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    • Harris was once tough on crime. How does he view the police now?
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    Harris was once tough on crime. How does he view the police now?

    Harry Posted on

    Which Harris is running for president? The 2009 Harris who wrote that ‘serious and violent criminals should be incarcerated’, or the 2019 Harris who made freeing them a priority?

    Jeffrey Seaman and Paul Robinson
    | Opinion contributors

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    Which Kamala Harris is running for president? So which Democratic Party does he represent?

    Democrats want you to think Vice President Harris He was once a tough, no-nonsense prosecutor. Republicans would have you believe he was a “pro-crime” progressive and voiced their support. defunding the police.

    The problem is that they are both right. Harris was a crime fighter who valued enforcing the law. Harris then rebranded herself as a progressive prosecutor to appeal to the left wing of her party. Now he remains silent to avoid controversy. But the real problem is not that Harris has changed; The change of the Democratic Party.

    The indisputable truths Harris spoke as San Francisco district attorney cannot be repeated in today’s Democratic Party because they have become too controversial. Like Harris, the Democratic Party doesn’t seem to know where it stands on crime. Democrats should read Harris’ 2009 book To find the way back to common sense.

    Harris wasn’t always a ‘progressive prosecutor’

    The conservative claim that Harris has always been a progressive radical on crime is simply not true. When elected San Francisco district attorney In 2003, his views were fairly moderate, supporting social interventions to prevent crime with a strong desire to prosecute criminals.

    Harris shared her views on criminal justice in her 2009 book “Smart on Crime.” 2009’s Kamala Harris called for:More police officers on the streetsdeployed more effectively” was considered one of its top priorities. He also condemned what he called “”.partisan liberal argument …the police are an unwelcome occupying force in poor neighborhoods.”

    He correctly noted that the police were desperately sought by law-abiding residents of poor and minority neighborhoods. The prospect of cities trying to depolice or create police-free zones would have horrified the 2009 Harris.

    As Harris writes: “Not sending the police because we assume they are unwanted or it goes against the basic principles of democracy because it is somehow not ‘fair’ for society to respond to criminals. … All communities want and have the right to have the law enforced. “Law enforcement needs to investigate and prosecute all crimes and make all streets safe.”

    During always opposed the death penaltyHis record as San Francisco District Attorney was far from progressive. He attacked drug courts, which he thought let drug dealers off the hook. He wrote that thieves should be punished, regardless of their motivation. He fought for higher bail amounts to keep dangerous criminals behind bars and reduce gun violence.

    Harris had 2009 in her own words: “Desire to prosecute criminals to the fullest extent of the law.”

    Idea: Harris lies about Trump and flip-flops on policy. What does it really represent?

    But then the Democratic Party changed. So is Harris.

    Later Black Lives Matter movement As he rose to national prominence in 2014, progressives increasingly turned against law enforcement. Suddenly the police started to be racist. Prison was racist. Enforcing the law was racist. The left wing of the Democratic Party has forgotten the truths Harris wrote in her book: Police are not occupying forces, and while there is of course always room for police reform, high-crime communities need more police, not less.

    Looks like Harris forgot about his book, too.

    When he first ran for president in 2019, he toyed with progressives to win votes. “progressive prosecutorput on the hashtag and attacked Joe Biden very tough on crime. He repeated the claim that Michael Brown was killed (Despite the Ministry of Justice’s investigation to the contrary), shady attacked “systemic racism” in the justice system and advocated for a range of policies designed to get criminals back on the streets.

    Ironically, despite his repositioning, his record was too conservative for progressives. Then Representative. Tulsi Gabbard famously annoyed Harris on the Democratic debate stage for being too tough on crime by prosecuting drug offenders and fighting to keep criminals in prison.

    As Democrats move left on crime, so does Harris

    After riots broke out following the police killing of George Floyd in 2020, progressives called for the dismantling of the police. Democratic Party leaders stepped back and stood by.

    Harris helped raise bail funds for protesters and rioters are spreading chaos in Minneapolis and Praise for Los Angeles mayorEric Garcetti for cutting $150 million from the police budget. more than 20 cities They cut police budgets. crime increased.

    Idea: Harris’ CNN interview reinforces the focus on fracking and the border. It’s disappointing.

    Once the disastrous consequences became clear, Democratic leaders scrambled to eliminate the “Defund the Police” slogan, but their message on crime remained mixed and vague. The Democratic Party is torn between common-sense moderates who demand enforcement of the law and radical progressives who demand more police cuts and prison closures. Today, Democrats continue to ignore the issue to avoid an intra-party civil war. Harris is no exception.

    Which Harris is running for president? Is it 2009 Harris who wrote this?serious and violent criminals need to be imprisoned” or the 2019 Harris who has made releasing serious criminals a priority? The 2009 Harris who called for more police on the streets, or the 2020 Harris who praised police disbandment? We don’t know because he doesn’t say. And he doesn’t say that because the Democratic Party is divided between those who want to jail criminals and those who want to jail cops.

    For the good of their country and their party, Democrats need to rediscover common sense on crime. As Harris wrote in her 2009 book, “It is ultimately our duty to ensure justice for the victims and prevent future victimization.”

    This shouldn’t be controversial, but that’s the way it is in today’s Democratic Party. And this will continue to be controversial until Democrats speak out about the truths that Harris did in 2009 but didn’t say in 2024.

    Jeffrey Seaman is a Levy Fellow and Paul Robinson is the Colin S. Diver Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. They are the ultimate co-authors”Confronting the Failures of Justice: Surviving Murder and Rape“

    Harry
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