Texas Cops in 'Make America Great Again' Caps While Protecting Trump Disciplined [UPDATED]

SAN ANTONIO, TX -- The San Antonio Police Department seen earlier this week on video wearing "Make America Great Again" caps while on duty escorting Donald Trump were disciplined on Friday, the city's police chief said in a prepared statement.

Police Chief William McManus meted out discipline to 23 officers for violating departmental policy banning such shows of political endorsement while performing their official duties. The motorcycle police were helping the U.S. Secret Service in protecting the GOP presidential nominee while he was in town Oct. 11 for a fundraising event.

The supervisors involved received written reprimands, McManus said in a press release. The officers, meanwhile, were given written counseling for the violation in policy. All involved will receive additional training into the tactics of impartiality.

A snippet of video showing the cap-donning police surrounding Trump as he prepared to board his jet made national headlines. More than a dozen officers are shown posing for pictures with Trump. The police chief and the city's mayor subsequently expressed disappointment, noting that while officers are free to engage in political activity in their own time, it's not allowed while on the job.

While a police union leader said the police were merely "caught up in the moment" of a visiting dignitary, their wearing of the bright red caps emblazoned with Trump's slogan was seen as a not-so-tacit endorsement of Trump.

While on the stump, Trump has ingratiated himself to law enforcement as the self-described "law and order candidate," saying he favors "stop and frisk" tactics as a crime-fighting measure (even though they practice was ruled unconstitutional) and vowed to make the killing of an officer an offense drawing an automatic death sentence (even though he would be unable, even if he were to become president, from such unilateral action).

San Antonio city officials asked Trump remove the embarrassing video from his Twitter account, but, at last check, he hadn't complied with the request.

McManus said he met with each of the officers in the video individually in assessing the disciplinary actions. He said they used poor judgment with their enthusiastic shows of support for Trump.

“The San Antonio Police Department is dedicated to the citizens that we serve," he said in the prepared statement. "Our mission is to treat all people with integrity, compassion, fairness and respect. The recent actions by the officers assigned to the escort detail for the presidential candidate are inconsistent with our guiding principles.”

From Oct. 12:

SAN ANTONIO, TX — A group of San Antonio Police Department officers who donned Donald Trump's signature "Make America Great Again" baseball caps as they escorted him during a fundraiser visit will be disciplined for violating department policy, the chief of police confirmed Tuesday.

The local officers were on official duty during Trump's fundraising visit, assisting the Secret Service with Trump's motorcade.

Late Tuesday, SAPD Chief William McManus issued a statement expressing his disapproval of his officers' unabashed show of political support while officially on duty.

“The officers wearing the campaign hats while in uniform violated SAPD policy and will be disciplined appropriately," McManus said in a prepared statement. "SAPD officers are charged with protecting the entire community. The officers displayed poor judgment. I expect them to know better than to give the appearance of endorsing a candidate while on duty and in uniform, regardless of the political campaign or the candidate.”

San Antonio Mayor Ivy Taylor also expressed dismay at the officers' bold show of support while in their official capacity protecting the GOP nominee for president, writing on Twitter: "Deeply disappointed by@SATXPolice officers' lack of judgement today. Police must be above politics & serve everyone equally… Everything they do should send that message and today's actions did not."

Trump didn't object to the show of support, posting footage on his Twitter account of the officers wearing the caps emblazoned with the slogan "Make America Great Again" that has become his campaign mantra.

But San Antonio city officials didn't approve of Trump's use of the video. City Attorney Andy Segovia sent a letter to the Trump campaign on Tuesday requesting the video be removed from the GOP nominee's social media channels.

Trump dropped by San Antonio on Tuesday for another round of fundraising at the city. As reported by the Texas Tribune, he spoke for about 15 minutes at the fundraiser staged at the Grand Hyatt hotel in downtown San Antonio. Among those attending were Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (chairman of the GOP nominee's Texas operations) and Agriculture Secretary Sid Miller.

Like the cap-wearing cops, Trump himself made news on an otherwise low-key visit to the city. In the time he spent traveling from San Antonio to Dallas for more campaign cash from rich donors, he went off on a Twitter onslaught, criticizing members of his own party — chiefly U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan — in accusing them of "total disloyalty to the party."

Trump found himself aggrieved by his fellow Republicans after many revoked their previous endorsements following the release of a 2005 videotape during an "Access Hollywood" taping in which he was heard making lewd remarks about women that he dismissed as mere "locker room banter."

McManus didn't specify the type of punishment he would dole out to the officers, only saying they would be "disciplined appropriately.”

On the stump, Trump has capitalized on a growing distrust of law enforcement by some members of society to ingratiate himself to law enforcement. He vowed in the early part of his campaign to make the killing of a police officer a crime automatically eligible for the death sentence, while omitting that such an action could not be achieved unilaterally by a sitting president.

"One of the first things I’d do in terms of executive order if I win would be to sign a strong, strong statement that will go out to the country, out to the world, that anybody caught killing a policeman, policewoman, police officer — anybody killing a police officer: death penalty," he told a room filled with law enforcement officials last December in New Hampshire. "It’s gonna happen. OK? We can’t let this go."

Image via Gage Skidmore, Flickr, used under Creative Commons