President Joe Biden told a contingent of United States mayors that, while he does not want to “defund” the police, he believes police should let ‘psychologists’ handle cases of domestic violence.
“You know when a cop turns up in a domestic violence case, or someone’s standing on the edge of a bridge, they don’t need a cop. They need a psychologist with them,” the president said at the event on Friday.
He went on to explain that the “answer is not to defund the police.”
“They need funding and they need ancillary help as well,” he added.
BIDEN: “You know when a cop turns up in a domestic violence case, or someone’s standing on an edge of a bridge, they don’t need a cop. They need a psychologist” pic.twitter.com/yipZ2xoVhQ
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) January 20, 2023
According to the Washington Times, Biden hit on a number of public safety issues during the annual meeting of U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington, D.C., on Friday.
Reflecting on his childhood, as he often does, Biden later said that cops ought to “be able to shoot to stop” rather than shooting to kill.
“When I was coming up as a kid, cops were required to learn to shoot to kill. Well, you ought to be able to shoot to stop,” he told the room of mayors.
Biden: "When I was coming up as a kid, cops were required to learn to shoot to kill. Well, you outta be able to shoot to stop." pic.twitter.com/UIYtm23nJi
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) January 20, 2023
Conservative strategist Greg Price, who posted the second clip, added his response to Biden’s comments, arguing that ‘shooting to stop’ isn’t so simple:
“Cops are literally trained to shoot to stop the threat. You stop by aiming center mass. There’s no such thing as hitting arms and legs in a life-or-death situation. The only experience with firearms the people telling Biden to say this have probably comes from playing GTA,” Price wrote.
Earlier in the week, Biden made similar comments at Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network event on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
“We need to emphasize de-escalation. We need to retrain cops,” Biden said.
“Why should you always shoot with deadly force? The fact is if you need to use your weapon, you don’t have to do that,” he continued Monday.
In October 2020, law enforcement groups slammed then-candidate Biden for suggesting in an ABC News town hall that police should be trained to shoot suspects “in the leg.”
Police called the proposal “dangerous and ignorant” according to the Washington Examiner.
“Former VP Joe Biden’s suggestion that cops should “shoot someone in the leg” if they’re coming at them is insulting and demonstrates his incompetence & inability to understand the grave dangers cops face as they protect the public and themselves from violent, heartless criminals,” the Detectives’ Endowment Association responded on Twitter.
