Friday, Mar 29, 2024 | Last Update : 07:49 PM IST

  Violence against cops to get far worse, predicts Trump

Violence against cops to get far worse, predicts Trump

AP
Published : Jul 13, 2016, 7:18 am IST
Updated : Jul 13, 2016, 7:18 am IST

Donald Trump said on Monday that he believes relations between the police and the nation’s African-American community are “far worse” than people think, predicting that protests against police violenc

Donald Trump said on Monday that he believes relations between the police and the nation’s African-American community are “far worse” than people think, predicting that protests against police violence that followed last week’s slaying of five police officers in Dallas “might be just the beginning for this summer.”

In an interview with The Associated Press, the presumptive GOP nominee struck a balance between the law-and-order rhetoric he has espoused during his campaign and an appreciation for the concerns held by African-Americans nationwide about the conduct of police.

Mr Trump suggested that a lack of training for officers might be at least partially to blame for the two police shootings that led to last Thursday’s protest in Dallas, where a lone gunman killed five in an act of vengeance against white officers. At the same time, Mr Trump denounced the name of the “Black Lives Matter” movement as “a very divisive term.”

The interview followed a speech on veterans issues in which Mr Trump declared, “I am the law and order candidate,” an echo of Richard Nixon’s response to protest violence that broke out in 1968 following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

Location: United States, Virginia