Yet they were still there, supporting Trump’s words. Not just in the literal sense. The campaign stop in Grand Rapids also included an announcement that an effort to reinstate the former president to his post has the backing of the Michigan Police Officers Association.
It is by no means an unusual occurrence for a police organization to support a political candidate. Police unions often endorse candidates. Indeed, given the respect accorded law enforcement officers among the general public, such support has historically been eagerly sought after. But President Trump’s efforts to co-opt law enforcement are different, occurring at different times, and provoking different reactions.
But most importantly, Trump is not your typical candidate. He has promised to deploy law enforcement against his political opponents and has repeatedly called for police to deal more harshly with demonstrators with whom he disagrees. This makes it even more difficult for police to agree to his approach.
Trump’s victory in the 2016 Republican primary was a result of his focus on immigration issues. He also carefully tapped into the Republican backlash against the Black Lives Matter movement, which gained public attention the previous year. The movement, which focused on the killings of Black Americans by police, sparked a debate about systemic racism in law enforcement, especially in government agencies. It also sparked a rallying effect in which “Blue Lives Matter,” or police lives, emerged as a rhetorical rebuttal to “Black Lives Matter.” The flag with a thin blue line has become a totem of the political right.
President Trump was asked about the mass shooting that occurred in July 2015, shortly after announcing his candidacy, and he claimed to be a “huge fan of the police.”
“I think we have to give power back to the police,” he told CNN’s Anderson Cooper. He used the same words in 1989 when he bought a full-page ad calling for New York state to reinstate the death penalty after a group of teenagers were arrested in Central Park and charged with assaulting a woman. I was using it. The teens were later acquitted, but President Trump refused to acknowledge that fact during the 2016 campaign.
As a candidate and president, Trump regularly engaged with and praised police officers. A group of police officers in Texas were disciplined for wearing “Make America Great Again” hats on the job during the 2016 election campaign. During his first summer in office, he spoke to several police officers at an event on Long Island.
“When you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a rice cart, you just see them being thrown in roughly. I said, don’t be too nice.” He said. The officers behind him laughed.
President Trump visited Long Island again last week to attend a vigil for police officers killed in the line of duty. He was warmly received, but that didn’t seem to be the case during a subsequent visit by New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D).
He described the visit in a radio interview Thursday.
“We had 11,000 police officers there, and I think over the course of that weekend we had 50,000 or 60,000 police officers from not only New York but all over the country,” Trump said. “My wife is a wonderful woman. I talked to her for a long time. We stood on the casket together. And they really appreciated what I did for the police. They I didn’t appreciate others, I can tell you that.”
Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (RN.Y.), a former New York City police officer like the slain officer, shared images from the memorial service.
“Please don’t ever cross us,” he wrote.
This kind of sentiment is where politics and policing have a difficult overlap.
Immediately after the 2020 election, an analysis of campaign contributions found a sharp increase in the percentage of contributions from law enforcement personnel to Republican candidates and committees. This is also due to the introduction of WinRed, a tool to better track small donations to candidates.
Perhaps it is also due to the rise in partisan polarization, especially around the police, following the emergence of Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter responses. In 2014, a Gallup poll found a 17-point difference between Democrats and Republicans when asked how much they trusted police. By 2020, when Trump was running for re-election and the Black Lives Matter movement was resurgent, that gap had grown to 54 points.
Since 2020, the gap has narrowed again, in part due to a 20-point drop in Republican trust in police.
A natural question that arises is how partisan police officers are. A study published in June examined this question by comparing personnel data for 250,000 employees at 98 law enforcement agencies with L2’s voter registration data.
Overall, the researchers, who are faculty members at schools such as Duke University, Princeton University, and the University of Rochester, found that political party identities were fairly evenly distributed (identities modeled where there was no party registration). including). However, there is a catch. These were employees who worked in most of the largest institutions in the country, generally meaning large cities.
“[R]The researchers found that “police officers are not only more likely to identify with the Republican Party than civilians in their jurisdictions, they are also more likely to have higher household incomes, vote more frequently, and be white.” writes.
The report’s graphs show the chasm. The black dots indicate the density of Republicans within the police force (with range of uncertainty), and the gray stars indicate the density of Republicans among the jurisdiction’s population.
Additionally, officers often lived in locations different from the communities in which they served.
“Officials tend to have a higher percentage of Republicans in their home states (+9 [percentage points]) and white residents (+13 points),” the report shows. “…Similarly, police officers tend to live in areas with lower proportions of Black (-7%) and Hispanic (-5%) residents than the overall jurisdiction average.”
Most of the police officers standing behind President Trump during his speech in Michigan were white men. So did the association’s president, James Tignanelli, who voiced his support. His support wasn’t just about President Trump’s support for law enforcement.
“We cannot have a president in the United States who allows three million people a year — or more — to enter our country illegally,” Tignanelli said in his endorsement. “We cannot allow this to continue.”
This is incorrect. Many migrants have been stopped at the border in recent years, many of whom have since been detained or deported. Many others have been allowed to remain in the country until their asylum claims are adjudicated.
Again, this rhetoric comes not from state legislators who have voiced support, but from the top of police agencies. This was offered to support candidates who are actively trying to portray their support for police as partisan, yet touting their support from law enforcement. (Not to mention, he supports a candidate who has been indicted four times, including once for inciting the attack on the U.S. Capitol and injuring multiple police officers.)
Differences in partisan identity between police officers and non-police officers do not matter. Their service is overwhelmingly independent of politics (although the research cited above suggests that partisanship is correlated with how police officers approach their jobs). But if police are seen as allied with President Trump and the political right—a perception encouraged by President Trump and sometimes embraced by police officers and their allies in response to criticism—then The damage to public trust could be severe. A Gallup poll shows some damage has already been done.
Then there’s the question of how law enforcement will respond if Trump regains the presidency. We have already seen examples of members of law enforcement using their authority to support extreme political movements or collaborate with non-military groups. Police were assaulted during the pro-Trump riot at the Capitol, some of whom joined the mob.
This is a time when police are under particularly intense scrutiny. It is in President Trump’s interest to foster a sense of conflict among police officers, as well as other groups.
It is also a moment when even the perception of partisan cooperation is in jeopardy.
