Trump spoke to police officers in Suffolk County, New York, and urged them to rough up suspects when putting them into the “paddywagon” or a police car. Police cheered. The Suffolk County authorities immediately issued a statement insisting that officers were expected to adhere to the law and regulations, an implicit rebuke of Trump.
What went through my mind was the fate of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, who was arrested, shackled, thrown into the back of a police van, not buckled in with a seat belt, and died of a broken spine. Exactly what Trump recommended to law officers in Suffolk County.
Congressman Lee Zeldin represents Suffolk County. He appeared on Chris Hayes’ show on MSNBC after Trump’s speech. Zeldin tried his best to defend Trump. He kept referring to the brutality of murders committed by members of the MS 13 gang. Hayes kept bringing Zeldin back to the question: “Do you agree that police officers should treat suspects brutally?” Zeldin was afraid to disagree with Trump. So he said something like, “I didn’t know I would be brought here to answer this question.” So he kept insisting on the violence of MS 13. Hayes agreed that this gang was terrible, but he pivoted and asked Zeldin, “Are you suggesting that your district is soaked in blood, a dangerous and violent place?” Zeldin realized he had fallen into a trap. So he agreed that his district–one of the most affluent in the nation, including the South Fork (the Hamptons), where the richest, most powerful people in America have fabulous homes–was indeed blood-soaked and dangerous…but, but, but a really nice place to vacation. Nice job, Chris Hayes, pinning Trump sycophant Lee Zeldin to the wall.
The Chris Hayes interview with Lee Zeldin is posted here.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
What the f#*k is the matter with this man?
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Rough up people? Paddy-wagon? His own mother didn’t speak a word of English only Gaelic until she was 10. What an asshole.
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“But the Nassau County District Attorney’s office said calls to their Immigrant Affairs Tips Hotline are way down in 2017.
“Because immigrants are scared to call law enforcement, crimes are going unreported, victims are not getting justice, criminals are going unpunished and we are all less safe,” says Silvia Finkelstein, the office’s director of immigrant affairs.”
MS-13 members: Trump makes the gang stronger”
http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/28/us/ms-13-gang-long-island-trump/index.html
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He syas: ““Let our politicians give back out police department’s power to keep us safe,” he wrote. “Unshackle them from the constant chant of ‘police brutality,’ which every petty criminal hurls immediately at an officer who has just risked his or her life to save another’s.”
So, we should avoid a fair trial, a court, and evidence, and let our police determine guilt.
This man is turning our nation backwards!
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I believe almost all of those murders were committed against the immigrant community ..Something I do not believed Hayes touched on. I kept hoping he would.
But I went to protest Trump at SCC where around 1000 showed up to protest Trump . I was expecting a large group of pro Trump supporters as that Suffolk county went for Trump. Pleasantly surprised to see only perhaps thirty Trump supporters. Peter King has for years been a bigot and preyed on fears and bigotry to further his political career. The former IRA supporter talking about terrorism, is enough to make you barf . Zeldin learning from a professional demagogue King.
Neither one of the two cowardly republican congressman has held a town hall. Suozzi the Democratic congressman held a town hall in Huntington Station one of the communities that gets mentioned in ms 13 gang violence and a community that starts in walking distance from my house . I don’t think I ever felt threatened in that community no less in my community. . At the Suozzi town hall, a women representing a Huntington Station organization, started a few years back when there was a gang shooting blocks from an elementary school , described how the immigrant community was the greatest defense against the gangs. Fear of deportation is hurting that defense .
There are ways to control undocumented immigration , most of them have to do with strengthening American labor laws. Dis- incentivizing employers from hiring the undocumented . Something the Republicans have never been interested in . They would rather bash the immigrants they hire . Immigrants looking for a place to hide in a storm. A storm created by American economic and foreign policies. From NAFTA destroying Mexican farms, to death squads in El Salvador ,Honduras , Guatemala …. …
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Joel,
I vote in Zeldin’s district. He refuses to hold a town hall. He had a “telephone town hall.” That way his staff can screen the questions and he doesn’t have to actually encounter anyone.
The bucolic North Fork relies on immigrants, many of whom are undocumented, to maintain its farms, vineyards, restaurants, and construction projects. If Trump were to deport all of the undocumented, the local economy would collapse.
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I am not disagreeing . Frankly immigration (even migration Blacks from the South in the Jim Crow era ) has been used as a wage wedge for over 150 years . It has also been the fodder for demagogues for just as long . There are ways that we could regulate immigration while protecting American workers at the same time as we prevent immigrants from being exploited . The Zeldins and the Kings are not interested. They prefer to be demagogues. We had no restrictive immigration laws till 1923 , except the Chinese exclusion act which demonized the Chinese, excluding them from 1882 -1943. It was the result of a populist revolt after the building of the railroads . There are few jobs that Americans wont do, if the wages are good . Meat packing a tedious disgusting job used to be a cherished position with healthcare bennifits ,pensions and an inflation adjusted wage in the mid $20 dollar range back in the 1970s . Today meat packing is a minimum wage industry with a transient work force and high levels of undocumented workers.
Construction workers routinely work in slime and debris in the NYC subways at night, in tunnels and water tunnels in dangerous conditions , gladly for twice the pay of a NYC teacher. Yet the single unit and multi family housing construction market, some of it building luxury towers on Billionaires Row is dominated by non union companies and immigrant labor, many undocumented. While there have been 36 deaths in a little over 2 years of this boom. Far more deaths caused by unscrupulous employers who refuse to obey saftey regulations than MS13 has caused and the victims are the same, mostly immigrants. On jobs where the average pay is under 20 an hour . Not a living wage in NYC.
We can do both ,we can force employers to pay decent wages at the same time as we import all the immigrant labor that is needed at wages that do not undercut American wages and with a path to citizenship.
The H1B visa program has also been used very effectively as a wage wedge, so it is far greater than just a blue collar problem . Import all the educated immigrant labor you think you need, but not at 1/3 less than the American wage. In the past this was dealt with, with prevailing wage laws in construction. Yes there was a racist element at the start but today those laws reinforce the wages of a huge minority workforce , working both union and nonunion at that wage on public works.
I am a short drive from Kings district and will be happier to work for his defeat than i will be to support Neo-liberal Democrat Suozzi’s re-election, although I will probably be forced to vote for him.
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Sump Pump Trump is a member of the SS: Sick and Stupid.
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Got to give Chris Hayes credit. A LOT of credit. I hope he gets to interview Devos.
He kept asking and asking essentially “do you agree with / support the president’s comments and tactics?” And, kept asking. I give the Congressperson credit for going for the interview because most refuse. And for everyone that does show up – the interviewer needs to not back off – make these puppets go on record.
Health care, immigration, education, etc. – all outrageously in jeopardy – but we’ve seen pendulum swings for decades / centuries. But how does any elected official – local, state, or federal – defend this so-called leader’s tactics, bullying, scapegoating, and fixation on discrediting President Obama.
“Let Obamacare crash on its own” – now there’s leadership. Just throw millions of people under the bus just because O is more popular than him.
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Can anyone question that the presidency is now a fascist regime? Anyone?
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We knew this before he was elected. At rallies, he told the crowds to rough up protestors and promised to pay their legal fees.
Now he tells police to treat prisoners roughly, people who may be guilty of nothing.
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Right down to the nexus between industrialists (Oligarchs ) and an authoritarian state.
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From the forked tongue of the president of the US: “For years and years, [laws have] been made to protect the criminal,” Trump said. “Totally protect the criminal, not the officers. You do something wrong, you’re in more jeopardy than they are. These laws are stacked against you. We’re changing those laws.” This is the kind of toxic garbage that you can hear on right wing radio almost any day of the week. It’s all bilge and red meat for the useful morons who still support this disgusting excuse for a human being. It’s appalling that he got so much applause from the police. Trump is not their friend, he’s not an ally of working class people in any way, shape or form. Sessions is totally on the same page as Trump regarding the elimination of the laws that supposedly hamper the police from engaging in torture or unfettered brutality. Why should law enforcement officers be stymied by all those pesky laws. Talk about irony. I wish we could impeach the whole Trump administration and start all over again.
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Trump obviously has never read the Constitution, which has MANY policies to protect the accused.
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He’s ILLITERATE and really STOOOOOOPID. Put this with all the rest of his flaws and you have an Idiot in Chief.
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What will the national response be? What are we willing to accept in order to be “safe”? . My fear is that the public’s response will be acceptance. Law abiding citizens are likely to accept “rough treatment” to those who might be gang members in exchange for their safety the same way that we’ve accepted body scans at airports in exchange for safe travel, supported the idea of fences to “protect us” from dangerous illegal immigrants, supported the billions of dollars we are spending in armaments to “protect us” from the global war on terror, and supported laws that permit the unrestricted acquisition of weaponry to “protect” our homes. I will not be surprised to read that our Google searches, emails, and social media postings should be available to read (if they aren’t being read already) in the name of “safety”. We already seem willing to allow this in schools to protect against bullying….
At some juncture we might push back against “safety measures”…. or we might accept ever tightening restrictions on our freedom. We’ve now “trained” a generation of students to accept body scans as they enter a public facility, to accept surveillance during the day, and to expect their every move on the internet to be examined by authorities— all in the name of “safety”. That generation never experienced an unobstructed walk to the gate of an airplane, the opportunity to enter their courts or legislative buildings without being scanned… or the chance to engage in pick-up games without close adult supervision. Will a generation raised with close supervision in the name of “safety” be willing to push for less restriction and monitoring in the future? I hope so…
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“I didn’t know I would be brought here to answer this question.””
Classic. “Wait, you mean the media is holding me accountable to the people? That’s not how this is supposed to work!!!” The fact that it took him so off guard is testament to how rarely it happens.
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I found it interesting to watch the facial expressions of the police officers behind Trump. Everything from smiles to blank faces.
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Most but not all police have an authoritarian streak. Even some who do, when you scratch the surface actually will acknowledge that crime is far more complex than simple bravado. However too few will stand up to the peer pressure of overlooking the corruption of police brutality. There is a rally around the flag .When police are caught abusing power,few speak up.
How could you bear watching the Orange Buffoon aren’t the media clips enough masochistic pleasure.
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I love to use the film V for Vendetta in my upper level French classes mainly because of its Beauty and the Beast theme which is very popular in French literature. But this film also deals with questions of patriotism, fascism, propaganda, nefarious use of technology, resistance, what integrity means, interconnectedness of all events, coincidence, symbolism, the marginalization of certain groups, the environment, vengeance, good vs. evil, and that’s just scratching the surface! It poses some very profound questions which I LOVE to discuss with my students.
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Subversive!
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Thank you!
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Trump’s ‘advice’ to Suffolk County police, at which they cheered (!), is an example of fascism in action, the kind of thing Mussolini and Hitler would have said to their brown shirts and Gestapo. Trump is a despicable, irresponsible moron who should not be in ANY position of power.
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