Jonathan Diller: Trump attends wake of New York policeman shot on duty
Former President Donald Trump attended the vigil of a New York City police officer who tragically lost his life during a traffic stop on Monday.
Officer Jonathan Diller succumbed to his injuries after being shot by an individual in an illegally parked vehicle.
Expressing his sentiments outside the Long Island funeral home after meeting with the Diller family, Mr. Trump stated, “We need to put a stop to this. We need to restore law and order.”
In his presidential campaign, Trump has emphasized tackling crime as a pivotal issue.
The killing of Officer Diller, amid a national discourse on public safety and crime, marks the first death of a New York City police officer since 2022.
Authorities have charged Guy Rivera, 34, with the first-degree murder of a police officer.
Rivera stands accused of firing at Officer Diller from a vehicle that had unlawfully stopped at a bus stop. Despite wearing a bulletproof vest, the officer was shot as he attempted to instruct the occupants to exit the vehicle, according to the New York Police Department.
Officer Diller passed away later in the hospital, amplifying concerns, particularly among Republican constituents, about the escalating crime rates in New York City.
New York Police Department data shows crime has decreased by about 1% over the past two years.
Mr Trump and other Republican figures have regularly accused Democrats of being weak on crime. The former president emphasised this view when he exited Mr Diller’s wake flanked by about a dozen police officers.
“We have to do a lot of things differently because this is not working. This is happening too often,” Mr Trump told reporters.
President Joe Biden, a Democrat who Mr Trump is challenging for the White House, was in New York at the same time as his predecessor. He is attending a large fundraiser on Thursday evening at Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan.
The event was set to feature former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton and numerous celebrity guests.
The fundraiser is expected to bring in $25m (£19.8m) for Mr Biden’s re-election effort, his campaign said.
Mr Trump, who faces 91 felony charges across four criminal cases, and his staff sought to draw a contrast between the two visits.
Mr Trump will be “honouring the legacy of Officer Diller” while Mr Biden “will be at a glitzy fundraiser in the city with their elitist, out-of-touch celebrity benefactors,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Thursday that Mr Biden had spoken with Mayor Adams and offered the administration’s condolences to Mr Diller’s family.
“Violent crime surged under the previous administration,” Ms Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One, the Associated Press reported. “The Biden-Harris administration have done the polar opposite, taking decisive action from the very beginning to fund the police and achieving a historic reduction in crime.”
The White House spokesperson previously said at a briefing that Mr Diller’s death is a “painful reminder of the toll of gun violence”, which she said is an issue that the administration has worked to address.
