Vice President Kamala Harris refused to answer a question during an interview on Saturday whether more funding was needed for police departments as they combat a surge in violent crime across the U.S.
When asked by left-wing journalist Soledad O’Brien how the administration was trying to balance fighting crime while reforming policing, Harris responded: “I’d say that we should not be offered and certainly not accept a false choice.”
Harris said that laws needed to be passed to hold police accountable “for police officers who break the rules or break the laws.”
“We also need to on the broader issue, understand this and this is what I put in the context of saying we should reimagine how we think about public safety,” Harris continued. “There are certain communities for which we see a big police presence. And other communities, we don’t see a big police presence. But you know, what you see in those communities? Well funded schools, high rates of homeownership, small businesses that have access to capital, people who have access to health care, including mental health care, and it’s affordable and available. And in those communities, you don’t see a large police presence, let’s understand what makes for a healthy community.”
While she continued to list off things that she believes the government should provide people, O’Brien asked, “While also paying for more police officers?”
“Well, I think that listen, there’s no question that we need to agree that if a woman is raped, if a child is molested, if one human being kills another human being, there needs to be consequences,” Harris said. “We want that there will be a police officer there to take that report. I don’t think we can accept a false choice.”
“We have to understand that while we want that we have under resourced, our public education system, our health care system, our system that should be about supporting, you know, entrepreneurs in every community with a particular emphasis on low income communities, on black and brown communities,” she continued. “That’s the work that needs to happen. And we’ve not done that. And if you want to really deal with the issue of how you support healthy communities that can thrive, you got to make sure that communities have the basic resources that anybody needs to be successful. And we’ve not done a good job of that.”
Again, Harris did not answer O’Brien’s question about “paying for more police officers.” Harris only referenced things that are already serious crimes in the U.S. as she then deflected into talking about needing to provide resources for certain communities.
WATCH:
TRANSCRIPT:
SOLEDAD O’BRIEN: I want to turn to talk about crime and policing. Crime is down in every category, I was surprised to read, except for the big one, which is homicide, gun violence up. The administration is proposed using federal funds, the money from the American Rescue Plan, to really fund police departments. At the same time, there have been many calls, as you will know, about defunding police or taking money from police department budgets and using them, you know, for example, to help with mental health issues. So, to fund something else. How do juggle those two things? How do you both reform the police, make policing different at the same time, give money to police departments?
KAMALA HARRIS: Yeah. Well, first, I’d say that we should not be offered and certainly not accept a false choice. Like when we’re talking about gun violence, we need to deal with that. So as an administration, we’re saying, for example, the firearms dealers, that those who are violating law, there needs to be a consequence for that, on the issue of policing, we need accountability. And we are, and I was actually one of the original authors of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. And I feel very strongly that needs to be passed, there needs to be accountability for police officers who break the rules or break the laws. We need to have a ban on chokeholds, we need to deal with accountability in terms of legal accountability. So all of those things need to happen. We also need to on the broader issue, understand this and this is what I put in the context of saying we should reimagine how we think about public safety. There are certain communities for which we see a big police presence. And other communities, we don’t see a big police presence. But you know, what you see in those communities? Well funded schools, high rates of homeownership, small businesses that have access to capital, people who have access to health care, including mental health care, and it’s affordable and available. And in those communities, you don’t see a large police presence, let’s understand what makes for a healthy community. And it includes the resources that everybody needs every day. And in that way, when I think about what we need to do to be smart and achieving public safety, let’s provide access to capital for small businesses and communities. Let’s make sure that our schools are well funded, and our teachers are well paid in public schools. Instead of what’s happening now, which is over 90% of public school teachers have to come out of their own pocket to help pay for school supplies. Let’s deal with access to health care, including mental health care. Let’s include creating incentives for homeownership, financial incentives, which is part of a policy that I’ve been advocating for years.
O’BRIEN: While also paying for more police officers?
HARRIS: Well, I think that listen, there’s no question that we need to agree that if a woman is raped, if a child is molested, if one human being kills another human being, there needs to be consequences. We want that there will be a police officer there to take that report. I don’t think we can accept a false choice. We have to understand that while we want that we have under resourced, our public education system, our health care system, our system that should be about supporting, you know, entrepreneurs in every community with a particular emphasis on low income communities, on black and brown communities. That’s the work that needs to happen. And we’ve not done that. And if you want to really deal with the issue of how you support healthy communities that can thrive, you got to make sure that communities have the basic resources that anybody needs to be successful. And we’ve not done a good job of that.
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Source: Dailywire
