Seattle U in the News: Criminal Justice Chair in New York Times Story About Trump Support for Police

Matthew Hickman, PhD, professor and chair of the Seattle U Criminal Justice Department, was among those interviewed by The New York Times for the story "Trump Continues Criticism of Movement to Defund the Police." 

Here are excerpts of the story with Professor Hickman's remarks:

"Matthew J. Hickman, a criminal justice professor at Seattle University, said that Mr. Trump and his administration were leaning into a campaign tactic of supporting police officers and calling for law and order, strategies that have been around since the Nixon era.

"But Mr. Hickman pointed out that the president’s efforts have been undercut by his threatening language, and that his requests for the police to toughen their responses to protesters have led to criticism from police chiefs in Chicago, Houston and elsewhere.

“'Any police executive with a head on their shoulders rejects this idea that they somehow need to be tougher on protesters,” Mr. Hickman said, citing as an example Art Acevedo, Houston’s police chief, who last month publicly criticized Mr. Trump’s comments. “The ‘law and order’ thing is nothing new, but what is new in the Trump era is police chiefs pushing back on that.”'