'Defund police' movement drives officers toward Trump
Police unions that have previously kept mum on political positions at any level are siding with the president, creating a trickle-down effect.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The progressive "defund the police" movement is driving members of law enforcement nationwide to back President Trump on Election Day.
To endorse the president, police unions and associations are bucking the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations or AFL-CIO, according to a new report in The Washington Times.
They are also mobilizing in support of the incumbent, which could help Trump in tightly contested battleground states.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}PORTLAND MURDER SUSPECT MICHAEL REINOEHL HAD HAND ON POCKETED GUN WHEN POLICE SHOT HIM: OFFICIALS
A Harvard University researcher told the outlet that police accounted for more than 13,000 votes in Michigan in the 2016 election and over 27,000 in Pennsylvania.
Union chapters that have previously kept mum on political positions at any level are siding with the president, creating a trickle-down effect.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Organizations like those in western New York and North Carolina could play a critical role.
Police use chemical irritants and crowd control munitions to disperse protesters during the 100th consecutive day of demonstrations in Portland, Ore., on Saturday, Sept. 5, 2020. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Although the North Carolina Police Benevolent Association has endorsed state and regional candidates for 40 years, this year was the first federal endorsement in nearly two decades.
“Because of this particular election process with ‘defund the police,’ we decided to get involved in this presidential election,” explained the association’s executive director, John Midgette.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}While Democratic challenger Joe Biden has presented himself as a moderate candidate and previously claimed he would not defund police departments, the connection Biden had with law enforcement during more than four decades in Washington reportedly appears to be weakening following protests after the death of George Floyd, a Black man who perished while being detained by police.
In 1994, Biden backed a crime bill that included grant money to help communities hire 100,000 more police officers and he donated $26,000 in leftover campaign funds to build a memorial for fallen Delaware law enforcement in 2009.
Biden has since sought to distance himself from the 1994 legislation and called for dramatic overhauls to policing on the campaign trail.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Trump, meanwhile, has sought to position himself as a "law and order" president, characterizing the former vice president's stance on riots as weak and calling him a "puppet" of the radical left.
Although the Biden campaign has seen some support from organizations like the nonprofit National Association of Black Law Enforcement Executives and the National Coalition of Justice Practitioners, the influential National Association of Police Organizations has endorsed the president.
The nation's largest police union, the Fraternal Order of Police, has also endorsed Trump. Even the Delaware Fraternal Order of Police ditched Biden.
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Westmoreland County, Pa., Sheriff James Albert, 70, wrote in a scathing op-ed that he was outraged by Democrats’ refusal to condemn “arson, mob rule and attacks against law enforcement.”
“These outrageous, lawless acts have been met with silence, acquiescence and, in some instances, outright support from the local, state and national leadership of the Democratic Party,” said Albert, who changed his party affiliation to Republican.