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Trump has largely overlooked racial wounds caused by the use of police force and downplayed the more than 180,000 deaths in the United States from the coronavirus pandemic.
FILE: US President Donald Trump listens during a meeting on the Governors Initiative on Regulatory Innovation in the Cabinet Room of the White House on December 16, 2019 in Washington, DC. Image: AFP
KENOSHA – President Donald Trump defied requests to stay away and visited Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Tuesday, not to urge racial healing after a white officer shot a black man in the back, but to express support for the forces of order in a city shaken by civil unrest.
With the United States polarized by issues of racial injustice and police use of force, Trump is appealing to his white supporter base with a message of “law and order” as opinion polls show him cutting off his lead. Democratic rival, the former vice president. Joe Biden.
Meanwhile, Trump has largely overlooked the racial injuries caused by the use of police force and has downplayed the more than 180,000 deaths in the United States from the coronavirus pandemic.
The Republican president also threatened to send more federal officials to cities run by Democratic mayors, even if local officials objected, saying, “At some point … we will have to do it ourselves.”
Trump did not visit Jacob Blake, who was paralyzed from the waist down after a white police officer shot him in the back seven times on August 23. He also did not meet Blake’s family, but he did meet his mother’s shepherds.
Instead, he vowed to rebuild Kenosha and provide more federal spending to Wisconsin, a political battleground state that Trump narrowly won in 2016 and that he urgently needs to keep in his column as he seeks reelection on Nov. 3.
His electoral opponent, Biden, has accused Trump of stoking the violence with his rhetoric. Biden’s campaign on Tuesday took advantage of Trump’s trip to Kenosha as he accused his administration of viewing “violence as a winning election strategy.”
The president visited a burned furniture store that was destroyed by the riots and then a makeshift command center to praise the National Guard troops who were called in to reinforce the local police after several nights of peaceful protests gave way to looting, burning and shooting.
“These are not acts of peaceful protest, but internal terror,” Trump told local business leaders in a high school gym.
Peaceful protesters have complained that violent, often white, agitators have hijacked their protests with property damage. But many have also harshly criticized the police, saying the United States needs to completely rethink its law enforcement practices.
“To stop political violence, we must also confront radical ideology. … We have to condemn the dangerous anti-police rhetoric, “Trump said, adding that without his help Kenosha would have been” burned to the ground. “
CALL TO ‘CHANGE HEARTS’
The visit was not completely free of empathy. While Trump sidestepped questions about systemic racism and trouble in the police, he said he felt “terribly for anyone who goes through it,” referring to the police shooting, and that he had the honor of meeting with the patrons of the mother of Blake. the only two blacks at Trump’s round table.
Pastor James Ward called for greater efforts to “change people’s hearts” and bring healing and peace to the community, while his wife and co-pastor Sharon Ward said, “I think it is important to have black people at the table to help to solve the problem. “
The Democratic governor of the state and the Democratic mayor of the city urged Trump not to visit him to avoid escalating tensions and allow citizens to recover. But when it was introduced, the president pledged $ 1 million in federal support to Kenosha law enforcement, $ 4 million to small businesses, and $ 42 million to public safety statewide, contrasting that with leftist calls for ” defund the police. “
Much of the country has joined in civil rights since George Floyd, a black man, died on May 25 after a white police officer knelt on his neck. The country was considering that case when Blake was shot while getting into his car on August 23.
Kenosha has become one of the cities of conflict where anti-racist protesters have clashed with Trump supporters who have converged on protest sites, sometimes openly carrying weapons while vowing to protect property from looters.
A 17-year-old Trump supporter was charged with killing two people and wounding another with a semi-automatic rifle in Kenosha. Trump defended the white teenager, who faces six criminal charges, and refused to condemn the violence by his supporters.
But in Portland, Oregon, the site of three months of late-night protests that have often turned violent, a Trump supporter was shot to death on Saturday and the president lamented that “a man was executed on the street.”
The president took credit for restoring peace to Kenosha since reinforcements were sent from the National Guard and federal law enforcement agencies. Although Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers summoned more National Guard troops at his own expense, Trump dispatched about 200 federal law enforcement officers.
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