Daily US Times: President Joe Biden has revealed a plan that includes funding more police nationwide to combat a nationwide surge in homicides, which he blamed on lax gun control.
The US president said officials in high crime areas can hire more law-enforcement personnel using coronavirus relief funding.
Mr Biden’s crime-fighting strategy calls for curtailing firearms trafficking and rogue gun dealers.
Republicans are depicting Mr Biden’s Democratic Party as weak on crime, amid calls by left-wingers to defund the police.
While announcing his five-point strategy at the White House on Wednesday, Mr Biden urged cities and states to use $350bn (£250bn) of funding from a Covid-19 relief bill on public safety efforts, including adding more police officers, even beyond pre-pandemic levels.
President Biden – who as a senator wrote a 1994 crime bill widely blamed for mass incarceration of black people – said: “It means more police officers, more nurses, more counsellors, more social workers or community violence interrupters to help resolve issues before they escalate into crimes.”
Some members of Mr Biden’s Democratic Party have amplified calls by Black Lives Matter activists to defund the police, though the president himself has resisted the slogan, which is unpopular with most voters.
Mr Biden said on Wednesday: “This is not a time to turn our backs on law enforcement or our communities.”
Unless tamed, the crime wave in the United States is likely to become a major issue ahead of next year’s congressional mid-term elections.
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