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John Oliver on Police

June 8, 2020 at 2:36 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

John Oliver: “Our whole show is actually going to be about one thing, and you probably know what, and you probably know why.”

A must-watch episode.

Filed Under: Crime and Punishment

Biden Does Not Support Defunding Police

June 8, 2020 at 1:09 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The Biden campaign released a statement:

“As his criminal justice proposal made clear months ago, Vice President Biden does not believe that police should be defunded. He hears and shares the deep grief and frustration of those calling out for change, and is driven to ensure that justice is done and that we put a stop to this terrible pain.”

Axios reports the statement dropped immediately after the Trump campaign held a call with reporters that stressed the president opposes calls to defund the police and called on Biden to clarify his position.

Filed Under: 2020 Campaign, Crime and Punishment

McCarthy Says Democrats Turn Their Backs on Police

June 8, 2020 at 11:19 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) slams Democrats as they release police reform legislation:

“To the police officers across the country who put on the uniform every day and uphold their oath—THANK YOU. Democrats want to defund you, but Republicans will never turn our backs on you.”

Filed Under: Crime and Punishment


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Democrats Unveil Police Reform Legislation

June 8, 2020 at 10:54 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Congressional Democrats unveiled sweeping police reform legislation in response to protests after the killing of George Floyd, the Washington Post reports.

“The Justice in Policing Act of 2020 would ban chokeholds, establish a national database to track police misconduct and prohibit certain no-knock warrants, among a range of steps. Democratic leaders of the House and Senate released the legislation that had been drafted by members of the Congressional Black Caucus.”

A powerful photo shows the most senior Democrats in government kneeling in the Capitol, minutes before introducing the bill.

Filed Under: Crime and Punishment

Democrats Grapple with ‘Defund the Police’

June 8, 2020 at 9:37 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Playbook: “Most elected Democrats will get asked over the next few days and weeks whether they support defunding the police. It will prove to be a tricky question for some: either get crosswise with middle-of-the-road voters, who probably — just a gut feeling! — won’t support taking away money from police, or get on the wrong side of the base.”

“Either way, Republicans, who are fighting to keep their Senate majority and win back the House, will hang the defund movement around Democrats’ necks. Part of their strategy is to paint all elected Dems as extreme.”

Said NRCC spokesman Chris Pack: “House Democrats have gone so extreme with their ‘abolish culture’ that they’re one step away from wanting to outlaw fire departments. This is insanity and not what Democrats ran on two years ago.”

Filed Under: Crime and Punishment

Last Stand for ‘Law and Order’ Republicans?

June 8, 2020 at 6:26 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Tim Alberta: “It’s a loaded phrase, one that politicians in both parties have invoked for decades — with great success — to project a certain virility to the electorate. It has recently taken on even harsher connotations in the context of Trump’s Twitter usage (10 times in just the last week) and the accompanying sentiments (threats of unleashing ‘vicious dogs’ on rioters, and promises of, ‘when the looting starts, the shooting starts.’)

“But it has long carried a cautionary subtext: Don’t dare challenge the integrity of a justice system predicated on punishing wrongdoers, the harsher the better. Over time, this has meant fewer rehabilitative doors opened and more retributive cells slammed shut. It has meant refusing to acknowledge that anything is fundamentally amiss with the system itself; that disparities and discrimination are not the same thing, that isolated incidents of police misconduct are just that, no matter their regularity or similarities.”

Filed Under: Crime and Punishment

Bonus Quote of the Day

June 7, 2020 at 11:48 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“I think there’s racism in the United States. But I don’t think that the law enforcement system is systemically racist.”

— Attorney General Bill Barr, on CBS News.

Filed Under: Crime and Punishment

Draft Democratic Plan Seeks Changes to Policing

June 6, 2020 at 4:15 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“A sweeping new police reform bill being drafted by House and Senate Democrats would ban chokeholds, limit ‘qualified immunity’ for police officers, create a national misconduct registry, end the use of no-knock warrants in drug cases and make lynching a federal crime among other dramatic changes,” Politico reports.

Filed Under: Crime and Punishment

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About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.

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