The murder of a police officer should be a federal crime, and anyone breaking that law should be sentenced to death, New York media personality and ex-NYPD detective Bo Dietl said Monday, a day after four police officers were shot, one fatally, on Sunday.
"This is a plague across our country," Dietl told Fox News' "Fox & Friends" program, while also noting he plans to challenge New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, as a fellow Democrat, for mayor.
"This is 129 killed this year. What I'm calling out to our new president-elect, it should be a federal crime when you kill a police officer and you should be open for the death penalty."
Four police officers were shot dead in separate incidents across the nation, and police are saying two of them were specifically targeted, with one of those officers dying of his wounds.
In San Antonio, Detective Benjamin Marconi, 50, a 20-year department veteran, was shot to death in his squad car, while he was parked outside police headquarters writing a traffic ticket. Also on Sunday, a police sergeant is in critical condition after being shot twice in the face during in an ambush shooting while he was sitting in traffic in his police cruiser.
Officers were also shot on Sunday in Gladstone, Missouri, and Sanibel, Florida, while they were making traffic stops, but it's not known if they were targeted for being police officers.
Dietl said he's been involved with President-elect Donald Trump since the beginning, and Trump is "one of the greatest supporters of the police. You are not going to see none of this nonsense going on which has been the last eight years across the country."
President Barack Obama, said Dietl, says nothing when police officers are shot, but "when there's a questionable shooting of a black man, all of a sudden he goes and opens his big mouth. Why isn't he say anything about these poor police officers? When those five officers were killed in Dallas and others in Louisiana?"
But with Trump in office, "he should make it a federal crime and he can if you kill a police officer, you should be put up for execution," said Dietl.
Also on Monday, Dietl said he agrees with Trump's stance on banning federal funding from sanctuary cities, and the issue will come into play for his mayoral campaign, as de Blasio disagrees with Trump.
"My feelings are if you commit a crime, you are illegally in this country," said Dietl. "Bye-bye, you get them out of the United States of America. Nobody should be able to commit a crime who is illegal in this country and stay."
He said he also believes immigrants need to be identified.
"What is the problem with knowing who is in our city, whether they are illegal or legal?" said Dietl. "I want to know where, who they are. I'm not sitting here saying I want to deport 11 million people. I'm saying we must identify the people who are here."
Also on Monday, Dietl commented on the extra money being spent to protect Trump, who has been conducting a series of high-profile transition meetings at Trump Tower in Manhattan.
De Blasio has said he will seek reimbursement for the NYPD, and Dietl agrees that the federal government should pick up the tab.
"This is the president of the United States and we must protect him and his family and the costs should be picked up by the federal government and shouldn't be pushed upon the New York City Police Department," said Dietl. "That's the only thing I agree with de Blasio on."