In the tumultuous summer of 2020, amidst the Black Lives Matter protests and riots, then-Senator Kamala Harris expressed her support for the controversial "defund the police" movement.
During a radio interview in New York, Harris asserted that the BLM movement was "rightly" questioning the significant allocation of funds to police departments at the expense of social services such as education and housing.
As reported by The Post Millennial, when queried about her stance on the "Defund the police" movement, Harris suggested that the nation needed to "reimagine how we are creating safety" within the police system. She further argued that merely "putting more cops on the street" in high-crime areas would not necessarily lead to a reduction in crime. She contrasted this with suburban neighborhoods, where residents have "access to public health and mental health services" among other resources.
This whole movement is about rightly saying, we need to take a look at these budgets and figure out whether it reflects the right priorities, Harris stated, implying that cities were over-militarizing their police forces. She emphasized the need for a critical examination of the system, stating, Its not working. So, this is an important conversation and not just a conversation cause to your earlier point, cant just be about talk. It has to be about forcing change.
Harris's comments were made in the wake of George Floyd's death, an event that ignited immediate demands by activists, particularly in Minneapolis, to "defund" the police and redirect funds towards social services. Harris also commended Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti for his decision to slash $150 million from the police budget.
However, the narrative shifted when Joe Biden selected Harris as his vice-presidential candidate for the 2020 election. The campaign sought to downplay her previous comments and portray her as a supporter of law enforcement. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris do not support defunding the police, and it is a lie to suggest otherwise, the campaign press secretary declared in October 2020. Throughout her career, Sen. Harris has supported increasing funding to police departments and boosting funding for community policing.
As Harris prepares to accept the Democratic Partys nomination for president, her past comments on police funding are likely to be brought back into the spotlight. Despite her ongoing support for the BLM movement, the organization has surprisingly denounced Harris rather than endorsing her nomination. The group criticized the party for nominating Harris without a public voting process following Biden's announcement that he would not seek re-election.
Installing Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee and an unknown vice president without any public voting process would make the modern Democratic Party a party of hypocrites, the group stated. This unexpected rebuke from BLM raises questions about the Democratic Party's commitment to transparency and democratic processes, even as it champions progressive causes.
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