By Mike Keleher
On Monday, October 08, 2018, President Trump spoke in front of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) national convention in Orlando, Florida.
This convention has historically been quite a big showplace for Presidents to come in and make a pro-law enforcement speech. I was at McCormick Place in 2015 when former President Obama came in and spoke to the attendees. I also recall a lot of agency reps deciding to skip his speech when the security requirements to get admission to the hall were just not worth the compromise to their own sense of right and wrong, or in essence the juice wasn't worth the squeeze.
A peek back to the 2015 Obama speech saw him thanking "the outstanding Mayor of Chicago Rahm Emmanuel" for hosting the convention, and stating he supported law enforcement. How many snickers followed that intro? He also said he rejected any narrative to divide police and their communities but then followed it up with comments on how we needed robust debate over fairness in law enforcement and how police deaths from 2013 were at low levels comparable to 1887. He also saw the Chicago spike in violent crime as "deeply troubling" and he asked the now famous Attorney General Loretta Lynch to "find out exactly why this is happening and target resources." How did that all work out for Chicago? Pretty good? I remember after the speech hearing BATF transferred an additional four agents to the city…
One can't help but notice the change in attitude towards the police which came about during the Obama years with resulting riots, lawsuits and protests. President Trump seems well aware of it and in his speech on Monday called out politicians who have fostered anti-police efforts.
He expressed eternal gratitude on behalf of himself and of the nation for law enforcement and called them all heroes, and pointed out the current vilification of law enforcement for political reasons as being abjectly wrong.
The President said, “We understand that reducing crime begins with respecting law enforcement. For too many years we have watched politicians escalate political attacks on our courageous police officers – and I’ve never seen it more than over the last few years. It’s disgraceful” he also said “Politicians who spread this dangerous anti-police sentiment make life easier for criminals, and more dangerous for law-abiding citizens, and they also make it more dangerous for police, and it must stop and it must stop now.”
President Trump has mentioned the Chicago crime and murder rates many times during his campaign and following his election, and during his IACP speech this week he brought Chicago back into the limelight as a city and situations gone wrong.
He said "The crime spree is a terrible blight. There's no reason for what's going on there" and he will be sending in federal help to "straighten out" the problems. The President said he has spoken to Attorney General Jeff Sessions to bring federal help to the issue and encourages Chicago. (Who would you bet on to bring angry and serious federal help to Chicago -Jeff Sessions or Loretta Lynch?)
By the way Rahm's Chicago, is currently suing the U.S. Attorney General for stopping certain payments to the city after Chicago declared themself a sanctuary city exempt from federal immigration law..gee Chicago, you mean there are actual consequences for not following the law? Can't we blame someone else?
In President Trump's speech he even advocated bringing back antii-crime stop and frisk policies similar to those used by NYPD with Mayor Rudy Guliani's backing in the 1990's to suppress crime in the Big Apple making over 100,000 such contacts each year.
Stop and frisk, is a concept which goes all the way back to English Common Law, where police can stop and talk to a suspicious person when they have a reasonable suspicion they have committed, are committing, or are about to engage in a crime and if they believe they may armed and dangerous. Officers can then pat down or frisk the person for both parties safety. The U.S. Supreme Court confirmed this did not violate the 4th Amendment as an unreasonable search in Terry vs Ohio way back in 1968.
Stop and frisk has gone out the window in most major metropolitan cities due to liberal/Democrat/media protestations about it being applied with as abusive police powers, and as racial profiling. On the police side of the coin, with public complaints being made at record paces featured on television and the internet, major police departments have documented fewer and fewer face to face contacts with the populations in the past few years in Baltimore, Chicago and Milwaukee-the police just don't want the potential hassle, Youtube videos and public criticism while just trying to do their jobs.
President Trump stated stop and frisk works, and is viable helping to address Chicago crime problems. He also backed the media maligned Chicago Police Department and said CPD was quite able to handle the violent crime problem- if politicians would just back off and let them do their jobs without undue interference.
The President spoke of officer assaults and deaths as a wound upon our entire nation. (Wounds that have coincidentally been growing in number each year since Obama took office.) He made the obvious connection and mentioned officer safety results in public safety and would continue to be a top priority with his administration. Quite a contrast in his speech vs the 2015 Obama IACP speech.
But you already knew that didn't you?
Der Rahm father said he welcomes any and all Federal officers that are willing to cooperate with city hall. Must be he thinks he knows better and can train the feds.
yabbit. Yabbit. Tiny dancer and the chief don’t want it straightened out it’s right where they want it. Now thx cops are called off. —-can’t shoot a criminal any more or you go to jail. Leave us alone and we’ll kill each other that’s o k Mamas babies will all die because that’s what gangs do. They shoot each other. Wanna know who done it ? Look in the damn book Tiny dancer printed it with all the gangs pictures in it. Shit. Who would vote if the. F b I threw them all in jail ?????!
If they were serious about stopping crime in Chicago they would arrest All the Democrats
Black People did not create this mess in Chicago the Democrats did!