She just Cut the police budget — She wants to go easy on criminals who attack police officers.
A public records review revealed that Vice President Harris supported a pretrial diversion policy for suspects who assault police officers while she was San Francisco's district attorney.
Harris served as California's district attorney from 2004 to 2010 before becoming California's attorney general.
Harris came into office promising to get tough on violent lawbreakers, making her abandonment of law enforcement officers all the more painful.
“Violent people must be held accountable,” she said in February 2007 after announcing plans to get tougher on assaults on police officers, according to SFGate. Report.
But according to local reports, Harris' plans were thwarted by San Francisco public defender Jeff Adachi, who reportedly surprised Harris after Adachi staged a formal protest outside police headquarters. Adachi died in 2019, and a subsequent autopsy confirmed the deaths. Cocaine contributed to his death.
“This was Kamala's first change of heart,” said a former San Francisco police officer who remembers the situation well. “We felt betrayed.”
In a compromise with Adachi, Harris said misdemeanor assaults on police officers could be eligible for pretrial diversion and that battering an officer could be remedied with counseling and other services rather than prison time.
“At the end of the day, if a suspect assaults a police officer, he should go to jail, not school,” San Francisco Police Capt. Kevin Cashman said at the time, noting that hitting a prosecutor is still an instant one-way ticket to state prison.
Officer assaults that leave “visible or serious or substantial injury” would still be subject to traditional prosecution. The policy allows judges to make decisions on a case-by-case basis.
“We had arrests on Friday and Saturday nights, juveniles, assaults, a variety of reasons. It was very frustrating for our officers because these cases were not being prosecuted,” said Steven Tacchini, who is now retired after 35 years with the San Francisco Police Department.
Harris' policy would have allowed not only punching and slapping, but also spitting on police officers with impunity.
The San Francisco Police Officers Association issued a formal letter of protest.
“We believe a clear and resounding message needs to be sent to those who physically attack those charged with protecting our society,” they wrote in a letter to Harris in 2007. “It is unacceptable to grant pretrial detention to those who assault police officers simply because they have no visible injuries.”
Harris' anti-police record continued throughout her career. As violent Black Lives Matter protests flared up in 2020, Harris, then a U.S. senator, spoke out against the He praised the movement to defund the police. And she supported Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti's plan to cut $150 million from the police budget that year. She likened policing to lynchings and Jim Crow laws.
“We need to redirect resources away from the police.” She said Shortly after the death of George Floyd.
A representative for Harris did not respond to The Washington Post's request for comment.
