On March 25, 2024 NYC Police Officer Jonathan Diller was killed in the line of duty while serving and protecting New Yorkers. Yesterday, Trump attended the fallen officer’s wake in Massapequa, NY.
In 2021, on the last day of his presidency, Donald Trump commuted the life sentence of Jaime Davidson who was convicted of orchestrating the murder of undercover Syracuse Police Officer Wallie Howard.
As I mourn with the Diller family, the NYPD, New York City and America, I find myself vexed while navigating a labyrinth of contradictions trying to make sense of the enigma of a former president granting clemency to a person who ordered the murder of a Syracuse cop and now attending the wake of a murdered NYC cop. Further puzzling is that Trump continues to receive praise and support from police officers across America.
Trump posted on Truth Social, that Officer Diller’s “life was taken by a murderous career criminal”. He added, “To Officer Diller’s family, and all of the other brave men and women of law enforcement who put your lives on the line every day, we love you, we appreciate you, and we will always stand with you”.
Did Trump love, appreciate and stand with Police Officer Wallie Howard when he commuted Davidson’s life sentence and released him from federal prison?
Also on Jan 6, 2021, in a video addressing his supporters that attacked the nation’s Capitol and assaulted police officers pursuant to his encouragement , Trump also told them, “we love you”.
Did he love, appreciate and stand with the Capitol Police on Jan 6?
Is Trump the so-called law and order presidential candidate that supports the police or not?
I say “No”.
How can anyone proclaim to support police officers and then commute the life sentence of a person convicted of masterminding the murder of a police officer and also say he will pardon “Jan 6” rioters who brutally assaulted police officers?
The great Greek philosopher Aristotle said it best: “A thing cannot at the same time be and not be…”.
Trump cannot claim to support the police and at the same time not support the police.
Trump’s attendance at Officer Diller’s wake is a self-serving photo-op and political stunt to exploit Officer Diller’s death and manipulate support from police officers across America in their time of sorrow for the upcoming 2024 presidential election.
The clemency granted by Trump to Davidson came only months after the NYPD Police Benevolent Association endorsed Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
According to media reports, “Davidson, of Brooklyn, was found guilty by a jury of leading a drug ring and directing the robbery that ended with the murder of undercover officer Wallie Howard”. In 1994, a judge wrote “There was plenty of evidence that Davidson masterminded the narcotics conspiracy and the plan to rob [Howard and another man]”.
Former federal prosecutor John Katko stated “Jaime Davidson was found guilty of orchestrating the brutal murder of Wallie Howard, a decorated central New York police officer. I completely disagree with the president’s decision to commute the sentence for this heinous crime”.
The shooter, Robert Lawrence who was 16 years old in 1990 when he murdered Officer Howard, was sentenced to life in prison but was released in 2020 pursuant to a 2012 Supreme Court decision that a life sentence for anyone under 18 years of age was unconstitutional.
Both the shooter and the mastermind of Wallie Howard’s murder are now free to live their lives. Yet, Officer Wallie Howard is dead and his family has suffered and been without him for 34 years.
When Trump granted clemency to Jaime Davidson he backstabbed and betrayed every police officer in America.
