Biden backs funding more police to fight a crime wave
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Alaina
- . June 24, 2021
- . Update: June 24, 2021 9:27 pm
US President Joe Biden urged state and local governments to use $350 billion in COVID-19 funding from the American Rescue Plan to fight crime by hiring new police officers in the task force. He stressed that the fund could be used to help reduce gun violence amid the nation’s recent surge in violent crimes.
President mentioned that providing more guidance on how [state and local governments] can use the $350 billion nationally that the American Rescue Plan has available to help reduce crime and address the root causes. For example, cities experiencing an increase in gun violence were able to use the American Rescue Plan dollars to hire police officers needed for community policing and to pay their overtime.
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However, not everyone supports Biden’s decision. Others call to increase police funding underscores his differences with some on the progressive wing of the Democratic Party to defund the police in the wake of last year’s mass protests against police brutality and racial injustice. American Rescue Plans explains that more police officers, more nurses, more counsellors, more social workers, more community violence interrupters to help resolve issues before they escalate into the crime.
This fun became really significant as the country saw the violent crimes spike in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic emerged has continued to escalate under Biden. During the first three months of 2021, murders in 37 cities increased by 18 per cent when compared to the same period last year, especially in New York and Chicago. Representative are of the opinion that the current infrastructure exists as policing should not exist anymore, and they can’t go about creating a different process with the same infrastructure in place.
