with improved public support for cops. Gallup in July published a poll showing an 8-point improvement year over year in confidence in police, which stood at 51%, while virtually all other U.S. institutions remained underwater with the public.

In Chicago, police Superintendent Larry Snelling, and indeed the Police Department as a whole, were widely celebrated in August for their handling of the Democratic National Convention. Few if any city officials in Chicago are more popular right now than Snelling.

We feel confident that Snelling desires no part of the “leeway” Trump wants to give police officers.

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