Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden opposes “defunding the police,” his campaign said on Monday, declining to embrace a rallying cry that has gained support among progressive activists and protesters demonstrating against police brutality.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden opposes “defunding the police,” his campaign said on Monday, declining to embrace a rallying cry that has gained support among progressive activists and protesters demonstrating against police brutality.
The growing calls to dismantle or reimagine U. S. police departments have put pressure on Biden and other Democratic leaders, who favor policing reforms but are wary of adopting a loaded phrase that some Democrats fear could be a divisive election issue.
President Donald Trump and other Republicans have seized on the “defund the police” slogan to suggest Democrats are bending to extremists at the expense of public safety.
The term is being used by activists to propose eliminating or cutting spending on police departments, often the largest expense for municipalities, and instead funneling the money to programs for education, social welfare, housing and other community needs.
Protests have roiled U. S. cities for more than two weeks since the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, after a white Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for almost nine minutes.
Biden, the former vice president, met with Floyd’s family in Houston for more than an hour on Monday to offer his sympathies.
In a statement, Andrew Bates, a Biden campaign spokesman, said Biden “does not believe that police should be defunded” but 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.
