SENATOR Bernie Sanders said he doesn’t support abolishing police departments as some in the “progressive movement” and Black Lives Matter protesters have called for. Sanders, an Independent lawmaker from Vermont, told The New Yorker in an article published on Tuesday: “Do I think we should not have police departments in America? No, I don’t.” “There’s […]
SENATOR Bernie Sanders said he doesn’t support abolishing police departments as some in the “progressive movement” and Black Lives Matter protesters have called for.
Sanders, an Independent lawmaker from Vermont, told The New Yorker in an article published on Tuesday: “Do I think we should not have police departments in America? No, I don’t.”
“There’s no city in the world that does not have police departments,” he said. “I think we want to redefine what police departments do, give them the support they need to make their jobs better defined.”
“So I do believe that we need well-trained, well-educated, and well-paid professionals in police departments.”
The senator continued: “Too often around this country right now, you have police officers who take the job at very low payment, don’t have much education, don’t have much training — and I want to change that.”
Sanders said that “many police departments and cops deal every day with issues of mental illness, deal with issues of addiction, and all kinds of issues which should be dealt with by mental-health professionals or others, and not just by police officers.”
“Anyone who thinks that we should abolish all police departments in America, I don’t agree.”
The self-described democratic socialist said Congress should adopt “police-department reform on top of over-all criminal-justice reform.”
Sanders said he proposed the idea to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, in a letter.
Former Vice President and presumptive Democratic nominee for president Joe Biden agrees with Sanders.
Andrew Bates, an aide for Biden’s campaign, said on Monday Biden “hears and shares the deep grief and frustration of those calling out for change” following the death of George Floyd.
Bates said, however, that Biden “does not believe that police should be defunded,” as some Minneapolis authorities are pursuing locally and some activists are demanding nationally.
He added Biden’s priority is to “improve relationships between officers and residents.”
Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died in the custody of the Minneapolis Police Department on May 25 after he was arrested for allegedly trying to use a fake $20 bill to buy cigarettes.
In the weeks since, protesters have been calling for police departments to be “defunded” or “abolished.”
Supporters say it isn’t about eliminating police departments or stripping agencies of all of their money.
But rather they say it’s time for the US to address systemic problems in policing in America and spend more on what communities across the country need, like housing and education.
The Minneapolis City Council voted on Sunday to disband the police department, and councilmember Jeremiah Ellison, who tweeted about it, didn’t explain what would replace the department.
Disbanding an entire police department has happened before.
In 2012, the New Jersey city of Camden disbanded the force and replaced it with a few one that covers Camden County.
In California, Compton took the same step in 2000, shifting its policing to Los Angeles County.
