Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., rejected a call by Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., call for “no more policing” or “incarceration” following the shooting of Daunte Wright in Minnesota.
“I think that what we need to do is to understand that there needs to be major, major police reform all across this country,” Sanders told CNN.
“We are tired of seeing the same thing, week after week and year after year,” he continued. “We do not want to see innocent African Americans shot in cold blood.”
Sanders was one of the only progressives unwilling to endorse the “Defund the Police” movement after the death of George Floyd last year.
He said the country instead needs “well-trained, well-educated, and well-paid professionals in police department,” which would require more funding, not less.
“Do I think we should not have police departments in America? No, I don’t. There’s no city in the world that does not have police departments,” he said at the time.
Earlier this week, Tlaib called the shooting “government-funded murder” and claimed “policing in our country is inherently & intentionally racist.”
“No more policing,” she said. “It can’t be reformed.”
It wasn’t an accident. Policing in our country is inherently & intentionally racist.
Daunte Wright was met with aggression & violence. I am done with those who condone government funded murder.
No more policing, incarceration, and militarization. It can’t be reformed.
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) April 12, 2021
Several other Democrats have also distanced themselves from Tlaib’s comments.
“I think she’s expressing her frustrations and what she hears from her constituents,” House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., said on Tuesday. “And I can understand that,” but the U.S. has “got to have police officers, he added.
