Police Unions Abandon Biden After He Promotes Cop Reform
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden earlier in his career demonstrated support for police officers and their organized groups, but some in the law enforcement community claim he’s switched views amid the George Floyd riots.
Officers are finding themselves on the receiving end of mass violence in the midst of countrywide demonstrations that have resulted from the untimely death of George Floyd, who died after an officer kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes per a viral video. Biden’s change of perspective has been noticed by several top brass law enforcement figures, Politico finds.
“For Joe Biden, police are shaking their heads because he used to be a stand-up guy who backed law enforcement,” Bill Johnson, executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations, which endorsed Obama in 2008 and 2012, told Politico. “But it seems in his old age, for whatever reason, he’s writing a sad final chapter when it comes to supporting law enforcement.”
“There’s no time to waste — we need to get to work immediately on real police reform,” Biden said on Twitter Wednesday. “Congressman @Hakeem_Jeffries has a bill to outlaw chokeholds. Congress should put it on President Trump’s desk in the next few days. Period.”
Biden voted yes to several bills dubbed “tough on crime” before his presidential bid — one of them being the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, better known as the 1994 crime bill. The legislation increased both the number of police on the street and the scale of state prisons, and it also substantially harshened penalties surrounding violent offenses, according to a Fact Check report.
The bill was hallowed by officers around the country in a time where violence was on the rise. Recent statements from Biden suggest he will not be upholding the same values in 2020, as he indicated sympathies for reforming the law enforcement community rather than bolstering it.
Biden took to the podium Tuesday to promote “long overdue concrete changes” to the police system including restricting “weapons of war” to combat criminals.
Joe Biden recognizes the urgent need for real reform to address our broken policing system.
I’m proud to support him, and I look forward to seeing these reforms become law, so that what happened to George Floyd never happens again. pic.twitter.com/MKcOCk526Z
— Julián Castro (@JulianCastro) June 2, 2020
Some officers like Jim Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police and former in-house lobbyist for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, say they saw this coming in gradual shifts in Biden’s views on the issue.
“There are two evolutions in two directions. On law-and-order issues, Biden was right of center: the ‘94 crime bill, the Brady law and enhanced penalties. But as time has gone by, his positions have moderated, moderated, moderated to where we are today, where he would not be considered a law-and-order guy in the sense that law enforcement sees it,” Pasco told Politico.
Democratic Florida Rep. Val Demings, who has a likelihood to become Biden’s vice president, disagrees with the statements made by police unions.
“Law enforcement, firefighters know who Joe Biden is,” Demings told Politico. “They know who he is because he has stood with our public servants in the toughest time in their lives.”
The Biden campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org
De-fund Police is the scream by Left Wing Liberal Demo-Rats!
If I was a Police Officer, I wouldn’t wait for idiot State Governors and Mayors like in LA California, and NY State, and NY City, to vote away my job as a police Officer, I would walk out, Quit, and let these Idiot Governors and Mayors call ANTIFA, and BLM, who were behind the rioting, looting, and burning of numerous cities, to handle all Rapes, Robberies, and Murders, of which there would be millions!
There’s Not enough money anywhere, that would make me further put my life on the line to protect people, who do not deserve, and are Not fit, to be Protected!
Hope he goes down flames.
In flame….lololol
1000000% let the cities burn. That is the only way liberals will see the truth. They will beg for the police to return and i would demand double pay and extra benefits for my family. I mean, what world are we living in when people are literally condoning rioting, killing, hurting people? The media is as corrupted as ever. We need rich republicans with balls to start putting their money to work. Start buying tv channels and putting out movies to combat the brainwashing of america. Every damn where you turn liberals are running the show. Hell, mexico is looking pretty good right now.
Biden abandons biden so he can put his full support behind biden.