Vance, Republicans Push Public Safety at Site of 2020 Kenosha Protest
And Kenosha police union endorses Trump ticket, following lead of Milwaukee police.
J.D. Vance Delivers His Vice Presidency Nomination Acceptance Speech. Photo by Jeramey Jannene
Almost exactly four years ago, when parts of Kenosha’s downtown were destroyed during riots as the city protested the police shooting of Jacob Blake, Donald Trump was president. Violent crime has fallen since Trump left office, FBI data shows.
Here in Wisconsin, local governments and their emergency services, including police departments, have seen funding increase under a bipartisan bill signed last year by Gov. Tony Evers.
But on Tuesday afternoon, supporters of Trump said they wanted his leadership on crime and public safety back as Trump’s running mate, Ohio U.S. Sen. JD Vance, held a press conference on criminal justice in the same park where many of those 2020 protests took place, attacking Vice President Kamala Harris’s record on public safety and tying her to activist claims in 2020 to “defund the police.”
Vance promised that his administration with Trump would protect public safety by cracking down on immigration enforcement, sentencing people convicted of dealing drugs to the death penalty and stopping lawsuits against police officers.
“We don’t just have a bunch of promises on the Trump campaign,” Vance said. “We have got four years of Donald Trump’s successful leadership that brought public safety to our streets, and that is something to celebrate and look forward to. So here is President Trump’s solemn promise to our law enforcement community and all of those, all of us who benefit from their sacrifices and their public safety.”
On Tuesday, city salt trucks and buses lined downtown Kenosha blocking car traffic from the park, much like they were used to block protester movement in 2020, this time so the U.S. Secret Service could limit access to the park.
Sharon Buege, a Kenosha resident who volunteers with the Republican Party and attended the press conference, told the Wisconsin Examiner she appreciated what she thought was a “positive” message from Vance about “backing the badge.” She still blames Democrats for the property destruction in her city in 2020.
“They let our city burn,” she said.
Opposed to “the whole left agenda” and Democrats she called “a bunch of radical lunatics,” Buege recited a laundry list of frequent Republican complaints about the country’s southern border, the economy, abortion and school curricula as her top issues.
At the event, the Trump-Vance ticket got the endorsement of the Kenosha Professional Police Association, the second police union in the state to announce its support of Trump after the Milwaukee Police Association endorsed him last week.
“Public Safety is the foundation of having a good country and the police of Wisconsin know Donald Trump is the public safety candidate,” Vance said of the endorsements.
During his remarks, Vance — who was also joined on the stage by U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde and U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil — attacked the city of Chicago, where Democrats are currently holding their convention, for being “the murder capital of the United States,” discussed “Mexican drug cartels” operating in Wisconsin and questioned Harris’ ability to fix these problems after more than three years working in the White House.
In 2022, Chicago did have more homicides than any other city, but it’s one of the largest cities in the country. When adjusted for population, it ranked 17th in murder rate per 100,000 people.
Gina Paulick, a recent transplant from California to Mount Pleasant, said she thought Vance’s message was good because he was “reinforcing supporting the police.”
“Everyone wants to feel safe in their environment,” she said.
Saying that she “fled” California because of crime and inflation, Paulick said she was happy to have her Republican vote meaningfully make a difference in a swing state.
Outside of the park, where a crowd strained to hear Vance’s remarks after security stopped letting people into the area, conspiracy theories abounded.
A woman named Nancy, who wouldn’t provide her last name or where she lived because of vague fears that “they really want to win this election” and would punish her for speaking jumped between complaints about the salaries of University of Wisconsin administrators, the Environmental Protection Agency’s handling of cleaning up after a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, last year, the war in Gaza and global warming.
At one point, she went off on a tangent about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, gas prices and propaganda taught in American universities.
Asked why she attended the event, she said that under Trump the country had “normal gas prices, real peace, real prosperity.”
Vance, Republicans say they’re best on public safety in return to Kenosha protest site was originally published by Wisconsin Examiner.
I’m surprised Kyle Rittenhouse wasn’t there and that Vance didn’t announce he (Kyle) was their new “Junior Public Safety Ambassador”. Hey, if you’re an unhappy wanna be rich white guy with a grievance the GOP is the political party for you.
Police should be neutral. I’d send a complaint to the Milwaukee Police Association, but they might put me on a hit list. That’s as much of a conspiracy theory I indulge in.
Put the price tag on Vance’s insanity: “sentencing people convicted of dealing drugs to the death penalty.”
We’d pay for endless years of appeals and legal fees and pricy prison housing. Broken families ain’t cheap, either. Geez, everyone acts like imprisonment is a free public service. Let tax payers know the price, and maybe they’ll decide the crime doesn’t justify the cost. Ironically, billions were spent imprisoning marijuana dealers, and now it’s basically legal. Use the money saved for quality rehab, you know, the kind of rehab that whites in Brookfield buy.
As the story describes, Vance is retreating into an alternate reality that differs from the facts, an approach that has a proven record of not solving problems but making them worse. Using the police as a campaign prop is also very disturbing. If Project 2025 promises anything, it promises not just a replacement of our representative Democracy with a partisan regime but the associated use of partisan police to enforce that authoritarianism.
Hovde demonstrates a distinct lack of common sense and digs deeper into problems for himself by standing with the Trump-Vance ticket. His strategy raises questions about Hovde’s judgment, ethics, and motivation. Hovde, as CEO of Sunwest Bank, should stand against fraud, yet Hovde embraces Donald Trump, who has been convicted of multiple felonies, including counts of falsification of business records. What is it about control of Sunwest Bank that is so important to Hovde that he presents himself to the voters of Wisconsin as only a potential part-time Senator? Why is Hovde refusing to say if he would divest ownership and step down from his position at H Bancorp/Sunwest Bank if elected? Is this need for control related to control fraud? When President Donald Trump commuted prison sentences for people involved in fraud and money laundering. In 2021, Trump commuted the prison sentence of a “superfraudster,” Jon Michael Harder, guilty of wire fraud and money laundering. Is Hovde trying to get some future favor by standing with the Trump-Vance ticket?
The elephant in the room–Trump–every day demonstrates to the world his (in)ability to make sound decisions: Trump’s historically poor choice of Vance as VP reveals a lack of common sense and digs further problems for any ambition to take the White House. Vance, the most unpopular vice presidential pick in history, with a negative favorability rating, shows off a unique ability to repel voters with his weird brand of rhetoric. For Hovde, this election is obviously not about serving Wisconsin residents but saving himself and serving himself the “champagne wishes and caviar dreams” of his Orange County home.