Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Tuesday called on Congress to enact police reforms to address racial inequality and slammed President Trump.
Biden on Tuesday acknowledged that there is “no place for violence, no place for looting or destroying property or burning churches or destroying businesses.” He also said that many of the hurt business are “built by people of color who for the first time in their lives are starting to realize their dreams and build wealth for their families.”
But the former vice president largely trained his focus on what he described as police overreach into “excessive violence” to quell the angry protests over Floyd’s death.
“Nor is it acceptable for the police sworn to protect our people to escalate tension or resort to excessive violence,” Biden said. “We need to distinguish between legitimate peaceful protests and opportunists' violent destruction. We have to be vigilant about the violence being done by this incumbent president to our economy and to the pursuit of justice.”
The former vice president pointed to several bills he said Congress could pass right away to address "police brutality," including legislation that would outlaw chokeholds, limit the transfer of “weapons of war” to police departments, and create a new oversight and accountability model for use of force within police departments, the Hill reports.
On Monday Biden suggested that police officers facing subjects armed with knives should "shoot the legs."
“Instead of standing there and teaching a cop, when there’s an unarmed person coming at them with a knife or something, you shoot them in the leg instead of in the heart is a very different thing. There’s a lot of different things that could change,” Biden said in a meeting with community leaders at Bethel AME Church in Wilmington, Del.
