Donald J. Trump’s Law and Order Campaign Speech, delivered in West Bend, Wisconsin, August 16, 2016
Tonight, I am going to talk about how
to make our communities safe again
from crime and lawlessness
Let me begin by thanking
the law enforcement officers
Law and order
[™ George Wallace, ‘68]
must be restored
Crime and violence is an attack on the poor
The problem in our poorest communities
is that there are not enough police
Those peddling the narrative of cops as racist force
share directly in the responsibility
for the unrest in Milwaukee
[protests in progress over the killing
of Syville Smith, shot by Milwaukee officer
four days prior, layered over three other
killings in past five years (Derek Williams,
James Perry, Dontre Hamilton); layered over
suit against City settled January with seventy-four
Black men, victims of illegal and repeated body cavity
searches by police, formally described as sexual assaults]
Everytime we rush to judgment with false facts
whether in Ferguson or Baltimore
and foment unrest
we do a direct disservice
to poor African-American residents
hurt by high crime
in inner city communities
[64% of Black Americans live
in suburbs small towns rural areas]
How are we serving these American victims
by attacking law enforcement
War on police must end
I am asking for the vote of every African-American
struggling in our country
Democratic policies have produced
crime broken homes poverty Obama
I am going to give the people
my voice
Inner cities of America
here is what I am proposing
On trade, I am going
to renegotiate America
On taxes, I am going to give
a massive cut to companies
I am going to reform regulations
bring in wealth and curry favor
To every lawbreaker I say
your free reign come crashing
I am going to restore honor
I am going to enforce all laws
concerning the protection
of classified information
This is just the beginning
We will once again be
a country of law and order
[1953, Law and Order, film,
starring Ronald Reagan;
law and order, response
to 1963 Birmingham Movement
(in city King called most thoroughly
segregated city in the United States
in city known for white bombings
of Black churches, in state that
banned the NAACP)—whose actions
included libraries and eatery sit-ins
church kneel-ins, nonviolent protests
boycotts, thousands of children, six to
18 years, singing freedom songs, marching
like a flood from 16th Street Baptist
children who studied for jail stays, dogs
high-pressure hoses, which Connor’s forces
set against their bodies, transported to cells
by a Mobius strip of yellow buses
to protests in Milwaukee, 1958, when Officer
Thomas Grady shot unarmed Daniel Bellin
in the back after pulling him over for a broken
tail light, then planted a knife in his right hand
Last breath face down in the snow. 20 years later
his partner reported Grady planned to arrest some n___
At the inquest the city prevented Daniel Bell’s family
from testifying he was left-handed
response to protests over murder
by bomb, later that year, of four
girls in Sunday dress, pressed under
blown bricks of 16th Street Baptist;
response to civil unrest summers
sparked in Harlem 1964 with murder
of James Powell, 9th grader, by off-duty
Police Lieutenant Gilligan who shot
a 122 pound boy three times, said he had
a pocket knife, and 8,000 people rose against;
response to Milwaukee 1967 protest
after City Council shot down for the 4th time
Vel Phillips’ fair housing ordinance to outlaw
racial discrimination (as 90% of subdivisions
had restrictive covenants blocking sale or rent
to Black people, as city officials demolished
Black churches, businesses, gardens, homes
full communities, building behemoth highways
to suburbs they could not enter);
protest left three dead, 100 injured, 1,700 jailed;
response to Holy Week uprisings after
His ’68 assassination, 120 cities
across the U.S. lit with rending
response to resistance after FBI and Chicago PD
in ’69 murdered Fred Hampton in his sleep
fiancée 8 ½ months pregnant at his side, on
Hoover’s explicit orders to prevent
the rise of a “Black Messiah;”
response to 20 years protesting brutality
(’64-’84) under Chief Harold A. Breier
who condemned integration, directed unlawful
detainment, assault of Black people, including
in 1981, Earnest Lacy, as he walked to buy a snack
at the corner store, was detained and beaten
by three officers, denied medical treatment
left to die the back of the MPD van; who set up
surveillance of NAACP Youth Council
and Father Groppi, instructed officers to harass
arrest for the smallest infractions, jaywalking
response to protests of CPD
commander Jon Burge (‘72-‘91)
who tortured hundreds of Black
men (electric shock, suffocation
burning), eliciting false confessions
and response to protests against
his colleague, CPD Detective Zuley
who tortured (’77- ’02), eliciting
false confessions, then led “extended
interrogation techniques” at GTMO;
response to protests of continued
disproportionate killings of women
men queer people children of color
by police, response to each rising like
clockwork, in rhetoric and in artillery
of war, installed in anterior chambers
and streets of each city, bedrock
of party appeal:
law and order law and order]
_
Remarks on the NBC Radio Network: “A Commitment to Order,” Richard Nixon, March 7, 1968
Tonight I would like to talk with you
about the number one issue of 1968
We have been amply warned
we face the prospect
of war-making in our own
have seen the gathering hate
heard threats to burn and bomb and destroy
in Watts and Harlem and Detroit and Newark
have had a foretaste of what the organizers
of insurrection are planning
President’s National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders
cautions “in the summer of 1967, we have seen in our cities
a chain reaction of racial violence. If we are heedless
none of us shall escape the consequences”
We have lived for a generation
with the abrasive tension of war
threat of nuclear weapons
instabilities of a rapid dismantling
of colonial empire. Have fought
World War II, Korea, Vietnam
Are we to be divided forever into warring
And here at home to become two nations
one black, irrepressible
The peace we want in our cities
is not the peace of abdication of authority
Survey the prospects of our cities
Fire is licking at the window-sills
This is not a time for Pollyannas
The first responsibility of leadership
is to gain mastery
We should not for a moment underestimate
the threat to our safety
We should make clear to those who threaten
we have been learning the uses of power
First lesson
best time to display both power and the will to use it
is before trouble starts
Second lesson
force alone is not enough
Only if we can light hope in the ghetto
can we have peace in the ghetto
not on expectation of being given
on the chance to do
In the case of our threatened cities
1968 can see a cooler summer
Among responsible Negro leaders
there is resistance to the extremists
The great, quiet majority of America’s Negroes
live by the law, it was their neighborhoods
destroyed, their homes ravaged, their lives
made hostage to terror. Now Negro leadership
recognizes the only way to progress
is the peaceful way
It could be a cooler summer as
this is a Presidential election year
which provides a peaceful focus
But we can expect a cooler summer only
if we do two things
prepare to meet force with force
bring the American dream to the ghetto
The apostles of violence
are testing their doctrines
At home, it may masquerade
as “civil disobedience”
“freedom,” it sometimes marches
Abroad, violence calls itself
a “war of national liberation”
The war in Vietnam is not a war to end war
but a war to make a larger peace possible
If we are to achieve peace at home
we must make crystal clear
whether the cry comes from extremists
in the Black Power Movement or the New Left
the message is hate
These mounting threats of violence come
when there has never been
less cause for violence, less excuse for rebellion
Never have we been so close
to a just and abundant society
There are injustices
but also a massive popular will
to right those injustices
in a peaceful and orderly fashion
This points to a major deficiency
in the recent report of the President’s riot commission
The commission rightly pictured the task
in the cities’ slums as massive
But it would be a disservice
to suggest to the dwellers in those slums
that they need only wait for Federal housing
Federal jobs, a Federally guaranteed income
More than almost any of the great issues facing America today
the tortured problem of race requires
careful balance and a clear perspective
The riots shook the nation to awareness
of how deep were Negro resentments
That lesson has been learned
There can be no progress without order
no freedom without order, no justice without order
Our first commitment as a nation
must be a commitment to order
_
Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders; authored by Johnson-appointed Kerner Commission, comprised of Senators (2), Congressmen (2), Governor (IL), Mayor (NYC), Police Chief (ATL), founder of a defense contractor (Litton Industries), Executive Director of NAACP, Commissioner of Commerce (KY), President of United Steel Workers of America; released February 28, 1968
Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white
separate and unequal
Reaction to last summer’s disorders has deepened the division
Discrimination and segregation permeate American life
This deepening racial division is not inevitable. Choice is possible
To pursue our present course will involve destruction of basic democratic values
The alternative is not blind repression or capitulation to lawlessness
It is the realization of common opportunities within a single society
This alternative will require national action–compassionate, massive, sustained
backed by resources of the richest nation on earth
From every American it will require new attitudes, new understanding
and, if necessary, new taxes
Segregation and poverty have created in the racial ghetto an environment
unknown to most white Americans
What white Americans never fully understood but the Negro can never forget
is that white society is deeply implicated in the ghetto
White institutions created it, white institutions maintain it
white society condones it
[Chapters 1-17, omitted here, include detailed analysis, Recommendations for National Action, which King called physician’s warning of approaching death with a prescription for life, which still apply, and have not been]
One of the first witnesses invited to appear before this Commission
was Dr. Kenneth B. Clark, scholar. Referring to the reports
of earlier riot commissions:
I read report of 1919 riot in Chicago as if I were reading
the report on the Harlem riot of ’35, the report on the Harlem riot
of ’43, the report of the McCone Commission on the Watts riot.
I must again in candor say to you members of this Commission
it is a kind of Alice in Wonderland, the same moving picture re-shown
over and over again, the same analysis, same recommendations
the same inaction
One month after publication, King assassinated
After publication, Johnson defunds the commission
refuses to meet with commissioners
allows their terms to expire
_
Interview with All-Knowing Father
AKF: You may begin
Q: Why
A: Order. There are laws, divine and earthly, latter from the former
A: There are roles, to keep us to those laws, save us from drowning
A: The hierarchy of roles is intractable, natural, as follows: Lord
angels (and crystal spheres), select men, select women, children
to nine years, vagrants and degenerates, animals, earth
A: The laws are numerous, and the obedient do not need a spelling out
Broadly, as I am good natured in instruction: obey bodies
above you, as they are closer to divine in intellect and morality
depending on your place in hierarchy, make yourself smaller
or take up more space; perceive and treat others as their station
A: I would like to see deregulation of my hand
so I may more strongly guide
Q: Why
A: Without order we are mortal, skittering ground. We remake the Kingdom
A: Punishment is sacred. The charge of emissary courses. Binaries sacred
They uphold the ladder. Deviation by sloth, insolence, making oneself
audible or visible, must be extinguished for the greater good. We are
Western. Abrahamic. Roman. Rational. This job is thankless
You fault the father, despite how ceaselessly he must corral
We hold up the world. If I eat pieces of your flesh, call it
tithing. I have provided the roof, toothed borders, life
which occupies your womb. I make and make what is Right
Your complaints have no substantiation. No one
of worth heard them
Q: Do you see me
A:
Q: What brings you joy
A: Symmetry. Under me.
_
Concluding Observations on the United States of America, September 2014 Report, International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, United Nations
The Committee remains concerned
that the definition of racial discrimination used
is not in line with article 1, which requires States to eliminate discrimination
including practices and legislation discriminatory not in intent but in effect
Committee expresses further concern
at lack of progress in article 2, prohibiting
discriminatory acts perpetrated by individuals, groups
While welcoming acknowledgement by the State
that racial or ethnic profiling
is not effective law enforcement
is inconsistent with commitment to justice
the Committee remains concerned at the practice
The Committee reiterates its concern
at the lack of prohibition of racist hate speech
The Committee is concerned
at the underreporting of hate crimes by law enforcement officials
The Committee is concerned
that racial and ethnic minorities, indigenous peoples
disproportionately affected by pollution
caused by extractive, manufacturing industries
It also reiterates concern regarding
exploitation of natural resources
by transnational corporations registered in the State
The Committee is concerned
at obstacles faced by individuals belonging to racial
ethnic minorities indigenous peoples to effectively exercise their right to vote
The Committee is concerned
at the high number of homeless persons, disproportionately
African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans
and at criminalization of homelessness through laws that prohibit
loitering, camping, lying down in public spaces
The Committee remains concerned
at persistence of discrimination [in housing] on the basis of race
the high degree of segregation and concentrated poverty
in neighbourhoods, sub-standard conditions and services, limited employment
opportunities, inadequate access to health-care, underresourced schools
The Committee remains concerned
that students from racial and ethnic minorities
disproportionately attend segregated schools with unequal facilities, and even those
enrolled in racially diverse schools frequently assigned to “single-race” classes
disciplined unfairly and disproportionately, including referral to criminal justice
The Committee reiterates concern
at the persistence of racial disparities in health
particularly high maternal and infant mortality
The Committee reiterates its concern
at the brutality and excessive use of force by law enforcement officials
against members of racial and ethnic minorities, unarmed individuals
It remains concerned that impunity a widespread problem
The Committee remains concerned
at the disproportionate number of women
from racial and ethnic minorities subjected to violence, including rape
The Committee remains concerned
that members of racial and ethnic minorities, particularly African Americans
disproportionately arrested, incarcerated, subjected to harsher sentences
including life imprisonment, death penalty
The Committee remains concerned
that non-citizens continue to be arbitrarily detained
without access to the ordinary criminal justice system
and at risk of torture
The Committee remains concerned
at the lack of free, prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples in policy-making
the ongoing removal of indigenous children from their families
through the United States child welfare system
The Committee requests the State to provide
in its next periodic report, detailed information on
(a) the rate at which African American children in foster care
are prescribed psychotropic drugs, (b) the use of nonconsensual
psychiatric treatment on racial and ethnic minorities
(c) the current status of political activists from the Civil Rights era
who continue to be incarcerated
_
Law/order withheld
Police Chiefs’ orders to officers to delay arrival, stand down as whites assaulted, killed those marching, boycotting, enfranchising. FBI silence on the murder of girls in 16th Street Baptist though they knew bombers’ identities. Media withholding focus until a mother demands her 14 year old boy’s tortured, drowned body returned in an open casket, calls every local, national outlet, provides location, arrival time for the train carrying his body which no longer resembles his body; until a woman films her partner’s murder, recording because they’re a Black family at a traffic stop, her four year old daughter pinned in the back seat; until thousands of people place the faces of their dead kin in front of us, us who wrote law to see their bodies as challenge to order, as order means ours
