Progressive groups demand that Joe Biden "put forward a transformative and comprehensive policing and criminal justice platform"

As reported in this Hill piece, dozens of "liberal groups have signed on to a letter warning presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden that he could lose the November election to President Trump if he doesn’t adopt more progressive policing policies." Here is more:

The letter, which is signed by leading national progressive groups, including the Working Families Party, Our Revolution and Black Voters Matter, urges Biden to adopt a 21-page policy proposal released by The Movement for Black Lives to promote reducing incarceration and scaling back police forces across the country.

The groups are also asking Biden to drop his recent proposal to add $300 million in funding for the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program, which would hire and train additional police officers to patrol within the communities where they live.

“We make these demands first and foremost because we seek justice for George Floyd and Breonna Taylor — as well as all the other Black lives lost — and policies like these are what justice looks like in practice,” the letter says. “But we also make them with an eye toward the November election. … You cannot win the election without the enthusiastic support of Black voters, and how you act in this moment of crisis will play a big role in determining how Black voters — and all voters concerned with racial justice — respond to your candidacy. A ‘return to normalcy’ will not suffice,” they wrote.

The progressive groups were scathing in their assessment of Biden’s record on criminal justice issues. “In the course of your political career, you have designed and endorsed policies that have significantly exacerbated these problems,” the letter states. “As a Senator, you not only supported, but in many cases authored and championed laws that expanded mass incarceration, increased police powers, and exacerbated racial disparities in surveillance and sentencing. These laws … are a part of the history that has led us to this moment, and their ongoing fallout has contributed to the outpourings of grief and anger we are seeing today,” they wrote.

The full letter, which is datad June 11, is available at this link. 

A few related posts:

• An initial list of federal sentencing reforms to advance greater equity and justice for congressional consideration (from this month)
• A few interesting accounts of Joe Biden on criminal justice (from this month)
• Might the 2020 campaign bring back "law and order" as a political wedge issue? (from Jan 2020)
• Former Veep Joe Biden releases extended "Plan for Strengthening America’s Commitment to Justice" (from July 2019)