The National Association of Police Organizations announced its support of President Trump’s reelection bid this fall.
President Mick McHale announced the organization’s decision during an interview Wednesday on Fox News.
“[Trump] earned that endorsement with a greater margin of the two-thirds that participated in today’s meeting,” he said. “So, it’s with great pride that I announce on behalf of our National Association of Police Organizations, our endorsement of President Donald J. Trump.”
Since the Memorial Day death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died after a white law enforcement officer knelt on his neck, calls for sweeping police reform and a national conversation about systemic racism in policing have reverberated across the nation.
Many social justice activists and leading members of the Black Lives Matter movement have called for a major drawback in funding to departments allocated by local governments.
Trump has pushed back on these demands and labeled Black Lives Matter as an organization with a “hateful” message.
“The radical politicians are waging war on innocent Americans,” Trump said this week. “If that’s what you want for a country, you probably have to vote for Sleepy Joe Biden because he doesn’t know what’s happening, but you are not going to have that with me.”
Biden has not endorsed an outright defunding of police departments across the country, but he has said that systemic racism in law enforcement needs to be addressed.
“Biden supports the urgent need for reform — including funding for public schools, summer programs, and mental health and substance abuse treatment separate from funding for policing — so that officers can focus on the job of policing,” a spokesman for the Biden campaign told the Associated Press.
The Trump campaign has in recent weeks released political advertisements attacking Biden as weak on violent crime and warning voters that “you won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America.”
Biden has said a militarization of police is what is truly dangerous to American citizens.
“The last thing you need is an up-armored Humvee coming into a neighborhood,” he said. “It’s like the military invading. They don’t know anybody. They become the enemy. They’re supposed to be protecting these people.”
Trump’s administration has hailed an executive order in 2017 that allowed local police agencies to receive surplus military equipment.
“So, we’re excited in anticipation of the president’s announcement,” McHale said. “And we anticipate and hopefully have another four years.”
