Biden is facing an uphill battle to unite America over police reform

The US president is finding that nothing shines a light on division more than the issue of policing and police reform, writes Harriet Sinclair

The president is facing pressure from the left wing of his own party to take action on policing (Reuters)

Joe Biden may find his pledge to unite a fractured country becoming harder by the day. Fissures within his own party have widened this week following the police shooting of a young Black man, Daunte Wright, by Minneapolis police – just 10 miles from the courtroom where a former Minneapolis police officer is on trial for the murder of George Floyd.

Floyd’s death, which occurred after then-police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on him for more than nine minutes as he pleaded that he couldn’t breathe, sparked huge protests across the country, as well as calls to defund the police.

Now, members of the progressive ‘Squad’ are echoing those calls, arguing, as yet another person of colour has their life ripped away by someone in uniform, that there must be a better way to protect and serve.

“Daunte Wright’s killing was not a random, disconnected ‘accident’ – it was the repeated outcome of an indefensible system that grants impunity for state violence,” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter, while Rashia Tlaib said: “It wasn’t an accident. Policing in our country is inherently and intentionally racist.”

“Daunte Wright was met with aggression and violence,” she continued. “I am done with those who condone government-funded murder. No more policing, incarceration, and militarisation. It can’t be reformed.”

Despite vowing to reform the police, President Biden does not agree.

Speaking to media this week, White House Press Secretary Jen Pskai said the commander-in-chief would not back a move to scrap or defund the police.

“That’s not the president’s view,” she said. “The president’s view is that there are necessary outdated reforms that should be put in place, that there is accountability that needs to happen, that the loss of life is far too high, that these families are suffering around the country, that the Black community is exhausted from the ongoing threats they feel.”

The difficulty Biden now faces is in uniting people, most notably members of Congress, behind what some of them will view as milquetoast reform and others (read: Republicans) will see as a step too far.

One of Biden’s promised reforms – the creation of a US police oversight commission – has already fallen by the wayside, with Biden’s domestic policy adviser Susan Rice arguing that it is more important to pass legislation barring chokeholds via the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.

That act, wholly necessary given recent and ongoing deaths at the hands of police, may have been passed by the House but needs to win over 10 Republicans to ensure passage through the Senate.

Biden may have given a nod to bipartisanship during his campaign, but nothing shines a light on division more than the issue of policing and police reform. With the George Floyd act at stake and pressure from the left wing of his own party to take action over policing, Biden’s goal of unity has become an uphill battle.

Yours,

Harriet Sinclair

US news editor, west coast