Former Vice President and current Democrat candidate, Joe Biden, is now supportive of redirecting some of the police budget towards social services. Last month he proposed an additional $300 million for police across the country, but he just recently said he supports redirecting some of the police funding towards other programs as well.
The candidate joined Ady Barkan for a short interview and provided his quick response that included points on defunding police, police reform, and prison reform.
Barkan posted the following to go with his video, “to make #BlackLivesMatter, we need to redirect money away from police departments into mental health care, affordable housing, good jobs & restorative justice. I asked Joe Biden what he thinks about this approach. Watch his answer.”
And here’s Ady Barkan’s video interview with Joe Biden:
To make #BlackLivesMatter, we need to redirect money away from police departments into mental health care, affordable housing, good jobs & restorative justice.
I asked Joe Biden what he thinks about this approach. Watch his answer. pic.twitter.com/vnXhhhw7Rx
— Ady Barkan (@AdyBarkan) July 8, 2020
Biden at one point stated that “surplus military equipment for law enforcement? They don’t need that… The last thing you need is an up-armored Humvee coming into the neighborhood, it is like the military invading, they don’t know anybody, they become the enemy. They’re supposed to be protecting these people.”
When Biden is asked if he agrees that America should “redirect some of the funding” from the police to numerous social services programs, Biden doesn’t hesitate to say: “Yes. Absolutely.”
However, Biden previously wrote an op-ed for USA Today where he previously stated he did not support defunding police, but instead giving them the proper funding needed to create reform from within. Biden wanted to give an extra $300 million towards community policing.
“While I do not believe federal dollars should go to police departments violating people’s rights or turning to violence as the first resort, I do not support defunding police. The better answer is to give police departments the resources they need to implement meaningful reforms, and to condition other federal dollars on completing those reforms.
I’ve long been a firm believer in the power of community policing — getting cops out of their cruisers and building relationships with the people and the communities they are there to serve and protect. That’s why I’m proposing an additional $300 million to reinvigorate community policing in our country. Every single police department should have the money it needs to institute real reforms like adopting a national use of force standard, buying body cameras and recruiting more diverse police officers.”