Trump exploits NYPD officer’s murder while also advocating political violence

An estimated 10,000 people showed up at the Long Island church on Thursday to pay their final respects to 31-year-old New York City Police Officer Jonathan Diller, who died in the line of duty but only disgraced former President Donald Trump exploited the event for political purposes and hinted that his followers should engage in political violence.

On Good Friday, the Christian holy day observing the crucifixion of Jesus, Bible salesman Trump posted a video of two pick-up trucks with American flags and “Trump 2024″ banners on his Truth Social media platform.

One of them featured a Photoshopped image of President Joe Biden, hog-tied. If you want to understand the pathology of Trump’s unAmerican politics – the violent nihilism that is at the core of his identity in public life – it was on display in the Long Island video that Trump released on his website.

Trump uses death and despair to turn Americans against each other or undeservingly embellish his reputation, as when he lied that a building he owned was the tallest in lower Manhattan after the World Trade Center collapsed in 2001.

However, knocking someone else down does not make any of us taller, and anyone who recalls clearly knows that things were not better when Trump was president.

The potential antichrist wanted to imply that crime is out of control and that he would restore “law and order” to the streets of America, but the spike in violent crime happened during his tenure in the White House.

In 2020, the final year of the Trump presidency, murder rose by nearly 30 percent and assaults by more than 10 percent. Since Biden took office, violent crime appears to be on a downward trend. As of 2022, violent crime rates had fallen by 4 percent and murder rates by roughly 7 percent since 2020, according to the FBI.

Trump falsely claimed that “murders & violent crime hit unimaginable records” there but major crimes in New York City are down this year by 2.3%, according to police department data comparing year-to-date figures to the same period in 2023.

Those figures for last year were also far below the highs from recent decades.

In 1990, more than 527,000 major crimes were reported, compared to more than 126,000 last year, according to New York police data — a drop of more than 75%.

Trump’s lies about soaring violence have only increased as he faces criminal charges in New York accusing him of falsifying business records related to hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.

Trump, who has pleaded not guilty in that case, must also post a $175 million bond to prevent state Attorney General Letitia James from collecting the judgment from a New York civil fraud case.

For decades, crime was the most potent wedge issue. President George H.W. Bush won the 1988 election using scary advertisements about Willie Horton, a Black man who had raped a white woman while out on a weekend furlough from prison.

Trump’s dehumanizing language about migrants has become a mainstay of his political speeches since he first sought office in 2015, but contrary to Trump’s claim, research conducted before the pandemic shows that undocumented immigrants are not a major source of crime.

Focused on high-profile cases such as the death of Laken Riley, who was killed in Georgia while jogging by a Venezuelan suspect who entered the U.S. illegally in 2022, Trump said, “Every day, innocent citizens are being killed, stabbed, shot, raped and murdered because of Biden migrant crime.” However, there is no evidence of a migrant-driven crime wave in the U.S.

According to a recent Pew poll, 57% of Americans said that a large number of migrants seeking to enter the country leads to more crime.  Overall crime is down year over year in Philadelphia, Chicago, Denver, New York and Los Angeles.  No matter how many people believe a lie, it remains untrue, and the only certain thing is that someone who fails to understand a problem probably cannot fix it.

Trump’s turn to xenophobic bombast, while not a surprise, is unsettling, but not as disturbing as the implication that he is once again advocating political violence.

Some mainstream news media are reluctant to show the image for fear of inciting violence against the president – which is a crime– but voters must see just how outrageously far Trump is willing to go.

The video of Biden hog-tied in the back of a pickup truck coincided with Trump’s exploitation of the wake for slain 31-year-old New York City Police Officer Jonathan Diller, who was fatally shot during a traffic stop on Monday.

Trump’s visit came as Biden was also in New York for a previously scheduled fundraiser with Democratic ex-presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Trump has accused Biden of lacking toughness and his campaign sought to contrast his visit with Biden’s fundraiser.

The day he took office in 2021, Biden probably should have locked up Trump, who is accused of dozens of crimes in four separate indictments, but real Americans believe in certain principles of justice that could be erased if voters act on emotion instead of using their brains in November.

The father of Capitol Police officer Brian D. Sicknick, who died during the Jan. 6, 2021 riots in Washington, DC, blasted Trump for making an appearance at the wake for Diller.

Charles Sicknick expressed condolences to Diller’s family, but he said Trump’s appearance, especially the press conference outside a Long Island funeral home, was nothing more than a highly inappropriate political stunt.

“He makes sure he gets his face out there. The guy’s a criminal. He’s the reason my son is dead — because of the riot at the Capitol,” said Charles Sicknick.  “He’s a publicity hound. Trump does whatever will get him votes and helps Donald Trump. There’s nothing good about that man.”

The memorial was held in suburban Massapequa on Long Island, the home of the officer, who was shot in the torso below his bulletproof vest while approaching an illegally parked car in Queens.

“Even with the acknowledgment that he was shot, he fought and took the gun out of the hand of the person who would take his life,” said Mayor Eric Adams, a former NYPD cop and strong supporter of Biden who recently slammed Republicans for blocking long-overdue, bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform legislation.

The gunman accused of shooting Diller, identified as 34-year-old Guy Rivera, has been charged with first-degree murder of a police officer, attempted murder and criminal possession of a weapon. He was also injured in the shooting and remains in the hospital.

Lindy Jones, the alleged driver of the vehicle in that traffic stop, is now charged with criminal possession of a loaded firearm and possession of a defaced weapon. Jones has a prior record that includes an attempted murder conviction in 2002 and he was out on $75,000 bail for a prior weapons offense.

Most often, it’s lesser offenses, such as shoplifting, low-level drug possession, or traffic infractions, that cause logjams in the criminal justice system.

Pinpointing the reasons behind crime in America is challenging. Data on minor offenses— such as misdemeanors, code violations, and traffic infractions — is sparse but what little empirical evidence is available to inform policy reveals a stark reality: misdemeanors are the criminal justice system’s silent behemoth, with tens of thousands of people ticketed, arrested, or charged every day.

Many acknowledge that minor offenses require resolution, but there’s less awareness of the damage caused by their enforcement. Cases can be expensive and time-consuming to resolve, and they can limit a person’s access to jobs, housing, health care, and education.

A 2020 Brennan Center report underscores the lasting repercussions of misdemeanor convictions, revealing an average annual earnings drop of 16 percent among those convicted. These harms disproportionately fall on communities of color, compounding existing racial inequities.

On a broader scale, minor offenses drain government resources. The estimated policing and court costs of a single misdemeanor offense range between $2,190 and $5,896, straining already burdened budgets. This hefty price tag may be in vain, as research casts doubt on the notion that pursuing these cases truly enhances public safety. 

Diller was married and had a 1-year-old son. The officer’s widow shared part of a speech by the widow of NYPD Det. Jason Rivera, who called for increased protection for police officers at her husband’s funeral in 2022.

“Dominique Rivera stood in front of all the elected officials present today pleading for change. That change never came, and now my son will grow up without his father. I will grow old without my husband,” said Stephanie Diller.