It is really disconcerting to see the show of force by Long Island law enforcement in support of Trump’s election to the presidency in light of his plans to use local police to round up and immediately deport 11 million undocumented individuals and to quell protest. Presumably any person of color could be rounded up and required to produce papers on the spot.
It is especially concerning since Nassau County police are now authorized to use their discretion (intuition) to stop, interrogate, detain and arrest anyone wearing a mask in public, along with the Nassau County executive’s formation of an armed private militia he can call up at will. This is particularly disturbing in light of County Police Commissioner’s Patrick Ryder’s statement that he expects Election 2024 to be the most violent in living memory.
Here’s what Lou Civello, president of the Suffolk County Police Benevolent Association, said at the New York State Conservative Party’s confab on Long Island, just before handing a printed promise to endorse Trump to Congressman Jim Jordan: “Back the Blue? Paint this town Red. This is a critical election- we’re not political, partisan. We are about public safety.”
But then he continued, “You can’t go to Manhattan without fearing for being killed or your wife raped. Border. Fentanyl. We need rational policy – legal immigration – but open border is disaster.. Every place the Radical Left [controls] – Denver, LA – there are homeless, drug addicts, apocalypse. That’s not what we want for Long Island. … Get out there and vote. It is the difference between keeping Long Island the way it is and bringing New York State back to sanity and preventing four more years of leftist radical rule.”
He recalled when Suffolk was facing “the scourge of MS13” from the South American criminal operation, Trump traveled to Brentwood, and “standing shoulder to shoulder” called for the death penalty for cop killers. “That’s the real leadership we need back in the White House. We’re going to knock doors, do all we can to make sure Trump is 47th president of U.S.”
The New York Times just reported Trump’s plans to use American troops to quash protests that Trump opposes – we’ve already seen that him do that in Portland, Ore., and call out the National Guard in Washington, D.C., over a modest Black Lives Matter protest, but made sure they stayed away from protecting the Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection (Magnetometers? “They’re not coming for me.”) Now recall that the largest protest in U.S. history, the Women’s March, took place on Jan. 21, 2017, the day after his inauguration where Trump laid out his vision for American carnage (his term ended with the George Floyd riots and hundreds of thousands dying of COVID-19). Election 2024 is being called Roevember, for bringing out women to reclaim their reproductive freedom.
Trump’s former Defense Secretary, Mark Esper, and the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley both confirmed that Trump wanted to use American troops against American protesters in American cities, in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, which bars federal troops from participating in civilian law enforcement except when expressly authorized by law. (Deploying on U.S. Soil: How Trump Would Use Soldiers Against Riots, Crime and Migrants)
Trump also proposed the troops shoot migrants and protesters and even expressed delight when law enforcement officers who had been deputized as U.S. Marshals killed antifada protester Michael Reinoehl, suspected of murdering a rightwing protester possibly in self-defense, instead of arresting him.
“We sent in the U.S. Marshals. It took 15 minutes (and) it was over,” Trump gleefully declared during a campaign rally in North Carolina in 2020, adding that authorities had no intention of ever taking Reinoehl alive, CNN reported. “They knew who he was; they didn’t want to arrest him, and in 15 minutes that ended.”
This is in such contrast to the hero status afforded Kyle Rittenhouse after the underage teen murdered two Black Lives Matter protesters and injured a third in Kenosha, Wis., and the Texas man found guilty of murdering a man pushing a wheelchair at a Black Lives protest, who Gov. Greg Abbott immediately pardoned.
In his first term in office, Mr. Trump was thwarted in realizing his expansive vision of using troops to enforce the law on U.S. soil. “But as he has sought a return to power, he has made clear that he intends to use the military for a range of domestic law enforcement purposes, including patrolling the border, suppressing protests that he deems to have turned into riots and even fighting crime in big cities run by Democrats,” the New York Times said.
Trump has vowed to unilaterally to use federal forces to “get crime out of our cities,” specifically naming New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco as “crime dens” that he pointedly noted were run by Democrats.
But unlike the ineptitude and the personnel who served as “guardrails” of his first term, more ominously Trump already has his workabee allies (former aides) from the Heritage Foundation and Center for Renewing America (run by Russell Vought, Trump’s White House budget chief), prepare the executive orders to effectively transform government within the first 100 days.
This includes declaring the powers of the Insurrection Act on Day 1 ”easy” to nullify the Posse Comitatus Act following the pattern of the tyrants and dictators Trump admires most – Putin, Xi, Kim Jong Un, Orban, Duerte – and, no doubt, taking notes from Venezuela’s Maduro who refuses to concede his election loss.
It is naïve to believe lawsuits that would be mounted by the ACLU and others would have any impact, even if they would come up after years of litigation to his Imperial Supremes Court. Even in the unlikely case they would overrule Trump, his VP, J.D.Vance, said, “And when the courts stop you, stand before the country, and say [as Andrew Jackson said about the Indian Removal Act] “’the chief justice has made his ruling. Now let him enforce it’.”
“Every American should be horrified by Donald Trump’s plan to use American troops against Americans protesting on U.S. soil. It is beyond the pale. It goes against everything we stand for as a country,” said Harris-Walz 2024 spokeswoman Sarafina Chitika.
“Trump has told us who he is and what he stands for: He called to ‘terminate’ the Constitution. He fantasizes about using the military against protesters. He dreams of ruling as a dictator on ‘day one.’ The American people will reject his divisive vision this November.”
