在北卡罗来纳州达勒姆八月的一次竞选活动中，前州首席大法官切丽·比斯利民主党参议员候选人自豪地宣称她不支持撤销对警察的资助。
“重要的是，他们有资源来确保执法人员的安全，”她说。
随着共和党人抨击总统乔·拜登及其政党，用他们的话说，对犯罪手软，对执法支持不够，比斯利和其他民主党人在摇摆州的竞选中一直在反击，他们打出广告，兜售他们对警察的支持，并与当地执法官员一起出现在路上。
对于比斯利和佛罗里达州民主党参议员候选人、众议院议员、前奥兰多警察局长瓦尔·戴明斯(Val Demings)来说，这也意味着吹捧他们的资历。
“我已经当了20多年的法官，”比斯利在那次达勒姆事件中说。“我曾担任北卡罗来纳州最高法院的法官和首席大法官。作为一名法官，我一直努力维护法治和宪法。”
戴明斯在一份声明中告诉ABC新闻:“作为(奥兰多的)警察局长，我必须管理人员、资源，并在顺境和逆境中平衡1.3亿美元的预算。”
“责任由我承担，”她补充道。“我总是选择艰苦的工作，我知道我在我的社区里有所作为。我很自豪能够讲述这个故事。”
比斯利和戴明斯都提出了警务改革的建议，或者在戴明斯的案例中，共同发起了一项重大法案，民主党人表示，该法案将在乔治·弗洛伊德被谋杀后彻底改革该系统。但是戴明斯也强调了她对增加执法经费的支持——在她的网站上，她被描述为“严厉打击犯罪”
在达勒姆竞选活动期间，比斯利详细介绍了她作为参议员如何游说保护官员的正当程序权利，增加培训资金，解决人员短缺问题，并为执法人员提供心理健康服务。
比斯利和戴明斯的共和党对手也标榜自己是执法支持者。参加北卡罗来纳州参议员竞选的众议员特德·巴德(Ted Budd)已经获得了该州骑警协会的支持。与此同时，卢比奥播放了一些执法人员攻击戴明斯在国会期间治安记录的广告。
Former Orlando Police Chief and candidate for U.S. Senate Val Demings, speaks with people during a Veterans for Demings meetup in Tampa, Fla., Aug. 31, 2022.
玛莎阿森西奥-莱茵河/坦帕湾时代通过ZumaPress
为什么民主党人对“撤销警察拨款”持谨慎态度
概括地说，“解除警察武装”运动对执法部门的问责制和有效性持怀疑态度。它鼓励从警察部门剥离资金，并将资金分配给非警务形式的公共安全和社区支持，如扩大对处于危机中的人的精神健康和社会服务，而不是将应对任务交给警察。
2020年弗洛伊德在明尼阿波利斯被一名警察谋杀后，这场运动达到了新的高度。
虽然“解除警察的资金”很快在活动人士和民主党基础的许多部分中变得突出，并受到一些进步议员的欢迎，但党内领导人长期以来一直警告不要使用这一口号，称这不是他们的观点，或者这是一种简化。在2020年12月的美国有线电视新闻网(CNN)上，当被问及民主党人与“德富德”的联系是否导致他们在2020年大选中失去众议院席位时，众议院多数党党鞭吉姆·克莱伯恩(Jim Clyburn)表示，他在选举前就反对“口号”。
克莱伯恩说:“约翰(路易斯)和我坐在众议院的地板上，谈论那个‘解散警察’的口号，我们两人得出结论，它有可能对黑人的命也是命运动和目前全国各地的运动产生影响，就像1960年‘燃烧，宝贝，燃烧’对我们产生的影响一样。”。
民主党国会竞选委员会主席、纽约州民主党众议员肖恩·帕特里克·马洛尼(Sean Patrick Maloney)同样在2021年5月的一次党团会议电话会议上表示，事实证明，在2020年的大选中，共和党人对反腐败警察运动的攻击比预期的更具破坏性。
在今年早些时候的第一次国情咨文中，乔·拜登总统明确表达了他对执法的立场，他说执法需要资金。
“答案是不要停止资助警察，”他说。
一些进步人士不同意:“我们国家所做的只是给警察更多的资金。结果呢?密苏里州众议员柯里·布什写道:“2021年创下了警察致命枪击的记录。”推特3月，反驳拜登。
在接受采访时“本周”今年早些时候，众议院议长南希·佩洛西被问及某些类型的犯罪上升以及民主党在这个问题上的分歧。佩洛西说，给警察拨款“不是民主党的立场”
皮尤研究中心发布了一份投票2021年10月的调查显示，47%的成年人表示应该增加他们所在地区的警务开支。
他们说，比斯利和戴明斯关于执法的信息反映了他们的价值观，以及战略家所说的吸引选民的竞选季计算。这两人是战场州的主要参议员候选人，在这个周期中，民主党人需要几乎每一场胜利才能从复苏的共和党手中保住他们在国会的多数席位。
“有人指控民主党人支持撤销对警察的资助，但民主党人花了一点时间才最终做出回应，”与任何一个种族都没有关系的民主党战略家索绮特·伊诺霍萨说。“他们做出了强有力的回应，因为这不是真的，民主党人不支持削减警察经费。所以现在你看到民主党人正面解决这个问题，我认为这是明智之举。”
伊诺霍萨告诉美国广播公司新闻，比斯利和戴明斯是在一个“独特的情况下”讨论支持警察，同时仍然表示支持一些变化。
伊诺霍萨说:“我认为，由于他们在执法方面的背景，他们不仅能够谈论如果当选他们会做什么，而且还能谈论他们已经做了什么，以及他们的经验，这使他们处于一个独特的境地，可以正面解决这个问题。”。
犯罪问题可能会在全国范围内的激烈竞争中产生影响。A马奎特大学法学院民意调查本月早些时候发布的对威斯康星州参议员和州长竞选的分析显示，61%的注册选民担心犯罪。这个问题是该州选民最关心的五个问题之一。
当按政治派别划分时，71%的州共和党人表示担心，相比之下，47%的民主党人和61%的无党派人士表示担心。
马奎特大学法学院民意调查主任查尔斯·富兰克林告诉美国广播公司新闻，共和党在中期选举中利用犯罪作为反对民主党的一个问题。
“在(威斯康星州)参议员竞选中，早期的负面广告和现在的负面广告试图将(副州长)曼德拉·巴恩斯与犯罪联系起来，”富兰克林说，他指的是现任参议员罗恩·约翰逊的民主党挑战者。(巴恩斯的一名助手在回应ABC新闻时说:“他(约翰逊)喜欢指责犯罪，但后来投票反对警察拨款，而巴恩斯副州长和埃弗斯州长实际上投资了公共安全和执法。)
外部战略家Hinojosa说，考虑到选民的感受，民主党人需要明确他们在执法方面的信息。众议院民主党人-考虑到中期选举和对共和党攻击敏感的温和派的要求-周四努力通过一揽子警察拨款法案。
“他们谈论更多的是解决犯罪和社区治安，并确保我们的执法人员得到培训，并有资源接受培训，”伊诺霍萨说。
戴明斯也将自己的资历集中在这条路上。她的竞选邮件仍然称她为“局长”
Beasley and Demings show how 'unique' swing-state Democrats are embracing law enforcement
During an August campaign event in Durham, North Carolina, former state Chief JusticeCheri Beasley, the Democratic candidate for Senate, proudly proclaimed thatshe does not support defunding the police.
"It's important that they have the resources to make sure that law enforcement officers stay safe," she said.
As Republicans have hammered President Joe Biden and his party as, in their words, soft on crime and insufficiently supportive of law enforcement, Beasley and other Democrats in swing-state races have been pushing back, running advertisements touting their support for police and appearing with local law enforcement officials on the trail.
For Beasley and Florida's Democratic Senate hopeful Val Demings, a member of the House of Representatives and former Orlando police chief running against Sen. Marco Rubio, that also means touting their credentials.
"I've been a judge for over two decades," Beasley said at that Durham event. "I served as a judge and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina. And as a judge, I have always worked hard to uphold the rule of law as well as upholding the Constitution."
"As chief of police [in Orlando], I had to manage people, resources, and balance a $130 million budget during good times and bad times," Demings told ABC News in a statement.
"The buck stopped with me," she added. "I always chose tough jobs and I know I made a difference in my community. I am proud to tell that story."
Both Beasley and Demings have either proposed changes to policing or, in Demings case, co-sponsored a major bill that Democrats said would overhaul the system in the wake of George Floyd's murder. But Demings has also stressed her support for increasing law enforcement funding -- with her website describing her as "tough-on-crime."
During the Durham campaign event, Beasley detailed how as a senator she would lobby for protecting due process rights for officers, increasing funding for training, addressing staff shortages and providing mental health services for law enforcement officers.
Beasley and Demings' Republican opponents have also branded themselves as law enforcement supporters. Rep. Ted Budd, running in the North Carolina Senate race, has touted his endorsement from the state's trooper association. Meanwhile, Rubio has run ads featuring some law enforcement officers attacking Demings for her record on policing while in Congress.
Why Democrats are cautious about 'defund the police'
Broadly speaking, the "defund the police" movement is skeptical of law enforcement's accountability and effectiveness. It encourages divesting funds from police departments and allocating the money to non-policing forms of public safety and community support, such as expanding mental health and social services for people in crisis rather than tasking officers with responding.
The movement reached new heights following Floyd's murder by a police officer in Minneapolis in 2020.
While "defund the police" quickly became prominent among activists and many parts of the Democratic base -- and was embraced by some progressive lawmakers -- leaders in the party have long cautioned against the slogan, saying it's not their view or that it's reductive. On CNN in December of 2020, when asked if Democrats being tied to "defund" contributed to their losing House seats in the 2020 election, House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn said that he had come out before the election against "sloganeering."
"John [Lewis] and I sat on the House floor and talked about that 'defund the police' slogan, and both of us concluded that it had the possibilities of doing to the Black Lives Matter movement and current movements across the country what 'Burn, baby, burn' did to us back in 1960," Clyburn said.
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y., likewise said in May 2021, during a caucus call, that Republicans' attacks on the defund the police movement proved to be more damaging in the 2020 election than anticipated.
In his first State of the Union address, earlier this year, President Joe Biden made clear his stance on law enforcement, saying they need to be funded.
"The answer is not to defund the police," he said.
Some progressives disagree: "All our country has done is given more funding to police. The result? 2021 set a record for fatal police shootings," Missouri Rep. Cori Bush wrote onTwitterin March, rebutting Biden.
During an interview on"This Week"earlier this year, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was asked about the rise in certain kinds of crime and Democrats' division on the issue. Pelosi said defunding police is "not the position of the Democratic Party."
The Pew Research Center released apollin October 2021 which showed that 47% of adults said that spending on policing in their area should be increased.
Beasley and Demings' messaging on law enforcement reflects both their values, they say, and what strategists call a campaign season calculation to appeal to voters. The two are major Senate candidates in battleground states, in a cycle in which Democrats need almost every victory in order to retain their majority in Congress from a resurgent GOP.
"There were allegations made that Democrats support defunding the police and it took a bit of time for Democrats to finally respond," said Xochitl Hinojosa, a Democratic strategist unaffiliated with either race. "And they responded forcefully because it is not true and Democrats do not support defunding the police. So now you're seeing Democrats tackle that issue head-on, which I think is smart to do."
Hinojosa told ABC News that Beasley and Demings are in a "unique situation" to discuss supporting police while still voicing support for some changes.
"I think that because of their backgrounds in law enforcement, they're able to not only talk about what they would do if they were to be elected, but they're talking about what they have done and their experience that puts them in a unique situation to tackle the issue head-on," Hinojosa said.
The issue of crime could be impactful in battleground races across the country. AMarquette University Law School Pollreleased earlier this month analyzing Wisconsin's Senate and governor race showed that 61% of registered voters were concerned about crime. The issue ranked among the top five issues for voters in the state.
When broken down by political affiliation, 71% of state Republicans were concerned compared with 47% of Democrats and 61% of independents.
Charles Franklin, the director of the Marquette University Law School Poll, told ABC News that the GOP had seized on crime as an issue to use against Democrats in the midterm elections.
"In the [Wisconsin's] Senate race, early negative ads and now current negative ads try to link [Lt. Gov.] Mandela Barnes to crime," Franklin said, referring to the Democratic challenger to incumbent Sen. Ron Johnson. (A Barnes aide told ABC News in response to the ads, "He [Johnson] loves to point fingers about crime, but then voted against police funding while Lt. Governor Barnes and Governor Evers actually invested in public safety and law enforcement.)
Hinojosa, the outside strategist, said that Democrats need to make clear their messaging on law enforcement, given voters' feelings. House Democrats -- mindful of the midterm elections and at the request of moderates sensitive to GOP attacks -- on Thursdayworked to pass a package of police funding bills.
"They are talking more about tackling crime and community policing and ensuring that our law enforcement is trained and has the resources to be trained," Hinojosa said.
Demings, too, is keeping her credentials in focus on the trail. Her campaign emails still refer to her as "chief."
