The Trump-o-verse is going crazy over this statement from the San Jose Police Department where they appear to say they backed off of protesters, thinking it would just “insight” them to more violence:
On Thursday, June 2, 2016, approximately 300-400 protestors gathered outside a Trump rally in San Jose. The San Jose Police Department designated two locations for supporters and demonstrators. The Department had an operations plan in place in an effort to ensure the safety of everyone attending the event. However, officers were confronted by some protestors who became violent, aggressive and began to throw objects in their direction. A majority of the violence occurred at the conclusion of the event. While several physical assaults did occur, the police personnel on scene had the difficult task of weighing the need to immediately apprehend the suspect(s) against the possibility that police action involving the use of physical force under the circumstances would further insight the crowd and produce more violent behavior. As Trump supporters were exiting the Convention Center, officers directed the crowd away from the protestors and suggested alternate routes of egress in order to prevent violence or a large-scale confrontation. This required the forming of crowd control lines of uniformed officers to act as a physical barrier to facilitate the movement of the crowd out of the area. The San Jose Police Department subsequently made four arrests for incidents including assault with a deadly weapon and unlawful assembly.
Clearly they meant to say “incite.”
In any case, this sounds a lot like what happened in Baltimore with the Black Lives Matter protesters, where the mayor said they gave them space to do whatever they wanted. I dunno, it seems to me that once protesters started getting violent by attacking innocent Trump supporters, they needed to be taken down fast. Isn’t that the point of a police force?
I’d love to hear opinions from LEOs on this in the comments. And the rest of you too!