GARY PEARCE: Can Democrats remove the 'defund the police' albatross?
Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021 -- Eric Adams, the Democrats nominee for New York City mayor, shows you can be tough on crime - and tough on police racism and misconduct. Democrats will need to be both in 2022 and 2024.
Posted — UpdatedCrime issues have bedeviled Democrats for decades. Every time they get painted as soft on crime, they lose elections.
In 1968, it was “law and order” campaigns by George Wallace and Richard Nixon. In 1988, it was the Willie Horton ad that George H.W. Bush and Lee Atwater used against Michael Dukakis. In 2020, it was “Defund the Police,” which some Democrats say kept them from winning a majority in the North Carolina House or Senate.
Beasley’s campaign made clear that she doesn’t support defunding the police.
Democrats don’t have to fall into this trap.
President Biden didn’t. In 2016, he made a point of opposing defunding police. He also had a record of supporting anti-crime bills in the Senate.
One key to former Gov. Jim Hunt’s victories in 1976, 1980, 1992 and 1996 was that he took strong stands on fighting crime. Governors Mike Easley and Roy Cooper earned crime-fighting credentials as state attorneys Ggneral. Easley had been a prosecutor and district attorney. A drug kingpin once threatened to kill him.
Bill Clinton ran in 1992 as a “new kind of Democrat” – meaning, in part, not soft on crime like the hapless Dukakis. In 1994, President Clinton supported a tough law that was blamed for causing mass incarceration.
In 2020, Donald Trump falsely claimed Biden used the term. He also falsely claimed Biden supported defunding police. Trump, in effect, attacked Biden as too tough on crime and too soft on crime. That didn’t add up.
There is a tension here: balancing legitimate concerns about crime with legitimate concerns about police conduct.
Adams, who is Black, grew up in poverty. He says he was beaten by police officers before he joined the force. The Times said:
“He spent years drawing attention for challenging police misconduct, only to emerge as the most public safety-minded candidate in this year’s mayoral primary. His striking trajectory and promises to combat inequality helped him connect with a broad swath of Black and Latino voters and with some white working-class New Yorkers.”
Adams shows you can be tough on crime – and tough on police racism and misconduct. Democrats will need to be both in 2022 and 2024.
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