Police in Democratic-Run City Warn of Harris 'Disaster' If She Wins
Vice President Harris’ record of backing a bail fund for Black Lives Matter protesters who have been convicted is a significant concern for law enforcement as she aims to position herself as a law and order candidate.
"Let’s be clear about something: If Kamala Harris becomes the next president of the United States, she will be an unmitigated disaster for public safety in this country," stated Joe Gamaldi, the national vice president of the Fraternal Order of Police and a current lieutenant with the Houston Police Department, in an interview with Fox News.
"She has loudly and proudly supported bail reform and has even donated and encouraged others to contribute to a fund that helped release murderers, rapists, and individuals who were shooting people in the streets, out on bail," he explained. "We’re not talking about helping bail out a mom who stole a candy bar from the store to feed her kids; we’re talking about violent criminals."
Gamaldi continued, stating that left-wing 'bail reform' has failed in "any urban community" where it has been implemented.
"It has led to 16 American cities experiencing the highest murder rates in recorded history during 2020-2021," he said. "And we’re still dealing with the aftermath of that."
"Over the last three years in the United States, we’ve averaged over 20,000 homicides a year, and we haven’t seen those numbers since the mid-1990s," Gamaldi told Fox News. "Now, Vice President Harris, the presumptive nominee at this point, is running on a platform of supporting bail reform despite the horrific consequences we’ve witnessed in our urban communities."
Charles "Cully" Stimson, a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation and a former prosecutor, mentioned to Fox News that Harris uses the "exact same language" as Rep. Ilhan Omar, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, and Sen. Bernie Sanders when they advocated for defunding the police after George Floyd’s death during his arrest by Minneapolis police in 2020.
"I know the language of the right and the left," he said. "And this is exhibit A in a dog whistle to the left."
"So, the reason the media is now fawning over her and trying to protect her by calling her the cop candidate is because they’re engaged in projection," he said. "She’s anti-cop."
Stimson added that when politicians and prosecutors call for "reimagining" the criminal justice system, they are essentially "pro-criminal."
"'Reimagine' means pro-criminal; that’s all it means," he said. "The George Gascons, the Larry Krasners, the Alvin Braggs, the Kim Foxxs have enacted their policies [as district attorneys]. They refuse to prosecute all misdemeanors. They watered down felonies to misdemeanors. They don’t send violent juveniles to adult court. And the list goes on and on."
Stimson also noted Harris' support for the $150 million defunding of the Los Angeles police department in 2020 under the leadership of then-Mayor Eric Garcetti.
Joseph Imperatrice, an NYPD detective and founder of Blue Lives Matter NYC, told Fox News that the country needs a president who will "put the bad guys behind bars."
"America needs a leader who’s going to keep bad guys behind bars, and unfortunately, Kamala Harris hasn’t done that," he said. "It was proven during the riots by intentionally bailing out the bad guys."
"This isn’t a Democrat or Republican issue, this is a humanitarian issue," Imperatrice added. "This is an accountability issue."
After serving over a dozen years as San Francisco’s district attorney and subsequently as California’s attorney general, Imperatrice suggested that Harris’ record was characterized by a mix of lenient crime policies and progressive discrimination.
"But unfortunately, over the last couple of years, we’ve seen her pandering to the left, pandering to activists," he said.
"She has turned the corner," he told Fox News. "She’s not the prosecutor we once knew, and now she’s allowing bad guys not only to stay out of jail but helping them to get out, which is causing a big problem."