Vice President Kamala Harris called for removing police officers from schools in 2019 to address racial disparities in student discipline.<\/b>
\nVice President Kamala Harris called for the removal of police officers from schools in 2019 to address racial disparities in student discipline, according to remarks she made during her first presidential campaign.
In a 2019 interview during her initial run for the presidency, then-Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) argued for eliminating on-campus police presence to address racial inequities.
In a recently resurfaced clip of the event, Harris voices her concerns about the disproportionate rates of suspensions and expulsions among black and brown students, calling for a reevaluation of how discipline is enforced in schools.
\u201cWhat we need to do about demilitarizing our schools and taking police officers out of schools. We need to deal with the reality and speak the truth about the inequities around school discipline,\u201d she says. \u201cWhere in particular, black and brown boys are being expelled and or suspended as young as \u2026 in elementary school.\u201d
Her comments came during the Presidential Justice Forum at Benedict College in South Carolina where she outlined her vision for criminal justice reform, including reducing juvenile incarceration, which she described as \u201ctraumatic,\u201d and ending solitary confinement for minors.
In light of her comments, backlash ensued online, with many expressing concerns over the safety implications of her proposal.
\u201cWhy does she want our kids to be less safe?\u201d asked Donald Trump Jr.
\u201cInsanity,\u201d responded radio talker Clay Travis. \u201cI want every school to have an officer and I\u2019m glad my kids schools have them.\u201d
\u201cThis is sickening,\u201d wrote Parkland parent Andrew Pollack. \u201cMy daughter was killed because Parkland didn\u2019t have enough security.\u201d
\u201cWe need more school resource officers \u2014 not fewer!\u201d he added.
\u201cKamala\u2019s policies show how much she hates the police,\u201d insisted former top Trump administration official and former U.S. ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell.
\u201cOnce the General Public Realizes how radical Kamala is, its over,\u201d wrote podcast host Cash Loren.
Harris\u2019s stance on demilitarizing schools was part of a broader criminal justice reform platform she promoted during her 2020 presidential bid.
During the 2020 anti-police riots \u2014 the most costly in U.S. history \u2014 many leaders in blue cities caved to BLM\u2019s (Black Lives Matter) call to \u201cdefund the police,\u201d which became popular with Democrats during and after the 2020 presidential election season.
However, crime surged nationwide after progressives campaigned endlessly against police, leading to eroded confidence in law enforcement, sunken police morale, and an officer exodus.
Big cities also continued to see an upward trend of violent crime in places such as Los Angeles and New York City \u2014 both of which defunded their departments and employed soft-on-crime \u201cbail reform,\u201d which allows career criminals back on the streets.
In response, Democrats began distancing themselves from the policies they pushed, at one point even attempting to blame Republicans for defunding police.
Similarly, several school districts across the nation responded to protests over George Floyd\u2019s death by severing ties with police departments. However, rising concerns over school violence later prompted some districts to reinstate school resource officers.<\/p>\n