Why Trump’s call for a ‘Purge’-style day of violence for police matters

But at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Sunday, former President Donald Trump effectively floated the idea as a good thing. Trump’s vision of “one rough hour” echoes his rhetoric about being “dictator for one day.” As he often has in the past, Trump complained at the rally that police are “not allowed to do their job” because of political pressure and that crime is rampant in President Joe Biden’s America as a result. And that’s when he proposed his “Purge”-esque solution: If police were allowed “one real rough, nasty” and “violent day,” he said, crime would be eliminated “immediately.” He was taken enough by the proposition that he returned to it later, saying, “One rough hour — and I mean real rough — the word will get out and it will end immediately, you know? It will end immediately.” A Trump campaign official told Politico afterward that he was “clearly just floating it in jest.” And Steven Cheung, the Trump campaign’s communications director, told Politico that Trump has “always been the law and order president and he continues to reiterate the importance of enforcing existing laws.” Let’s unpack a few things here. As I’ve written before, for the better part of a decade Trump has used a comic tone and “I’m just kidding” caveats to float trial balloons for his most extreme ideas. Even though Trump obviously wouldn’t have the authority as president to permit the police to indulge in a day of extreme violence, that he’s articulating the idea in public at all is still significant — and corrosive. In no context is it appropriate for a presidential candidate — much less a former or sitting president — to “joke” about law enforcement brutalizing the public, especially in a country plagued by police violence. Cheung’s attempt to frame Trump’s authoritarian remarks as a reflection of his commitment to “law and order” is preposterous. Trump is suggesting that police should be able to operate outside the constraints of the law to achieve the social goal of reducing crime; in other words, suspending regular law to achieve order. And the worldview underpinning Trump’s preferred social order is, of course, reactionary — it’s about protecting the powerful and dominating those who challenge them. Trump’s vision of “one rough hour” echoes his rhetoric about being “dictator for one day” to crack down on illegal immigration and drill for oil wherever he wants. Once you argue that you alone need an exception to the rule to govern, then you’re in effect arguing that you don’t believe in rules. If Trump wins the White House again, would he be able to pursue a special police “purge”? – This Summarize was created by Neural News AI (V1). Source: https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-purge-police-rough-violent-day-rcna173295