2020
ELECTIONS
Biden rejects calls to defund police
While Biden supports increased funding for some
programs that activists support, he also calls for increasing investment in law
enforcement.
By MAX
COHEN
06/08/2020
02:08 PM EDT
Updated:
06/08/2020 06:56 PM EDT
A national
movement to defund police is gathering steam — but former Vice President Joe
Biden is not on board.
“No, I
don‘t support defunding the police," Biden said in a CBS interview excerpt
aired Monday evening. “I support conditioning federal aid to police based on
whether or not they meet certain basic standards of decency and honorableness
and, in fact, are able to demonstrate they can protect the community and
everybody in the community.”
Earlier in
the day, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee’s campaign stressed
the need for law enforcement reforms like community policing, increased
diversity in police hiring and funding for body cameras. Yet Biden’s desire for
“transformative change” in the criminal justice system falls short of what many
progressive activists are calling for in the wake of the police killing of
George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died last month in Minneapolis.
“Biden
supports the urgent need for reform — including funding for public schools,
summer programs, and mental health and substance abuse treatment separate from
funding for policing — so that officers can focus on the job of policing,”
Biden spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement Monday afternoon.
While Biden
supports increased funding for some programs that activists support, the former
vice president's platform also calls for increasing investment in law
enforcement, a stance that runs counter to what many protesters have called
for.
Last year,
Biden released his plan for criminal justice reform, which pledged to invest
$300 million into community policing efforts and would require police to
reflect the racial composition of their communities.
Activists
in favor of defunding police have instead advocated for money that would
otherwise be earmarked for law enforcement instead be diverted toward other
programs that address issues like homelessness and mental health. Proponents
say that key to their demands is the fact that police brutality disproportionately
affects communities of color. There is not widespread agreement on whether
defunding the police would lead to disbanding all police.
“The end
goal of these reforms is not to create better, friendlier, or more
community-oriented police or prisons,” the group's website reads. “Instead, we
hope to build toward a society without police or prisons, where communities are
equipped to provide for their safety and wellbeing.”
In
Minneapolis, the site of Floyd’s killing, the City Council announced on Sunday
that it had a veto-proof majority to dismantle its police department.
Later on
Monday afternoon, Trump communications director Tim Murtaugh labeled the Biden
statement as “weak.”
The 'Defund
the Police' train has already left the Democrat station, and Joe Biden is
merely a weak passenger," Murtaugh said in a statement.
Matthew
Choi contributed to this report.
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