US democrat and presidential hopeful Joe Biden has rejected calls by fellow democrats and members of the black lives matter movement to defund the police following protests over racism and police brutality across the United States.
According to the Biden campaign spokesperson, Andrew Bates the former vice president does not believe in defunding the police.
“As his criminal justice proposal made clear months ago, Vice President Biden does not believe that police should be defunded,” he said.
“He hears and shares the deep grief and frustration of those calling out for change, and is driven to ensure that justice is done and that we put a stop to this terrible pain,”
“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 added.
There have been calls from leading democrats as well as activists across the US for police departments to be defunded in cities and counties across the country.
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This has however not gone down well with most Republicans, including President Donald Trump who reminded people that he is a president of Law and Order in a tweet disapproving of the calls.
Notable Republicans also accused their democrat counterparts of going too far with their calls for reform of the police.
The democrat Mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey also disagreed with majority of the city council members who voted for the police department to be scrapped.
Like most democrats he said he would support sweeping reforms but not the scrapping of the police department or its defunding.
Biden’s campaign said he was supportive of funding for policing programmes that works towards improving public relations between the communities and police, diversifying police departments, as well as the usage of body cameras.
The support group didn’t miss an opportunity to take a swipe at Donald Trump saying his administration has made police reforms difficult.
“There are many police departments across the country who are seeking to realize these kinds of changes, but haven’t had the resources to — and the Trump administration has in fact made obtaining those resources more difficult. This is at the core of Joe Biden’s plan to bring transformative change to our criminal justice system, Bates said.
The director for Trump’s campaign, Andrew Clark however mocked Biden on Twitter saying;
“Biden is “too afraid of the far left to unequivocally say it himself on camera.”
Trump’s campaign Communications Director, Tim Murtaugh also said Biden’s silence is proof of his support for calls to defund the police.