WASHINGTON, D.C. (Texas Insider Report) — “For Joe Biden, police are shaking their heads because he used to be a stand-up guy who backed law enforcement. But it seems in his old age, for whatever reason, he’s writing a sad final chapter when it comes to supporting law enforcement,” said Bill Johnson, executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations (NAPO,) the strongest unified voice supporting Law Enforcement Officers in the U.S.
Founded in 1978, NAPO represents more than 241,000 sworn Law Enforcement Officers, and serves as the umbrella organization for the Police Benevolent Association's 1,000 police units and Chapter Associations.
Though most police tend to lean conservative politically, the criticism from the National Association of Police Organizations is new. NAPO endorsed Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 because of Biden’s presence on the ticket, Johnson said.“Police are shaking their heads — he used to be a stand-up guy who backed Law Enforcement,” said another top official.
“Clearly, he’s made a lot of changes the way candidates do during the primary process. But he kept moving left, and fell off the deep end,” said NAPO's Johnson.
“Clearly, he’s made a lot of changes the way candidates do during the primary process. But he kept moving left, and fell off the deep end,” said NAPO's Johnson.
Biden’s immediate call earlier in the week for more "National Policing Reforms" and oversight in the wake of George Floyd's death in Minneapolis has created an immiediate fissure between his campaign and law enforcement groups, leaving many who once supported him frustrated by what they see as political posturing from their one-time ally.
They believe Biden — who has has long prided himself on being a union-friendly Democrat — has quickly abandoned them for political reasons amid a nationwide crises, and has reversed his support of Law Enforcement men and women during the violent protests and destruction
As the two presidential candidates confront one of the most racially combustible moments in recent history, they are taking decidedly different tacks.
- President Donald Trump has issued a full-throated call to restore “Law & Order” — even threatening military action to beat back violent protests.
- Biden, on the other hand, has tiptoed around the defense of Law Enforcement, focusing instead on the need for "reforms" — claiming deep-seated racial disparities plague the nation.
He made only a passing mention of police officers — including those who have been killed during the past week's violence.In the speech, Biden pledged to establish a "National Police Oversight Commission" during his first 100 days should he be elected, and called on Congress has called for legislation to outlaw the use of chokeholds by police.
“We all need to take a hard look at the culture that allows for these senseless tragedies to keep happening,” said Biden.
In the battleground state of Florida, Sheriff's Association President Bob Gualtieri criticized Biden’s National Oversight Commission pitch for community policing as a “contradiction” that’s indicative of political posturing.
“Law enforcement recognizes we have work to do,” said Gualtieri, a moderate Republican who represents St. Petersburg’s Pinellas County.
“But for Joe Biden or anyone else to start calling for all these ‘reforms’ reminds me of what happened under the Obama administration. It wasn’t productive in its relationship with law enforcement.
"A national law enforcement commission sounds like a lot of political rhetoric.”
“But for Joe Biden or anyone else to start calling for all these ‘reforms’ reminds me of what happened under the Obama administration. It wasn’t productive in its relationship with law enforcement.
"A national law enforcement commission sounds like a lot of political rhetoric.”
In fact, the 2012 Obama-Biden re-election campaign marked a watershed political year in the relationship between Law Enforcement and the Democrat Party.
More than eight months before Obama’s re-election, the Black Lives Matter movement was begun in response to the shooting death of black Florida teenager Trayvon Martin by a self-appointed neighborhood watchman.
Black Lives Matter made police brutality, systemic racism, and the 1994 Crime Bill which Biden helped pass as top issues for liberal-progressives in the 2016 and 2020 Democrat primaries.
- SEE RELATED STORY: NAPO Condemns AZ Democrats Invocation of Cop-Killer in Response to George Floyd’s Death
“There are two evolutions in two directions. On law-and-order issues, Biden was right of center: the ‘94 crime bill, the Brady Law and enhanced penalties."But as time has gone by, his positions have moderated, moderated, and moderated to where we are today. He would not be considered a law-and-order guy in the sense that law enforcement sees it,” Pasco said.
“Also, as time's gone by, the law-enforcement community — especially the rank and file — has become far more conservative. Today, the FOP and other labor groups are far-less open to addressing gun-control issues, things that traditionally they supported and that Biden worked very closely and successfully with them on.”
Biden's conundrum is that the 1994 crime bill serves as the poster child for the mass-incarceration movement that swept states, and Biden has struggled to win support with progressives and young voters of color as a result.
Minorities are demanding concessions from Biden over the crime bill’s popularizing mass incarceration, which was highlighted recently during a Biden interview two weeks ago with popular black radio show host "Charlamagne tha God."
During the interview, Biden made his now infamous gaffe of saying “you ain’t black” if you are an African-American who supports President Trump.
Biden apologized for his remark, but more recently has claimed he was "baited" by Charlamagne tha God.
Appealing to progressives instead of supporting the nation's police has become a balancing act for Biden — who's long pitched himself as “Middle Class Joe” — as well as the Democrat Party in their attempts to win favor with blue-collar union households in the midwest.
The Trump campaign has criticized Biden for failing to mention the numerous police that have been either been killed, wounded or attacked during the recent rioting and unrest.
“Biden has not said a single word about one of the most horrific aspects of the bloodshed: attacks by rioters and looters, sometimes fatal, on police officers in the line of duty protecting innocent Americans,” the Trump campaign said Wednesday, highlighting the police deaths and injuries in eight separate instances nationwide.
At the urging of numerous police groups, President Trump has rolled back a series of Obama-era police "reforms."
During the Obama Admnstration, law enforcement and civilians sat on his 2015 "Task Force on 21st Century Policing," but “there was not a good working relationship” between the administration and law enforcement, said David Mahoney, sheriff of Wisconsin’s Dane County and the incoming president of the National Sheriffs’ Association.
During the Obama Admnstration, law enforcement and civilians sat on his 2015 "Task Force on 21st Century Policing," but “there was not a good working relationship” between the administration and law enforcement, said David Mahoney, sheriff of Wisconsin’s Dane County and the incoming president of the National Sheriffs’ Association.
Mahoney,who is a registered Democrat, said a number of sheriffs felt “there was a lot of hand-holding, and no action” from the Obama administration.
