Donald Trump said crime could be eradicated with ‘one really violent day’, idea compared to movie storyline The Purge.
Passing through the city of Erie, Pennsylvania, on Sunday, the Republican candidate asserted that crime was “out of control” in the United States and that burglars could rob businesses without the police being able to intervene.
“You see these guys coming out with air conditioners and refrigerators on their backs, the craziest thing. And the police are not allowed to do their job. We tell them: ‘If you do anything, you will lose your pension,’” he said.
“They’re not allowed to do it because the liberal left won’t let them. The liberal left wants to destroy them, and they want to destroy our country,” he added.
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A proposal compared to The Purge
The former president then told the crowd that it would be enough to scare criminals to solve the problem.
“If you had a really violent day,” he said. A brutal hour. And I mean, really brutal. Word would get around and it would stop immediately.”
The comment created an uproar on social media, as several netizens compared his plan to the solutions presented in the dystopian horror film The Purge.
In the film, the economic collapse of the United States has led to the election of a radical new political party that proposes to end crime by instituting a program to legalize all crime, including murder, for a period of time. 12-hour period each year. This measure is presented as having almost completely eliminated crime.
Donald Trump’s campaign communications manager, Steven Cheung, tried to downplay the former president’s remarks in the hours following the rally, insisting that he had “clearly made a joke.”
A regular at radical and violent ideas
Donald Trump has a habit of proposing harsh sanctions against criminals.
Last year, he said he wanted to allow police to shoot shoplifters if elected.
“We will immediately stop all looting and theft. It’s very simple: if you steal from a store, you can expect to be shot when you leave the store,” he said.
In 1989, the billionaire took out a full-page newspaper ad arguing for the death penalty following the violent rape of a jogger in New York’s Central Park.
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The five young defendants, who ultimately pleaded not guilty, were wrongly sentenced to long prison terms at the end of the trial, despite the lack of evidence against them.
In 2002, almost 10 years later, a convicted serial rapist confessed to the crime. A DNA test also confirmed that he was the perpetrator of the rape and murder of the jogger in Central Park.
Donald Trump, for his part, has always refused to apologize for his speech.
– With information from Guardian and of Washington Post
