Trump says police officers are “in greater danger” than ever from “Kamala's crime wave” as he campaigns for union support

Former President Donald Trump accepted the endorsement of a national police union in North Carolina on Friday and warned that police officers are in “greater danger” than ever because of policies supported by Vice President Kamala Harris.

The Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) announced earlier in the day that it had nominated Trump as its preferred candidate for the 2024 election. The 78-year-old said he was “deeply honored” to accept the endorsement as he stood alongside union leader Patrick Yoes at a rally in Charlotte.

“We know all about you and the great work you do, and the people of this country have great respect for you,” Trump said. “So I want to thank you on behalf of everyone, because I see that.”

“Unfortunately – we talked about this earlier – it is also probably a profession that is exposed to more dangers and threats than ever before, and we don't like to see that.”

As of July 31, the FOP reported, 223 officers were shot in the line of duty, a slight 2% decrease from the same time in 2023, and 31 officers were killed by gunfire.

In 2023, a record 378 men and women in blue were shot, 46 of whom were killed.

“I visit many families of police officers who are no longer with us, and we must give them back the power and the respect that they deserve more than anyone else,” Trump said. “And that's what we're going to do.”

The former president also claimed to have the support of “New York’s finest,” although there has been no public statement from the NYPD union to that effect.

“They shouldn't. They said we don't care – we'll support you anyway,” he boasted.

Trump contrasted his plans to “start a war on crime in America” ​​- which include promising to protect police officers from lawsuits, supporting the death penalty for cop killers and a major crackdown on drug gangs and their leaders – with what he called “Kamala's crime wave.”

“As we gather here today, American cities, suburbs and communities are under total siege,” Trump told FOP members. “Kamala Harris and the communist left have brought a brutal plague of bloodshed, crime, chaos, misery and death upon our country.”

“Other than that,” he joked, “they’re actually doing quite well.”

Trump then listed cases in which police officers had been shot while on the job in Milwaukee just the night before, before describing the “filth,” “graffiti” and rampant shoplifting that “law-abiding citizens have to live with.”

“The new thing in New York is that you go to the pharmacy to buy aspirin or a toothbrush and it takes 45 minutes for a clerk to open the jar because people come in and just take as much as they want,” he said, before attacking Harris for her past as a district attorney in San Francisco who lightened sentences for thieves.

“She destroyed San Francisco,” he said, calling Harris “our enemy” in front of the officials.

“But she had a great idea. You can steal as much as you want up to $950 and after that, nothing will happen to you,” he continued.

“So people come in with calculators,” Trump joked again.

In a dig at House Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), he also pointed out that “the great wall that surrounded her house … did not help with her problems,” apparently referring to the incident when her husband Paul Pelosi was bludgeoned to death by a madman in their San Francisco residence in the fall of 2022.

In a press conference earlier Friday, James Tignanelli, president of the Michigan Police Officers Association, noted that his state's attorney general – a Democrat who supports Harris – had charged “between 10 and 15 police officers” during his term in office.

“This doesn’t help attract your candidates,” Tignanelli told reporters.

Dr. John Lott, President of the Crime Prevention Research Center, also presented shocking statistics on the increase in unreported violent crime during President Biden and Harris’ administration.

“If you look at the total number of violent crimes during the Trump administration, it went down 17% and went up 43% under the Biden administration,” Lott said, citing data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

“At no time in our history have we recorded data on the total number of violent crimes where we have seen such a large increase,” he added, referring to the last Crime Victims Report released by the Department of Justice in 2022.

Before 2020, Lott explained, the Bureau of Justice Statistics and FBI reported numbers “generally moved in lockstep,” but since then they have “moved in opposite directions every year, often by very large amounts.”

“While the FBI recorded a 2% decrease in reported violent crime, national victimization data showed a 42% increase in violent crime,” he said, citing 2022 figures.

Trump was still in a celebratory mood on Friday after Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan postponed the sentencing date for his “hush money” conviction until November 26. This means he does not have to worry about a possible prison sentence before Election Day.

The case “has been postponed because everyone realizes there was no case, because I did nothing wrong,” he crowed. “It is an attack by my political opponents in Washington, DC and comrade Kamala Harris and radical left opponents for the purpose of influencing the election.”

“We will restore public safety to our streets. We will bring law and order back to our country,” he promised the FOP participants. “You will have support like you never had four years ago.”