The New York Police Department said it denied a request by Donald Trump to address its officers Friday.
According to the New York Daily News, NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton rejected the presumptive Republican nominee’s request to speak at a 3 p.m. roll call at the NYPD Midtown North Precinct in the wake of the Dallas attack on law enforcement officers that left five dead and seven others wounded.
“Our interest is staying out of the politics of the moment, and not to provide photo ops,” Bratton told reporters Friday. “If Mr. Trump wants to speak to me, I would be happy to brief him on what we’re doing. If Sen. Clinton wants to speak to me, I would very happy to brief her on what we’re doing. But we are not in the business of providing photo ops for our candidates.”
Trump’s campaign has denied making the request. The Republican was set to give a speech in Miami Friday afternoon, but postponed it over the Dallas shooting.
Bratton and Trump do not have a friendly past.
New York’s top cop strongly condemned Trump’s response to the June 13 terror attack in Orlando that left 49 dead and 53 others injured at a nightclub. Following the attack, Trump reiterated his called for halting Muslim immigration into the U.S. Bratton said that rhetoric makes his job harder.
“It works against the ability of police in this country to develop relationships with the communities,” Bratton said. “The idea of somehow singling out a community for penalties that don’t apply to other communities, or seem to single them out, I think is unnecessary, it is unfortunate, and it works against our ability to work with those communities.”
