A week ago today, responding to the violence and unrest in cities across America in the wake of the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, Joe Biden wrote an op-ed in USA Today in which he said,
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.”
The far left of the Democratic Party is not having it, as Fox News’s Peter Doocy tells us in this report.
Dozens of progressive activists are trying to pull Biden further left, warning him in a letter, ‘You cannot win the election without the enthusiastic support of black voters and how you act in this moment of crisis will play a big role in determining how black voters and all voters concerned with racial justice respond to your candidacy.’ Biden’s platform includes this, ‘I’m proposing an additional $300 million to reinvigorate community policing in our country.’ Some law enforcement officers aren’t pleased. The president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association told the Wall Street Journal, ‘I know he has his heart in the right place. He believes in law enforcement. But he needs to come out and say it.
The signers of the letter to Biden go on to say that he should ensure,
that the federal government permanently ends and ceases any further appropriation of funding to local law enforcement in any form, whether it be money for trainings, equipment, hiring, re-hiring, overtime,”
The letter goes on to admonish Biden to support a long list of polices laid out in an agenda published by a group called The Movement for Black Lives. Those policies include reparations for black Americans, the ending of arrests for minor violations such as shoplifting and traffic stops and the release of all detainees held on bond.
Among the signatories to the letter is the Bernie Sanders-linked group Our Revolution, Black Voters Matter and the League of United Latin American Citizens, commonly known as LULAC.
The letter is a strong indication that the party is not yet united behind Joe Biden’s candidacy. During primary season it was well known that Democratic Party leaders feared that a successful nomination bid by the avowed socialist Bernie Sanders would lead to election day disaster in November. Biden was seen by party leaders as a more moderate, and thus more electable choice, than Sanders.
But the Sanders wing of the party isn’t giving up in its quest to pull the party sharply to the left even as President Trump continues to promote law and order.
Americans want law and order. They demand law and order. They may not say it. They may not be talking about it. But that’s what they want.”
Rioting across America loomed large over the election of 1968. A reprise of 1968 could be in store for 2020.