WISCONSIN, United States (Reuters) — U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has called for more police on the streets and said Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton is “against the police”, at a rally in the suburb of West Bend, Wisconsin on Tuesday (August 16).
Trump visited Milwaukee, days after the city was hit by unrest over the fatal police shooting of a black man, and said initial evidence pointed to the shooting being justified.
Trump has been vocal in support of law enforcement during a spate of protests across the country over high-profile police shootings.
“Crime and violence is an attack on the poor and will never be accepted in a Trump administration. The narrative has been pushed aggressively for years and now by our current administration and pushed by my opponent Hillary Clinton, you know, is a totally false one you know that. The problem in our poorest communities is not that there are too many police. The problem is that there are not enough police,” Trump said during a speech focused on law-and-order issues.
Violent protests broke out in Milwaukee on Saturday (August 13) night after the death earlier in the day of Sylville Smith, 23. Authorities said Smith was stopped for acting suspiciously and then fled, and was shot by police because he was carrying an illegal handgun and refused orders to drop it.
Demonstrations on Saturday turned violent, when cars and businesses were set ablaze and gunfire ripped through the area of protests. The U.S. Midwestern city was calmer on Monday (August 14) night after a curfew was put in place for teenagers, and community leaders called for peace.
Police violence against African-Americans has set off intermittent, sometimes violent protests in the past two years, igniting a national debate over race and policing in the United States and giving rise to the Black Lives Matter movement.
Trump also attacked Clinton over her acceptance of speaking fees from different institutions.
Trump said if elected he would force top administration officials to sign a pledge not to accept speaking fees from corporations with registered lobbyists or foreign countries for five years after leaving office.
The pledge – a rare policy pronouncement from the New York real estate mogul – was part of his criticism of Democratic rival Hillary Clinton who, along with her husband, former president Bill Clinton, have accepted millions of dollars in speaking fees since he left office.
Democrats have criticized Trump’s positions on foreign policy and national security, as well as of some of his freewheeling remarks. Democratic President Barack Obama has called Trump “unfit” for the presidency and earlier this month warned the Republican candidate that briefing information must be kept secret.