Trump ‘ joke’ is decidedly not funny
The commander in chief’s authority does not extend to America’s police forces. And that’s a very good thing, because President Donald Trump seems to think it’s OK to punch out political dissidents and for police to abuse suspects in their custody.
Speaking to law enforcers in New York on Friday, Trump suggested that they perhaps are a little too kind to the people they arrest for serious crimes. He suggested that sometimes a little roughing-up might be in order. He mimicked the way police officers typically cover the head of handcuffed suspects before putting them in the back seat of a squad car.
“And when you see these towns and 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,” Trump said, apparently diverting from his written text.
“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?”
No, not OK. Not anywhere close to OK.
The White House claimed Monday that Trump was joking. If so, it wasn’t funny. And given the current heightened tension over police abuse, Trump had no business making fun of the crucially important topic of civil rights.
Any president or other official who would make such remarks clearly doesn’t understand the fundamentals of American jurisprudence. All suspects, whether arrested for jaywalking or murder, are presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.
We can think of no quicker way to undermine public faith in the law-enforcement system than for the president to be seen advocating deliberately rough treatment of those in police custody. He could not be more wrong — or more un-funny.
At what point will this president begin to understand that his words influence others’ actions and can lead to severe consequences? R-Kentucky, are working together to address a national problem: monetary bail that can keep defendants in jail because they’re too poor to pay.
The senators jointly introduced a bill that would give grants to states to reform their bail systems.
“Whether someone stays in jail or not is far too often determined by wealth or social connections, even though just a few days behind bars can cost people their job, home, custody of their children — or their life,” the senators write in a New York Times op-ed. “As criminal-justice groups work to change sentencing and mandatory-minimum laws, we must also reform a bail system that is discriminatory and wasteful.”
The bill would require grant recipients to try to move away from money-bail systems to “individualized, pretrial assessments” that estimate the likelihood that a defendant will flee or commit crimes while released.
It is unequal justice to hold people in jail because they are poor when they would get out if they were better off. Monetary bail can have exactly that result.