He was in Suffolk County, Long Island, where my daughters live. Suffolk is
where the people who are now in their 40's and 50's purchased homes because
homes in Nassau County were a bit too expensive. Suffolk has lots of room and
part of it is still rural. But he was apparently talking about 5 killings that
had taken place in Latino ghetto areas in West Islip and another town, I'd have
to look up the name. I heard it this morning on my podcast of last night's
pacifica Evening News. There are a lot of Latino immigrants in Suffolk County.
Whenever my son-in-law needs some cheap labor to help him complete a task at
home, like moving Melanie from her apartment into his house a few years ago, he
goes to one of the corners where people who need work, congregate, and makes a
deal with someone to come and work for him for a few hours. Suffolk County
still has some farms so I suppose that some people do labor on them. Remember
that Nassau and Suffolk Counties are where white New York city residents moved,
originally, to get away from poor people and people of color. However, there
are some longtime residents on Long Island, some very wealthy, some not at all
wealthy. Aside from the Quakers who've been in Westbury since 1620 and who
participated in the underground railroad, Long Islanders do not have a history
of welcoming strangers.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Saturday, July 29, 2017 11:43 AM
To: blind-democracy <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: General discussion list for ACB members and friends where a wide range of
topics from blindness to politics, issues of the day or whatever comes to mind
are welcome. This is a free form discussion list. <acb-chat@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] The Leader of the Pack Speaks
During a speech to law enforcement on July 28, President Trump said "please
don't be too nice" to suspects who are arrested. (The Washington Post)
On Friday, President Trump traveled to Long Island to address a group of law
enforcement officials and speak about the administration’s efforts to eradicate
the gang Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13. His speech stuck largely to that theme,
though he also made note of Thursday night’s failed health-care vote.
Trump’s speech was noteworthy, though, for its embrace of aggressive tactics by
police officers. He insisted that his team was “rough” and encouraged police
officers not to be concerned about preventing physical harm to people being
taken into custody. The laws, he said, were “stacked against”
the police.
“Please don’t be too nice,” Trump told the officers, to applause.
Below, his comments, as provided by the White House, with our highlights and
annotations.
text.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well, thank you very much. This is certainly being home for me. I spent a lot
of time right here. I was in Queens, so I’d come here, and this was like the
luxury location for me. And I love it. I love the people here.
Even coming in from the airport, I sat with Nikki Haley, who’s here someplace.
Where’s our Nikki? Ambassador Nikki Haley, who is so incredible. (Applause.)
And she’s seen crowds in her life, and she said, boy, those are really big
crowds.
Crowds of people all lining the streets, all the way over to here. And it’s
really a special place. And so when I heard about this, I said, I want to do
that one.
But I really wanted to do it not because of location, but because, as you know,
I am the big, big believer and admirer of the people in law enforcement, okay?
From day one. (Applause.) From day one. We love our police. We love our
sheriffs. And we love our ICE officers. And they have been working hard.
(Applause.) Thank you. They have been working hard.
Together, we’re going to restore safety to our streets and peace to our
communities, and we’re going to destroy the vile criminal cartel, MS-13, and
many other gangs. But MS-13 is particularly violent. They don’t like shooting
people because it’s too quick, it’s too fast. I was reading — one of these
animals was caught — in explaining, they like to knife them and cut them, and
let them die slowly because that way it’s more painful, and they enjoy watching
that much more. These are animals.
We’re joined today by police and sheriffs from Suffolk, Nassau, Dutchess and
Ulster counties; state police from New York and New Jersey — many of you I
know, great friends; Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers; and law
enforcement personnel from a number of federal agencies. So we’re loaded up
with great people — that’s what I call it.
And I want to just tell you all together, right now, the reason I came — this
is the most important sentence to me: On behalf of the American people, I want
to say, thank you. Thank you very much. (Applause.) Thank you.
And I don’t think you know how much the public respects and admires you. You’re
saving American lives every day, and we have your backs — believe me — we have
your backs 100 percent. Not like the old days. Not like the old days.
(Applause.)
You know, when you wanted to take over and you used military equipment — and
they were saying you couldn’t do it — you know what I said? That was my first
day: You can do it. (Laughter.) In fact, that stuff is disappearing so fast we
have none left. (Laughter.) You guys know — you really knew how to get that.
But that’s my honor. And I tell you what — it’s being put to good use.
I especially want to thank ICE Director Tom Homan, who has done an incredible
job in just a short period of time. Tom, get up here. I know you just —
(applause) — Tom is determined to rid our nation of cartels and criminals who
are preying on our citizens. And I can only say to Tom: Keep up the great work.
He’s a tough guy. He’s a tough cookie. Somebody said the other day, they saw
him on television, and somebody — they were interviewed after that; they said,
he looks very nasty, he looks very mean. I said, that’s what I’m looking for.
(Laughter.) That’s exactly what I was looking for.
And for that, I want to congratulate John Kelly, who has done an incredible job
of Secretary of Homeland Security. Incredible.
(Applause.) One of our real
stars. Truly, one of our stars. John Kelly is one of our great stars.
You know, the border is down 78 percent. Under past administrations, the border
didn’t go down — it went up. But if it went down 1 percent, it was like this
was a great thing. Down 78 percent. And, in fact, the southern border of
Mexico, we did them a big favor — believe me. They get very little traffic in
there anymore, because they know they’re not going to get through the border to
the United States.
So that whole group has been incredible, led by General Kelly.
Let me also express our gratitude to the members of the New York Delegation
here today: Congressman Chris Collins. Where’s Chris? Oh, Chris, right from the
beginning he said, “Trump is going to win. Trump is going to win.”
So I like him. (Laughter.) I didn’t like him that much before; now I love him.
(Laughter and applause.) Dan Donovan — thanks, Dan. (Applause.) Thank you, Dan.
And Lee Zeldin, who I supported right from the beginning, when they said he
didn’t have a chance of beating a pretty popular incumbent. (Applause.)
And I saw him in a debate. I said, I think this guy is going to win.
But he fought a pretty popular guy, and I said, I think he’s going to win and
went heavy for him, and he won. And he won pretty easily, didn’t you?
Pretty good. I’m proud of you. Great job.
And, of course, a legend, somebody that we all know very well, sort of my
neighbor — because I consider him a neighbor — but he’s really a great and
highly respected man in Washington, Congressman Peter King. (Applause.) Very
respected guy. He is a respected man that people like to ask opinions of. I do.
Congressman King and his colleagues know the terrible pain and violence MS-13
has inflicted upon this community — and this country.
And if you remember
just a little more than two years ago, when I came down the escalator with
Melania, and I made the speech — people coming into this country.
Everyone said,
what does he know? What’s he talking about?
And there was bedlam. Remember bedlam? And then about two months later, they
said, you know, he’s right. So I’m honored to have brought it to everybody’s
attention. But the suffering and the pain that we were going through — and now
you can look at the numbers — it’s a whole different world.
And it will get better and better and better because we’ve been able to start
nipping it in the bud. We’ve nipped it in the bud — let’s call it start nipping
in the bud.
And MS-13, the cartel, has spread gruesome bloodshed throughout the United
States. We’ve gotten a lot of them out of here. Big, big percentage. But the
rest are coming — they’ll be out of here quickly, right? Quickly.
Good. (Applause.)
So I asked Tom on the plane — he was never on Air Force One — I said, how do
you like it? He said, I like it. (Laughter.) But I said, hey, Tom, let me ask
you a question — how tough are these guys, MS-13? He said, they’re nothing
compared to my guys. Nothing. And that’s what you need.
Sometimes that’s
what you need, right?
For many years, they exploited America’s weak borders and lax immigration
enforcement to bring drugs and violence to cities and towns all across America.
They’re there right now because of weak political leadership, weak leadership,
weak policing, and in many cases because the police weren’t allowed to do their
job. I’ve met police that are great police that aren’t allowed to do their job
because they have a pathetic mayor or a mayor doesn’t know what’s going on.
(Applause.)
Were you applauding for someone in particular? (Laughter.) It’s sad.
It’s sad. You look at what’s happening, it’s sad.
But hopefully — certainly in the country, those days are over. You may have a
little bit longer to wait.
But from now on, we’re going to enforce our laws, protect our borders, and
support our police like our police have never been supported before. We’re
going to support you like you’ve never been supported before. (Applause.)
Few communities have suffered worse at the hands of these MS-13 thugs than the
people of Long Island. Hard to believe. I grew up on Long Island. I didn’t know
about this. I didn’t know about this. And then all of a sudden, this is like a
new phenomenon. Our hearts and our nation grieve for the victims and their
families.
Since January ‘16 — think of this — MS-13 gang members have brutally murdered
17 beautiful, young lives in this area on Long Island alone.
Think of it.
They butcher those little girls. They kidnap, they extort, they rape and they
rob. They prey on children. They shouldn’t be here. They stomp on their victims.
They beat them with clubs. They slash them with machetes, and they stab them
with knives. They have transformed peaceful parks and beautiful, quiet
neighborhoods into bloodstained killing fields. They’re animals.
We cannot tolerate as a society the spilling of innocent, young, wonderful,
vibrant people — sons and daughters, even husbands and wives. We cannot accept
this violence one day more. Can’t do it, and we’re not going to do it.
Because of you, we’re not going to be able to do it. You’re not going to allow
it to happen, and we’re backing you up 100 percent. Remember that — 100
percent. (Applause.)
It is the policy of this administration to dismantle, decimate and eradicate
MS-13 at every other — and I have to say, MS-13, that’s a name; rough groups —
that’s fine. We got a lot of others. And they were all let in here over a
relatively short period of time. Not during my period of time, believe me.
But we’re getting them out. They’re going to jails, and then they’re going back
to their country. Or they’re going back to their country, period.
One by one, we’re liberating our American towns. Can you believe that I’m
saying that? I’m talking about liberating our towns. This is like I’d see in a
movie: They’re liberating the town, like in the old Wild West, right? We’re
liberating our towns. I never thought I’d be standing up here talking about
liberating the towns on Long Island where I grew up, but that’s what you’re
doing.
And I can tell you, I saw some photos where Tom’s guys — rough guys.
They’re rough. I don’t want to be — say it because they’ll say that’s not
politically correct. You’re not allowed to have rough people doing this kind of
work. We have to get — just like they don’t want to have rich people at the
head of Treasury, okay? (Laughter.) Like, I want a rich guy at the head of
Treasury, right? Right? (Applause.)
I want a rich guy at the head of Commerce. Because we’ve been screwed so badly
on trade deals, I want people that made a lot of money now to make a lot of
money for our country.
And, by the way, as I was walking up, they just gave me the numbers.
Our numbers just came out this morning. GDP is up double from what it was in
the first quarter. (Applause.) 2.6 percent. We’re doing well. We’re doing
really well. And we took off all those restrictions. And some we’re statutorily
stuck with a for a little while, but eventually that statute comes up, and
we’re going to be able to cut a lot more. But we’ve sort of liberated the world
of creating jobs like you’re liberating us and the people that live in areas.
But I have to say, one by one, we are indeed freeing up these great American
towns and cities that are under siege from gang violence.
Look at Los Angeles. Look at what’s going on in Los Angeles. Look at Chicago.
What is going on? Is anybody here from Chicago? We have to send some of you to
Chicago, I think. (Laughter.) What’s going on?
I mean, you see what’s happening there? There’s no — do we agree? Is there
something maybe — (applause) — is there something — I have to tell you one
Chicago story.
So Chicago is having this unbelievable violence; people being killed — four,
five, six in a weekend. And I’m saying, what is going on?
And when I was running, we had motorcycle brigades take us to the planes and
stuff. And one of the guys, really good — you could see a really respected
officer, police officer. He was at the head. He was the boss. And you could see
he was the boss. He actually talked like the boss. “Come on, get lined up.”
Because I’d always take pictures with the police because I did that. My guys
said, don’t do it. Don’t do it. (Applause.)
Other candidates didn’t do it that I was beating by 40 points, can you believe
it? But I did it. Maybe that’s why I was winning by 40 points.
But other
candidates wouldn’t do it, but I always took the pictures with the police.
But we’re in Chicago, and we had massive motorcycle bridges, and you know those
people have to volunteer. I don’t know if you know that, but from what I
understand, they have to volunteer. And I had the biggest brigades.
I had brigades sometimes with almost 300 motorcycles. Even I was impressed. I’d
look ahead and it was nothing but motorcycles because they’d volunteer from all
over various states.
But this one guy was impressive. He was a rough cookie and really respected
guy. I could see he was respected. And he said, “All right, come on, get over
here. Get over here. He’s got to get to work. Get over here.” And I said, “So
let me tell — you’re from Chicago?” “Yes, sir.” I said, “What the hell is going
on?” And he said, “It’s a problem; it can be straightened out.”
I said, “How long would it take you to straighten out this problem?”
He said, “If
you gave me the authority, a couple of days.” (Laughter.) I really mean it. I
said, “You really think so?” He said, “A couple of days. We know all the bad
ones. We know them all.” And he said, the officers — you guys, you know all the
bad ones in your area. You know them by their names. He said, “We know them
all. A couple of days.”
I said, “You got to be kidding.” Now, this is a year and a half ago. I said,
“Give me your card.” And he gave me a card. And I sent it to the mayor. I said,
“You ought to try using this guy.” (Laughter.)
Guess what happened? Never heard. And last week they had another record. It’s
horrible.
But we’re just getting started. We will restore law and order on Long Island.
We’ll bring back justice to the United States. I’m very happy to have gotten a
great, great Justice of the United States Supreme Court, not only nominated,
but approved. And, by the way, your Second Amendment is safe. (Applause.) Your
Second Amendment is safe. I feel very good about that. It wasn’t looking so
good for the Second Amendment, was it, huh? If Trump doesn’t win, your Second
Amendment is gone. Your Second Amendment would be gone.
But I have a simple message today for every gang member and criminal alien that
are threatening so violently our people: We will find you, we will arrest you,
we will jail you, and we will deport you. (Applause.)
And, you know, we had some problems with certain countries. Still do with a
couple, but we’ll take care of them — don’t worry about it.
Anytime we have
a trade deficit, it’s very easy — which is almost everywhere. We have trade
deficits with almost every country because we had a lot of really bad
negotiators making deals with other countries. So it’s almost everywhere, so
that takes care of itself.
But we had certain countries in South America where they wouldn’t take the
people back. And I said, that’s okay, no more trade. All of a sudden they
started taking their people back. It’s amazing, isn’t it? They used to send to
the former Secretary of State of the country, “Please call. Would you please
work it so that we can take” — and they used to just tell her, “No, we won’t
take back.” They take back with us, every single time. We’re having very little
problem. Are we having any problem right now with that? Huh? You better believe
it. Give me the names of the few problems. We’ll take care of it, I’m telling
you. (Laughter and applause.) It’s unbelievable.
One of the old people — one of the people that represented the other
administration — I said, why didn’t you use that, the power of economics? “Sir,
we think one thing has nothing to do with another.” I said, oh, really?
So we’ll have big deficits and they won’t take back these criminals that came
from there and should be back there? Well, believe me, to me, everything
matters. But they’re all taking them back.
ICE officers recently conducted the largest crackdown on criminal gangs in the
history of our country. In just six weeks, ICE and our law enforcement partners
arrested nearly 1,400 suspects and seized more than 200 illegal firearms and
some beauties, and nearly 600 pounds of narcotics.
The men and women of ICE are turning the tide in the battle against MS-13. But
we need more resources from Congress — and we’re getting them. Congress is
actually opening up and really doing a job. They should have approved
healthcare last night, but you can’t have everything. Boy, oh, boy. They’ve
been working on that one for seven years. Can you believe that? The swamp.
But we’ll get it done. We’re going to get it done.
You know, I said from the beginning: Let Obamacare implode, and then do it. I
turned out to be right. Let Obamacare implode. (Applause.)
Right now, we have less than 6,000 Enforcement and Removal Officers in ICE.
This is not enough to protect a nation of more than 320 million people. It’s
essential that Congress fund another 10,000 ICE officers — and we’re asking for
that — so that we can eliminate MS-13 and root out the criminal cartels from
our country.
Now, we’re getting them out anyway, but we’d like to get them out a lot faster.
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. (Laughter.) 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, okay? (Laughter and applause.)
It’s essential that Congress fund hundreds more federal immigration judges and
prosecutors — and we need them quickly, quickly — if we’re going to dismantle
these deadly networks. And I have to tell you, you know, the laws are so
horrendously stacked against us, because for years and years they’ve been made
to protect the criminal. Totally made to protect the criminal, not the
officers. If you do something wrong, you’re in more jeopardy than they are.
These laws are stacked against you. We’re changing those laws. But in the
meantime, we need judges for the simplest thing — things that you should be
able to do without a judge. But we have to have those judges quickly. In the
meantime, we’re trying to change the laws.
We’re also working with Chairman Bob Goodlatte on a series of enforcement
measures — and he’s a terrific guy — to keep our country safe from crime and
terrorism — and in particular, radical Islamic terrorism. (Applause.) A term
never uttered by the past administration. Never uttered. Did anybody ever hear
that term? I don’t think so.
But you heard it from me.
That includes cracking down on sanctuary cities that defy federal law, shield
visa overstays, and that release dangerous criminals back into the United
States’ communities. That’s what’s happening. They’re releasing them.
So many deaths where they release somebody back into the community, and they
know it’s going to end that way. That’s the sad — they know it’s going to end
that way. We’re ending those procedures. (Applause.) Thank you.
We have to secure — I spoke to parents, incredible parents. I got to know so
many parents of children that were so horribly killed — burned to death, beaten
to death, just the worst kind of death you can ever — stuffed in barrels. And
the person that did it was released, and you’d look at the file, and there were
letter after letter after letter of people begging not to let this animal back
into society; that this would happen, it would happen quickly. It wasn’t even
like it would happen over a long period of time. They were saying it would
happen quickly. It’s total violence. He’s a totally violent person. You cannot
let this person out.
They let the person out, and sometimes it would happen like on the first day.
And then you have to talk to the parents and hold the parents and hug them.
And they’re crying so — I mean crying. Their lives are destroyed. And nobody
thinks about those people. They don’t think about those people.
They’re devastated.
But we’re ending so much of that. We’re ending hopefully all of that.
The laws are tough. The laws are stacked against us, but we’re ending that.
(Applause.)
So we’re going to secure our borders against illegal entry, and we will build
the wall. That I can tell you. (Applause.)
In fact, last night — you don’t read about this too much, but it was approved —
$1.6 billion for the phase one of the wall, which is not only design but the
start of construction over a period of about two years, but the start of
construction for a great border wall. And we’re going to build it. The Wall is
a vital, and vital as a tool, for ending the humanitarian disaster brought —
and really brought on by drug smugglers and new words that we haven’t heard too
much of — human traffickers.
This is a term that’s been going on from the beginning of time, and they say
it’s worse now than it ever was. You go back a thousand years where you think
of human trafficking, you go back 500 years, 200 years, 100 years.
Human trafficking they say — think of it, but they do — human trafficking is
worse now maybe than it’s ever been in the history of this world.
We need a wall. We also need it, though, for the drugs, because the drugs
aren’t going through walls very easily — especially the walls that I build. I’m
a very good builder. You people know that better than most because you live in
the area. That’s why I’m here. (Applause.) We’ll build a good wall.
Now, we’re going to build a real wall. We’re going to build a wall that works,
and it’s going to have a huge impact on the inflow of drugs coming across.
The wall is almost — that could be one of the main reasons you have to have it.
It’s an additional tool to stop the inflow of drugs into our country.
The previous administration enacted an open-door policy to illegal migrants
from Central America. “Welcome in. Come in, please, please.”
As a result, MS-13 surged into the country and scoured, and just absolutely
destroyed, so much in front of it. New arrivals came in and they were all made
recruits of each other, and they fought with each other, and then they fought
outside of each other. And it got worse and worse, and we’ve turned that back.
In the three years before I took office, more than 150,000 unaccompanied alien
minors arrived at the border and were released all throughout our country into
United States’ communities — at a tremendous monetary cost to local taxpayers
and also a great cost to life and safety.
Nearly 4,000 from this wave were released into Suffolk County — congratulations
— including seven who are now indicted for murder. You know about that.
In Washington, D.C. region, at least 42 alien minors from the border surge have
been recently implicated in MS-13-related violence, including 19 charged in
killings or attempted killings.
You say, what happened to the old days where people came into this country,
they worked and they worked and they worked, and they had families, and they
paid taxes, and they did all sorts of things, and their families got stronger,
and they were closely knit? We don’t see that.
Failure to enforce our immigration laws had predictable results:
drugs, gangs and violence. But that’s all changing now.
Under the Trump administration, America is once more a nation of laws and once
again a nation that stands up for our law enforcement officers. (Applause.)