President Donald Trump’s tough-on-crime speech to Long Island police officers Friday afternoon was met by a stiff rejection from Gainesville Police.
Within hours, GPD took to social media to address residents directly.
“The President’s remarks today have set modern policing back and erased a lot of the strides we have made to build trust in our community,” the department wrote in a Facebook post.
On Friday, Trump traveled to Long Island, New York, to speak to law enforcement about his administration’s efforts to fight internationally prominent gang MS-13, according to The Washington Post.
During the speech, Trump told police how he felt they should treat suspects and arrestees.
“Please don’t be too nice,” Trump said.
Trump told the officers that during arrests, when they place suspects into the back of their patrol cars, they shouldn’t rest their hand on the arrestees’ heads to keep them from slamming into the vehicle
“Like when you guys put somebody in the car and you’re protecting their head, you know, the way you put their hand over?” Trump said. “I said, you can take the hand away, okay?
Though Trump’s remarks were met by laughter and applause from some officers in the audience, GPD’s comments were stern
“The President of the United States has no business endorsing or condoning cops being rough with arrestees and suggesting that we should slam their heads onto the car while putting them in,” GPD wrote
Within three hours of his speech, Suffolk County Police — the department serving in the area of New York where Trump spoke — took to Twitter and said it “will not tolerate” roughing up prisoners, in a similar fashion to GPD’s announcement later that night
As of press time, neither the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office nor University Police have made statements in response to the president’s speech
“(The) Gainesville Police Department will continue to treat everyone with respect, no matter the circumstances,” the department wrote. “It is truly an honor to serve this community.”
