Former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign said Monday he does not believe in anarchic abolition of community police which has since become the latest demand of the contemporary civil rights movement under the banner of “Black Lives Matter.”
“Biden does not believe that police should be defunded,” campaign Rapid Response Director Andrew Bates said. “Biden supports the urgent need for reform — including funding for public schools, summer programs, and mental health and substance abuse treatment… This also means funding community policing programs that improve relationships between officers and residents.”
Full statement from Biden campaign on the issue of “defunding police,” which he says he doesn’t support. pic.twitter.com/9jmJlWk8lB
— Philip Melanchthon Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) June 8, 2020
The new spotlight on criminal justice and police reform have resurfaced scrutiny of Biden’s own past on the issue, which briefly came up in the early phases of the Democratic primary last summer, but faded as the field swelled and rival radicals began to shift attention elsewhere in the contest. In 1994, Biden played a key role in crafting the 1994 crime bill as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee coronating him as the “Architect of Mass Incarceration” by Democratic New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker.
California Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris, who tip-toed around the issue of defunding police on ABC’s “The View” Monday, also went after Biden for his previous opposition to bussing, a method used to integrate public schools.
The movement to abolish local police departments has become a rallying cry for civil rights activists convinced that every facet of American society is irredeemably racist and therefore requires radical changes that lead to the total destruction of law and order.
On Sunday, the Minneapolis City Council announced it had a veto-proof majority to officially disband the city’s police department charged with protecting nearly half a million residents a day after the Democratic mayor was booted from a protest for refusing to endorse the radical demands.
“I do not support the full abolition of police,” Mayor Jacob Frey told an angry gathering of Black Lives Matter demonstrators followed by a walk of shame.
“Go home,” protesters yell at Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey because he said he doesn’t want to defund the police
pic.twitter.com/00MIM60P5L— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) June 6, 2020
Minneapolis City Council President Lisa Bender tried to quell concerns of those fearing rampant lawlessness by instructing those with such worries to check their privilege.
“I mean I hear that loud and clear from a lot of my neighbors – and myself, too, and I know that that comes from a place of privilege,” Bender said on CNN.
Florida Democratic Congresswoman Val Demmings, who tops the vice presidential shortlist this summer told CBS Monday she believes the Minnesota City Council was being “thoughtful,” without providing explicit support for defunding.
