Biden campaign rejects calls to defund police

Source: Politico | June 8, 2020 | Max Cohen

While Biden supports increased funding for some programs that activists support, he also calls for increasing investment in law enforcement.

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.

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.

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