Biden is refusing to get onboard with the defend the police movement, saying today that he doesn’t believe the police should be defunded:
POLITICO – A national movement to defund police is gathering steam — but former Vice President Joe Biden is not on board.
“As his criminal justice proposal made clear months ago, Vice President Biden does not believe that police should be defunded,” Biden spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement Monday afternoon.
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,” Bates said.
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.
“The former vice president’s platform also calls for increasing investment in law enforcement…” Yeah, that’s the exact opposite of what the defunders want. I’m sure that’s going to go over well with them.
But for the rest of America, this was a smart move. If Biden had become the candidate for defunding, it would have made voting for Trump, as the law and order candidate, even easier for many in November.
By rejecting the defund movement, it at least keeps Biden and Trump on “equal footing”, at least in some people’s minds.