President Donald Trump endorsed police brutality Friday while speaking to police officers in New York.
The president said that law enforcement should feel free to hit suspects’ heads on the doors of their police cars.
“When you see these towns and when you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon, you just see them thrown in, rough, and I said, ‘Please don’t be too nice,’” Trump said.
He added: “Like when you guys put somebody in the car and you’re protecting their head, you know, the way you put their hand over, like, don’t hit their head and they’ve just killed somebody, don’t hit their head, I said, ‘You can take the hand away, OK?’”
His speech was well-received, and he received particularly long applauses with the above statements.
He also said that current laws were stacked against the police, and he was working to change that.
“For years and years, [laws have] been made to protect the criminal,” Trump said. “Totally protect the criminal, not the officers. You do something wrong, you’re in more jeopardy than they are. These laws are stacked against you. We’re changing those laws.”