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Trump, Clinton vie for police support

by Jesse Byrnes - 08/18/16 4:07 PM ET

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton held competing events with members of law enforcement Thursday as they battle for the support of police officers.

Trump stopped at a gun range “for a little shooting practice” with local police ahead of his meeting with law enforcement officers at the local Fraternal Order of Police lodge in Iredell County, N.C.

{mosads}”I gotta say, this man can shoot,” said Iredell County Sheriff Darren Campbell, according to The Associated Press.

Campbell told Trump at the event that the North Carolina Fraternal Order of Police had endorsed him and would encourage the national organization to do the same.

The Fraternal Order of Police, the nation’s largest police union, declined to endorse any candidate for president in 2012.

Speaking briefly to the local chapter Thursday, Trump stressed his support for police and praised their courage, after criticizing Clinton, his Democratic presidential rival, on the issue earlier this week.

“I’m on your side 1,000 percent,” Trump said. “What you do is incredible.”

Trump alleged that Clinton is “against the police” in a speech in Wisconsin, where he continued to cast himself as the “law and order” candidate.

Clinton, meanwhile, met with top police officers from across the country Thursday in New York to discuss crime and reducing imprisonment.

She met with Los Angeles police chief Charles Beck, outgoing New York police commissioner Bill Bratton, Tucson police chief Chris Magnus and Seattle police chief Kathleen O’Toole, among others.

The officials Clinton met with Thursday represent a group of nearly 200 current and former police chiefs, sheriffs, federal and state prosecutors and attorneys general from across the country that have pushed to reduce crime and incarceration.

Law Enforcement Leaders to Reduce Crime and Incarceration also recently wrote a letter to Clinton and Trump urging them to pursue policies to reduce crime and incarceration.

“I want to support them — our police officers — with the resources they need to do their jobs,” Clinton said Thursday, according to The Washington Post.

“I believe supporting our police officers and improving policing go hand in hand. Everyone is safer when there is respect for the law and when everyone is respected by the law.”

Tags 2016 presidential election Donald Trump Hillary Clinton Police