Even though he was by no means required to, former President Donald Trump decided to pay tribute in person to slain New York Police Department Officer Jonathan Diller on Thursday.
The Republican presidential candidate joined the hundreds of people who attended Diller’s wake on Long Island, the New York Post reported.
After speaking to the officer’s widow and 1-year-old son, Trump publicly condemned the breakdown of law and order that led to his death in brief comments to reporters outside Massapequa Funeral Home.
Diller, 31, was killed Monday afternoon during a routine traffic stop in Queens that quickly became a shootout.
According to police, Guy Rivera, 34, refused to step out of the car and then opened fire on the officer, killing him.
Tonight this city lost a hero, a wife lost her husband, and a young child lost their father.
We struggle to find the words to express the tragedy of losing one of our own. The work that Police Officer Jonathan Diller did each day to make this city a safer place will NEVER be… pic.twitter.com/q639gQGgoz
— Edward A. Caban (@NYPDPC) March 26, 2024
Rivera was charged with murder of a police officer and criminal possession of a weapon on Thursday. Meanwhile, the driver of the vehicle, Lindy Jones, 41, was charged with criminal possession of a weapon.
The two men had a combined 35 arrests on their rap sheets — 21 of them belonging to Rivera — yet they were free to roam the city.
Given those facts, many have blamed Diller’s murder on New York’s soft-on-crime policies.
That includes Trump himself in his comments at the officer’s wake.
“What happened is such a sad, sad event, such a horrible thing, and it’s happening all too often, and we’re just not going to let it happen,” he told the reporters gathered outside the funeral home.
The former president noted the alleged killer was “21 times arrested, this thug, and the person in the car with him was arrested many times, and they don’t learn because they don’t respect” police officers.
“We have to get back to law and order,” Trump said. “We have to do a lot of things differently because this is not working. This is happening too often.”
“We’ve got to toughen it up,” he said. “We’ve got to strengthen it up. This should never be allowed, things like this shouldn’t take place, and to take place so often.”
BREAKING: Trump at the wake for NYPD Officer Jonathan Diller: “We have to get back to law and order.” WATCH pic.twitter.com/60PnCHiMMP
— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) March 28, 2024
And, at the end of the day, what Trump said was absolutely correct.
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Democratic leaders, at least since the Black Lives Matter riots and “defund the police” movement of 2020, have hung the NYPD out to dry.
New York’s policies have tied the hands of police officers when apprehending criminals and led to the release of dangerous criminals back onto the street — including men like Rivera and Jones.
That’s why the president of NYPD’s Sergeants Benevolent Association had harsh words for those leaders in a letter to union members, according to Fox News.
“I’m sure that many elected officials will attend PO Diller’s funeral, shed a few crocodile tears, and prominently seat themselves for a good photo opportunity,” SBA President Vincent Vallelong wrote. “The sad reality is we don’t want them there.”
Could anyone blame the SBA for those sentiments?
The police officers who have been abandoned by city leaders especially have a right to those sentiments, considering what they endure on a daily basis.
Trump was right to call out the breakdown of law and order that led to Diller’s tragic and untimely death.
The former president should be commended not only for calling out the violence but also for attending the wake and offering his condolences to the slain officer’s young family.
Would that our current commander in chief could be bothered to show Diller the same compassion he showed the memory of career criminal George Floyd.
