Posted on 12/11/2015 11:28:14 AM PST by BAW
From last night's speech to the New England Police Benevolent Association, which voted to endorse him. Rarely can you tell whether a new Trump policy idea was gamed out beforehand or just something he came up with on the fly while in front of a mic, and this is no exception. His advisor, Dan Scavino, tweeted it out after Trump said it, though, so if it wasn't official campaign policy before, I guess it is now.
Is it worth critiquing this? Krauthammer’s ready to give up on arguing against Trump policies, partly because they're all obviously political panders rather than serious proposals and partly because pointing out that the policy is dumb and/or illegal only seems to make Trump fans want to spite the critic by embracing the idea more tightly. Besides, anyone who's been following the last few years of Obama's executive overreach already sees the problems here. For starters, cop-killer prosecutions usually fall under state, not federal, jurisdiction. Nineteen states have abolished the death penalty entirely, including Trump's home state of New York. The idea that the president can dictate to a state how it should punish its criminals is a kick in the nuts to federalism so sharp that even Obama wouldn't try it
(Excerpt) Read more at hotair.com ...
please note /s tag
Yeah? Like states voting marriage is between one man and one woman??????????????????///// But the Feds USSC said otherwise. Uh huh. I hear ya!
What if it’s self defense?
Amazing! Trump is showing strong support for police officers and half the people on this thread are throwing the police under the bus. Whatever Trump can do to defend the police is just fine by me.
Agree.
Even when he can't do what he says he's going to do?
Right. There are limited circumstances in which the murder of a state or local LEO may be prosecuted as a Federal crime, subject to the Federal death penalty. 21 U.S.C. 848 is one, and applies to murders related to a "continuing criminal enterprise" (which typically means organized crime/inter-state gangs/etc.), and only applies to murders of state and local LEOs who are investigating the criminal enterprise.
Another is 18 U.S.C. 1121, which applies to murders of state/local LEOs who are working with Federal LEOs on a Federal investigation.
There are others (for example, killing anyone on Federal land can be a Federal crime), but those are the two that apply specifically to state/local LEOs. Outside those limited cases, such murders are prosecuted by states.
Legalities/states rights aside, it’ll be nice to have someone in the white house whose first reaction isn’t to coddle the perps.
Hopefully before Obama leaves office we don’t have a federalized police force.
You and I know, but trumpees don’t care that he knows not the constitution and will preside like bambi with the pen. But never mind. Just wait til he picks SC justices. Will likely doom conservatives for the next 50 years.
The president can do a lot. Any support shown to the police is just great. Let’s see where he takes this. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. For over 7 years I have seen the police crapped on. It’s about time someone to their side.
Not technically. But executive orders are legally binding. But even a president cannot issue an executive order commanding federal courts to mandate the death penalty. It's a separation of powers issue.
Trump needs Cruz. On legal and Constitutional matters, he is in over his head.
Whoa. I'm not "throwing the police under the bus." I agree with Trump--any vile thug who kills a police officer deserves a needle in the arm. But that doesn't mean that a President Trump would have any direct power to do anything about it through an Executive Order. It's a state matter.
Well, that headline and article is a sure lie. Very big difference between mandate and strong statement.
“One of the first things I’d do in terms of executive orders, if I win, will be to sign a strong, strong statement that will go out to the country, out to the world, that anybody killing a policeman, a policewoman, a police officer, anybody killing a police officer: Death penalty is going to happen, okay?”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/12/10/donald-trump-wants-the-death-penalty-for-those-who-kill-police-officers/
My thoughts as well. Of course, the details are yet to be divined, but just thinking ahead, an illegal SWAT assault resulting in dead LEO by the homeowner must be an exception.
What if it’s another police officer who wrongfully kills a police officer? What then, Donald?
King Trump can do what ever he see fit. He is not bound to the Constitution anymore than the Muslim prince Obama.
Trump: “As president, I will mandate the death penalty for anyone who kills a police officer.”
You said: “Uh, that’s a state matter, so as POTUS, it would be none of your beeswax.”
Trump has lived his life giving orders that were carried out immediately. He thinks he would be the boss of the country and give orders the same way. He appears to know little about how our government works. I have said he would not be the boss, he would be an employee and the employer is us. Our company we own is the United States and as an employee, he has to go by the rules of the company - the constitution and laws of our company.
I think he would be totally frustrated that he couldn’t say kill anyone who murders a policeman and have it happen because he said so. There is also the conclusion that a policeman’s life, under Trump’s self made law, would be worth more than ours. If he could make his own laws about killing, maybe he would write a list of his friends and say anyone who kills them will get the death penalty.
The constitution and laws are important. They are there to stop anyone from making their own laws. Someone should tell Trump that.
I think the most a President could do through an executive order would be to direct U.S. Attorneys to prosecute every LEO murder in which there is Federal jurisdiction, and to seek the death penalty in each such case. I'd fully support that, and that would send a strong message of support to all LEOs. But, as a practical matter, it wouldn't lead to many prosecutions, since most LEO murders are not within Federal jurisdiction.
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