Imagine, if you will, the president of the United States encouraging police to disregard the safety of citizens taken into police custody.

Now, to reality: Trump told officers assembled for his speech at Suffolk County Community College in New York: “’When you guys put somebody in the car and you’re protecting their head, you know, the way you put their hand over?’ Trump said, miming the physical motion of an officer shielding a suspect’s head to keep it from bumping against the squad car. ‘Like, don’t hit their head, and they just killed somebody — don’t hit their head,’ Trump continued. ‘I said, you can take the hand away, okay?'”

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There you have it; the president of the United States encouraging police to ignore rules and procedures governing the treatment of people in custody; the president, instructing police to disregard their training on the handling of people apprehended for suspected criminal activity.

Trump, successor to Lincoln, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Reagan and Obama, suggesting that the officers should just go ahead and dole out a little bit of pain to suspects, after all, as the told the audience, “they just killed somebody.”

It fell to the Suffolk County Police Department to set the president straight. Responding to a question regarding officers who applauded Trump’s comments, the department said Friday that they would not accept this treatment of people in custody.

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“The Suffolk County Police Department has strict rules and procedures relating to the handling of prisoners, and violations of those rules and procedures are treated extremely seriously,” the department said in an emailed statement. “As a department, we do not and will not tolerate ‘rough[ing]’ up prisoners.”

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Other law enforcement officials around the country have also condemned Trump’s remarks. But the damage has already been done.

It happened. The occupant of our nation’s highest office giving the green light to police misconduct and greedily seeking applause for doing so.

There is no limit to the depths to which Trump, the inciter, will sink. It’s clear which way he is headed. At issue: Will he be allowed to take the presidency, and the nation’s honor, with him?