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COVID relief not cops
Biden’s gun violence package allows federal stimulus to go to police hiring. This is a fatal mistake.
In the early 1990s, a national panic over violent crime prompted the Clinton Administration to pass sweeping legislation that included $1.4 billion annually to hire 100,000 new police officers. As a result, police budgets swelled across the country and mass incarceration skyrocketed. Now, almost 30 years later, the architect of that bill is sitting in the White House. Joe Biden is responding to a similar public hysteria over gun violence by channeling massive amounts of federal funding to local police departments.
To quote Yogi Berra: It’s deja vu all over again.
Today, the Biden Administration rolled out its strategy for stemming gun violence. It authorizes state and local governments to use the $350 billion allotted under the American Rescue Plan to hire more police and pay overtime.
Tying the uptick in gun violence to the pandemic, the White House press release presents it as a legitimate COVID-related expense. Though it is framed as a way for local governments to make up for shortfalls, the strategy gives them carte blanche to use the funds to raise the number of officers to “above pre-pandemic levels.”
