Via AP:
President Donald Trump is pledging to "destroy" the violent MS-13 street gang and other similar organizations.
He says he's more focused on MS-13 because it is "particularly violent." Trump says MS-13's members don't like to shoot their victims because death comes too fast. He says MS-13 members prefer to knife and cut their victims, so they die slowly and more painfully.
Trump says of MS-13: "These are animals."
The president is addressing law enforcement officials and relatives of crime victims in Brentwood, in Suffolk County, New York, where MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, has committed a string of gruesome murders, including the April killing of four young men.
President Trump appeared to advocate rougher treatment of people in police custody during the speech.
Trump spoke dismissively of arresting officers who protect suspects' heads while putting them in police cars in a speech in front of law enforcement on Long Island.
He said: "You can take the hand off," drawing cheers from his audience.
Trump also claimed that laws are written to "protect the criminal" and "not the officers."
He told the law enforcement officials that the "laws are stacked against you" and need to be changed.