Georgia sheriffs came out to express their opposition to the party’s platform on police reform ahead of a rally for Democrats Ossoff and Warnock.
Biden did not address the topic of law enforcement in his speech Tuesday, but previously, his statement on law enforcement has been: “I support conditioning federal aid to police based on whether or not they meet certain basic standards of decency and honorableness—and in fact are able to demonstrate they can protect the community.”
“That doesn’t change anything, the program by the Democrat party has been to defund the police,” said Sheriff R.L. Conway of the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office. “I urge all Republicans, Independents, and conservative Democrats to make sure we don’t have a government controlled by one party.”
“Yes, we have seen an uptick in criminal activity and it’s usually not people from our county. It’s people coming from other counties thinking that they can do the same thing here, but we have a very proactive law enforcement,” said Sheriff Frank Reynolds of the Cherokee Sheriff’s Office.
At Tuesday’s campaign event, Ossoff and Warnock said they aim for criminal justice reform.
Warnock said he stands by law enforcement, but wants to hold officers accountable. He didn’t elaborate further on his stance on law enforcement and neither did Ossoff.
Both Ossoff and Warnock have said that they do not support defunding the police, but they do support demilitarizing the police. Warnock specifically has said that he wants to reimagine policing. He says that by demilitarizing the police force it would allow for a better relationship between citizens and law enforcement.
