The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
President’s speech advocates rough police treatment
His remarks urge Congress to fund MS-13 crackdown.
BRENTWOOD, N.Y. — Talking tough on illegal immigration and violent crime, President Donald Trump appeared Friday to advocate rougher treatment of people in police custody, speaking dismissively of arresting officers who protect the heads of handcuffed suspects while putting them in patrol cars.
“Don’t be too nice,” Trump said as he visited Suffolk County, N.Y., to highlight administration efforts to crack down on illegal immigration and violent crime.
He especially targeted the international Latino street gang known as MS-13, which has terrorized communities on Long Island and in other parts of the country. The president urged Congress to find money to pay for 10,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers “so that we can eliminate MS-13.”
Trump said the administration is removing MS-13 members from the United States “but we’d like to get them out a lot faster and when you see ... these thugs being thrown into the back of the paddy wagon, you just see them thrown in rough, I said, ‘Please don’t be too nice.’”
Trump then spoke dismissively of arresting officers shielding the heads of handcuffed suspects as they are placed in police cars.
“I said, ‘You could take the hand away, OK?’” he said.
The audience included federal and law enforcement personnel from the New York-New Jersey area, some of whom applauded Trump’s remarks. The president offered no details on when and where he would have made those comments.
Trump talks often about cracking down on MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha. The gang is believed to have originated in Los Angeles in the 1980s and then entrenched itself in Central America when its leaders were deported. It is known for violent tactics that include torturing victims and hacking them with machetes. Authorities estimate the group has tens of thousands of members across Central America and in many U.S. states.