Speaking to reporters on public safety Friday, President Biden said that critics of bail reform have over-exaggerated its fallout, namely the increasingly common occurrence of criminals being released and re-offending within a short time window.
“I think the negative side of bail reform is vastly overrated. The idea that you have no ability to make bail because you’re poor. It should relate to the severity of the crime and what you’re accused of,” Biden said.
When asked to address growing concerns with the leniency of progressive prosecutors and its potential connection to spiking crime in major cities, Biden dismissed that it plays a significant role.
“That is on balance not been the biggest problem, the leniency of prosecutors,” he said.
Progressive district attorneys in cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco have come under fire in the last year for enacting policies that have reduced criminal sentencing and relaxed law enforcement, which many residents claim have emboldened criminals and incentivized crime.
A district attorney analysis report from September 2021 found that bail reform efforts in Houston that allow more suspects accused of low-level crimes to get out of jail without posting a cash bond resulted in increased recidivism and more violent crime, National Review previously reported.
In his presentation, Biden doubled-down on the now-debunked allegation that the GOP voted to defund the police in rejecting the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Democrats passed and he signed in March, which contained ambiguous provisions about state and local funds, none of which were reserved for law enforcement.
“Not a single Republican member of Congress voted for the money, for law enforcement, for public safety and to stabilize these budgets. Not a single one,” he claimed.
The “defund the police” mantra was first popularized by certain Democrats, especially members of the “squad,” who made it a major platform priority. The Democrats’ pivot on “defund the police” comes with the caveat that they appear to be redefining policing, encouraging a switch from traditional strategies for combatting crime to “community-based” methods and rehabilitation for offenders.
“Congressional Republicans voted unanimously in Congress against every cent of the $10 billion that’s now being used by over 300 communities to put more cops on the beat and invest in neighborhood-based crime prevention programs,” an administration official said in a call with reporters ahead of Biden’s speech, the New York Post reported Friday.
Biden repeatedly urged localities to “spend the money” appropriated by the American Rescue Plan to bolster police departments in anticipation of an uptick in crime this summer. He touted that his administration “provided $350 billion directly to cities counties and states,” money that could be invested to “hire back police officers” and “community violence eruption prevention programs.”
Standing behind Biden at the podium Friday were mayors and police officers from a number of towns and cities, including Kansas City, Tulsa, Baton Rouge, Tampa, Toledo, and Houston, which he claimed were success stories for utilizing American Rescue Plan funds to support their reformed policing efforts.
They used the funds to ” invest in police retention efforts,” “modernize training facilities,” “gun violence prevention,” “gun shot detection technology,” and “buy new patrol cars,” for example, Biden said.