Trump visits Kenosha, not to urge racial healing but to back police
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[September 02, 2020]
By Jeff Mason
KENOSHA, Wis. (Reuters) - 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 law enforcement in a city
rocked by civil unrest.
With the United States polarized over issues of racial injustice and
police use of force, Trump is appealing to his base of white supporters
with a "law and order" message as opinion polls show him cutting into
the lead of his Democratic rival, former vice president Joe Biden.
Meanwhile Trump has largely overlooked the racial wounds caused by
police use of force and played down the more than 180,000 U.S. deaths
from the coronavirus pandemic.
The Republican president also threatened to send more federal officers
into cities governed by Democratic mayors even if local officials
objected, saying, "At some point ... we'll just have to do it
ourselves."
Trump did not visit Jacob Blake, who was paralyzed from the waist down
after a white police officer fired at his back seven times on Aug. 23.
He did not meet Blake's family either, but did meet with his mother's
pastors.
He promised instead to rebuild Kenosha and provide more federal spending
to Wisconsin, a political battleground state that Trump won narrowly in
2016 and badly needs to keep in his column as he seeks re-election on
Nov. 3.
His election opponent, Biden, has accused Trump of stoking violence with
his rhetoric. Biden's campaign on Tuesday seized on Trump's trip to
Kenosha as it accused his administration of seeing "violence as a
winning electoral strategy."
The president visited a burned-out furniture store that was destroyed in
the upheaval and then a makeshift command center to praise National
Guard troops who were called in to reinforce local police after several
nights of peaceful protests gave way to looting, arson and gunfire.
"These are not acts of peaceful protest, but really domestic terror,"
Trump told local business leaders in a high school gym.
Peaceful demonstrators have complained that violent agitators, often
white, have hijacked their protests with property damage. But many have
also sharply criticized the police, saying the United States needs to
completely rethink its law enforcement practices.
"To stop the political violence, we must also confront the radical
ideology. ... We have to condemn the dangerous anti-police rhetoric,"
Trump said, adding that without his help Kenosha would have "burned to
the ground."
APPEAL TO 'CHANGE THE HEARTS'
The visit was not completely without empathy. While Trump dodged
questions about systemic racism and problems in policing, he did say
that he felt "terribly for anybody who goes through that," referring to
the police shooting, and that he was honored to meet with the co-pastors
of Blake's mother, the only two Black people at Trump's roundtable.
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President Donald Trump talks to reporters as he stands with Kenosha
police and business people while examining property damage to a
business while visiting the city in the aftermath of recent protests
against police brutality and racial injustice and ensuing violence
after the shooting of Jacob Blake by a police officer in Kenosha,
Wisconsin, U.S., September 1, 2020. REUTERS/Leah Millis
Pastor James Ward appealed for greater efforts to "change the hearts
of people" and bring healing and peace to the community, while his
wife and co-pastor Sharon Ward said, "I think it's important to have
Black people at the table to help solve the problem."
The state's Democratic governor and the city's Democratic mayor both
had urged Trump not to visit so as to avoid inflaming tensions and
allow citizens to heal. But when he showed up, 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 to "defund the police."
Much of the country has rallied to the side of civil rights since
George Floyd, a Black man, died on May 25 after a white police
officer knelt on his neck. The country was reckoning with that case
when Blake was shot as he entered his car on Aug. 23.
Kenosha has become one of the flashpoint cities where anti-racist
demonstrators have clashed with Trump supporters who have converged
on protest sites, sometimes openly carrying arms while vowing to
protect property from looters.
A 17-year-old Trump supporter has been charged with killing two
people and wounding another with a semi-automatic rifle in Kenosha.
Trump defended the white teenager, who faces six criminal counts,
and declined to condemn violence from his supporters.
But in Portland, Oregon, site of three months of nightly protests
that have often turned violent, a Trump supporter was shot dead on
Saturday and the president lamented that "they executed a man in the
street."
The president took credit for restoring peace in Kenosha since
National Guard and federal law enforcement reinforcements were sent
in. Although Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers called in more National
Guard troops on his own authority, Trump did send in about 200
federal law enforcement officials.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Additonal reporting by Andrea Shalal and
Phil Stewart; Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Howard Goller)
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