home

Donald Trump Condones Police Misconduct

The Wall St Journal reports (free link via the Capitol Journal)Donald Trump told a gathering of police officers:

“When you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon—you just see them thrown in, rough—I said, please don’t be too nice,” Mr. Trump said, prompting laughter and applause from the audience of law enforcement officers. “Like when you guys put somebody in the car and you’re protecting their head, you know, the way you put their hand over? Like, don’t hit their head and they’ve just killed somebody—don’t hit their head. I said, you can take the hand away, OK?”

That comment was over the top for acting DEA Administrator Chuck Rosenberg, who sent out an agency-wide email repudiating it:

Mr. Rosenberg wrote that although he is certain no “special agent or task force officer of the DEA would mistreat a defendant,” Mr. Trump’s comments required a response.

“I write to offer a strong reaffirmation of the operating principles to which we, as law enforcement professionals, adhere,” the memo says. “I write because we have an obligation to speak out when something is wrong. That’s what law enforcement officers do. That’s what you do. We fix stuff. At least, we try.”

USA Today has more of Rosenberg's memo to DEA agents: [More...]

In the memo sent Saturday, acting DEA chief Chuck Rosenberg said the president had "condoned police misconduct regarding the treatment of individuals placed under arrest by law enforcement."

Rosenberg noted that he did not want to advance any sort of agenda, nor did he believe that his agents would mistreat defendants.

Still, he listed "core values" for agents to follow, including: rule of law, respect and compassion, service, devotion, integrity, accountability, leadership and courage and diversity.

"This is how we conduct ourselves," Rosenberg said in a memo, provided to USA Today by a source who is not authorized to share internal communications. "This is how we treat those whom we encounter in our work: victims, witnesses, subjects and defendants. This is who we are."

Never did I think I'd be writing to praise the comments of a DEA top gun. But Donald Trump is so much worse. How the worm turns, indeed.

< Scaramucci: Don't Let the Door Hit You.... | DHS to "Waive Laws" for Border Wall at San Diego >
  • The Online Magazine with Liberal coverage of crime-related political and injustice news

  • Contribute To TalkLeft


  • Display: Sort:
    i have mentoned before (none / 0) (#1)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 09:15:24 AM EST
    i have hillbilly law enforcement in the family.  i checked in on the FB pages to see if this was mentioned.

    ooo boy

    they are quite literally taking this as a green light.  i would post some quotes but they are too vile.  including the attacks on the DEA response.

    one of my nephews is the "tip of the spear" of DEA enforcement in this area.  those choppers you hear in the fall looking for random pot plants.  thats him.

    they are trashing him bigly.

    You said it... (none / 0) (#2)
    by kdog on Wed Aug 02, 2017 at 05:47:01 PM EST
    I wouldn't think it possible to make a DEA man sound like a card carrying member of the ACLU, but there you have it.