Trump says having ‘a little fight with the wife’ should not count as a crime
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US President Donald Trump has often sought to create an alternative reality of crime statistics to support the law enforcement actions he wishes to take.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Luke Broadwater
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WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump suggested on Sept 8 that offences that “take place in the home” should not count against his record of crime reduction in Washington, saying his opponents are using reports of “a little fight with the wife” to undermine his crackdown.
During remarks at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, Mr Trump made a series of false statements about the level of crime in the nation’s capital, where he has ordered a federal takeover of law enforcement.
The President claimed without evidence that there was now zero crime in Washington. While crime is, in fact, declining in the capital – and Washington’s mayor has credited the federal law enforcement surge with contributing to the decline – robberies, assaults and thefts still occur on a daily basis.
On Sept 7 alone, there was a homicide, six motor vehicle thefts, two assaults with a deadly weapon, four robberies and more than 30 thefts, according to police statistics.
“There’s no crime. They said, ‘Crime’s down 87 per cent,’” Mr Trump said on Sept 8. “It’s more than 87 per cent – virtually nothing.”
While Mr Trump has made such false claims before, on Sept 8 he sounded particularly aggrieved that domestic violence crimes were counting against him.
“Things that take place in the home they call crime,” he said. “They’ll do anything they can to find something. If a man has a little fight with the wife, they say this was a crime scene.”
Those comments provoked quick criticism.
“Just a casual dismissal of domestic violence as a crime,” Ms Sarah Longwell, a long-time Republican political strategist, wrote on social media.
The President has often sought to create an alternative reality of crime statistics to support the law enforcement actions he wishes to take.
On Sept 8, he said people had categorised Washington as “the worst, the most violent city” in America, despite statistics showing a major crime decline in the nation’s capital even before his crackdown.
He has also targeted a series of other cities that are experiencing a crime decline, including Chicago, Baltimore and New Orleans.
“I don’t know why Chicago isn’t calling us saying, ‘Please give us help’,” Mr Trump said on Sept 8. NYTIMES
