WELLESLEY, Mass. — Sen. Ed Markey, who has called for reallocating funds away from law enforcement, pointed to education over incarceration when it comes to spending.
Standing next to a police detail after a campaign event on Friday, Markey suggested taxpayer dollars are best spent on public services that address issues such as substance abuse and mental health.
“We have to find better ways earlier to reach these people, and we have to deal with substance abuse, mental health issues, and deal with that in a much earlier stage, so we don’t wind up with incarceration as the answer, because ultimately, that creates much larger problems in the long term,” Markey told the Washington Examiner when asked if he supports defunding the police, even with a police detail assisting him at his event.
Markey has previously expressed his support for reallocating law enforcement funding without explicitly using the words “defund the police.” He is in a senatorial race against Rep. Joe Kennedy III, a fellow Massachusetts Democrat who supports reallocating funds for police.
“Let’s fund healing, not harming. We can start with banning the use of tear gas by law enforcement, and to stop equipping police who are supposed to keep the peace with weapons of war,” Markey said in a June statement, according to the Boston Herald.
A number of politicians on the Left have joined calls to defund law enforcement following the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody, even with rioting and looting in cities across the country.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has been working closely with Markey on the Green New Deal, has been a more outspoken proponent of cutting police funding. Amid debates over how much to spend on the next coronavirus stimulus package, the New York Democrat and Markey are pushing the multitrillion-dollar legislation to save the environment.
“The tax breaks that [George W.] Bush gave out, the tax breaks that [Donald] Trump gave out — Bernie [Sanders] and I just had an amendment to cut the defense budget by 10%,” Markey told the Washington Examiner when asked how Democrats would pay for the Green New Deal while they’re aiming for between $2 and $3 trillion in coronavirus relief.
He added: “We know where the money is — we’ve just got to shift it over to take care of people’s healthcare, education — take care of the planet. The money’s there.”
