The press has let this little incident go down the memory hole. It should not be forgotten:

Trump paid $85,000 for full-page ads in four city newspapers in 1989 calling for the death penalty for Santana and four other teens whose videotaped confessions outraged the city -- confessions they insisted had been forced by police.

Trump, who has a "great relationship with the blacks", had this to say:

BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY. BRING BACK OUR POLICE!

What has happened is the complete breakdown of life as we knew it.

Many New York families … have had to give up the pleasure of a leisurely stroll in the park at dusk, the Saturday visit to the playground with their families, the bike ride at dawn – or just sitting on their stoops – given them up as hostages to a world ruled by the law of the streets, as roving bands of wild criminals roam our neighborhoods dispensing their own vicious brand of twisted hatred on whomever they encounter. At what point did we cross the line from the fine and noble pursuit of genuine civil liberties to the reckless and dangerously permissive atmosphere which allows criminals of every age to beat and rape a helpless woman and then laugh at her family’s anguish? And why do they laugh? They laugh because they know that soon, very soon, they will be returned to the streets to rape and maim and kill once again – and yet face no great personal risk to themselves.

Mayor Koch has stated that hate and rancor should be removed from our hearts. I do not think so. I want to hate these muggers and murderers. They should be forced to suffer and, when they kill, they should be executed for their crimes … Yes, Mayor Koch, I want to hate these murderers and I always will … I am looking to punish them … I no longer want to understand their anger. I want them to understand our anger. I want them to be afraid.

Let our politicians give back our police department’s power to keep us safe. Unshackle them from the constant chant of ‘police brutality’ which every petty criminal hurls immediately at an officer who has just risked his or her life to save another’s. We must cease our continuous pandering to the criminal population … send a message loud and clear to those who would murder our citizens and terrorize New York -

BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY

AND BRING BACK OUR POLICE!