New York police officers threw a rally of their own outside an appearance by former President Trump at the packed Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum Wednesday in support of the Republican candidate, days after a second failed assassination attempt.
Lou Civello, the Suffolk County Police Benevolent Association president, said the union threw its support behind Trump because he was the only candidate who "backs the blue."
Civello said the union’s support for Trump over Harris was a no-brainer due to anti-police Democratic policies, such as the "defund the police" movement and criminal justice leniency that has freed 42 convicted cop killers in the last seven years.
"And not the people who drove the car were somehow loosely involved in the murder, the people who actually executed police officers," he said.
"We call for the death penalty for cop killers" he said. "President Trump supports that."
He slammed Vice President Kamala Harris for past comments that were both critical of police and in favor of the "defund" movement. Harris, who embraces the title of a former "top cop" on the campaign trail, in a nod to her career as a prosecutor, previously made pro-defund remarks and floated the idea of abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
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During Trump’s first term in office, Civello said, the former president played a direct role in quelling a plague of MS-13 violence.
"When they were chopping up children with machetes, he came to Long Island and stood shoulder to shoulder with us," he said.
In one case, gang members killed a mother and then slaughtered her young child to prevent him from growing up and seeking revenge, Civello said.
"They took the toy that the civilian had and he brought it home to his own girlfriend’s son," he told Fox News Digital. "That’s the sick perverse people that have no regard for human life that made up MS-13."
The Suffolk County PBA was the first police organization in the state to endorse Trump for president.
The PBA held its tailgate across the street from the Coliseum before officers crossed over to attend the Trump rally.
Patrick Ryder, the police commissioner in Nassau County, where the rally was held, vowed earlier this week that the venue would be the safest place in the country.
Thousands of Trump supporters showed up hours early for a chance to get inside the 18,000-seat former home of the NHL’s New York Islanders.
