President Joe Biden met with Attorney General Merrick Garland, local elected officials and police chiefs at the White House Monday to address rising crime and gun violence rates. The video above shows some of those officials talking to reporters after the meeting.
The New York Times, citing unofficial data from criminologists, reported homicides in major American cities rose 24 percent in the first half of 2021.
“We know when we utilize trusted community members and encourage more community policing, we can intervene before the violence erupts,” Biden said.
While President Biden supported social justice protests following George Floyd’s murder by former Minneapolis police office Derek Chauvin last summer, he explicitly opposes the “defund the police” movement.
Biden asked Congress to boost funding for community policing by $300 million. The president is requesting an additional $750 million for the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), as well.
White House officials said local communities around the country are using money from Biden’s COVID-19 rescue package to bolster summer programming, create job opportunities in at-risk communities, and fund community violence intervention programs – all measures aimed at reducing gun violence, according to an Al-Jazeera report.
Eric Adams, widely expected to become New York City’s next mayor, attended the meeting and opposes defunding the police based on his past experience in the line of duty.
“I was a transit police officer,” Adams said after the meeting, “I rode the trains alone. I don’t know why I have four or five police officers congregating around a booth area. So, let’s look at how we’re using our police officers and then make the determination, do we need more? That question is still a question mark. I think we have improper deployment of police officers.”
Adams told reporters that Biden did not ask officials for any commitment to hire more local police officers during the meeting.
