President Donald J. Trump addresses his remarks at the tree planting ceremony in honor of Earth and Arbor Day Wednesday, April 22, 2020, on the South Lawn of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Andrea Hanks)
The Wall Street Journal’s Catherine Lucey and Andrew Restuccia report:
President Trump pushed governors to get tough on violent protesters in cities around the U.S. in a conference call Monday, saying, “most of you are weak.”
As always, the President can be rude and direct, but no doubt he was speaking for many of the governors’ constituents when he urged a vigorous effort to ensure public safety.
According to the Journal report:
Send in Law Enforcement to Dominate
Speaking to governors on a teleconference Monday, the president said what was happening in New York City was “terrible” and added it was important for governors to send law enforcement in to “dominate” in this moment, according to a recording of the roughly one-hour-long call reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
You have to dominate. If you don’t dominate you’re wasting your time. You’re going to look like a bunch of jerks. You have to arrest people. And you have to try people and they have to go to jail for long periods of time. …
You don’t have to be too careful. Someone throwing a rock is like shooting a gun. You have to do retribution. You have to use your legal system. If you want this to stop, you have to prosecute people.
Defend Lives, Property of Citizens
Retribution is not the right term for lawful prosecution, writes James Freeman in the WSJ. And throwing a rock is not exactly like shooting a gun, continues Mr. Freeman, opining on the President’s remarks.
But if the President in his odd way can motivate state and local officials to appropriately defend the lives and property of their citizens, he will have done a public service.
Anarchist Groups Transport Gasoline, Rocks, Bottles
The New York Times cites New York Police Department official John Miller saying that anarchist groups had used encrypted messaging apps to raise bail money and recruit medics before violently clashing with police.
James Freeman Reports from the NYT:
The groups also developed supply routes to transport gasoline, rocks and bottles during the protests. A complex network of bicycle scouts were tasked with moving ahead of the demonstrators to let them know where small groups could break off to do damage out of sight of the police, he added…
Among the 786 people who have been arrested during the demonstrations so far were bicyclists transporting gasoline and people whose backpacks contained hammers, hooks and ropes.
One out of every seven people arrested lived outside of New York, including from as far away as Texas and Minnesota.
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