By Casey Harper (The Center Square)
Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris reportedly selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz serves as her vice presidential running mate. Both candidates have been criticized for their handling of police issues.
After replacing President Joe Biden, Harris immediately faced criticism for a resurfaced video in which she praised the “defund the police” movement.
In the videos, Harris talks about shifting funding away from police and toward social services in the wake of George Floyd’s death in police custody and subsequent riots that led to the burning of small businesses and even a police station.
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But after Floyd’s death, when Minnesota burned and was filled with riots, Walz served as Minnesota’s governor. Despite requests from Minneapolis officials, Walz was slow to use the National Guard as the city burned.
The Minnesota Senate Joint Transportation, Judiciary and Public Safety Committee released a report in October 2020 detailing problems in Minneapolis, including Walz’s role.
this Report Walz said Walz underestimated the riots and was slow to address them, blaming local law enforcement and officials.
“Governor Walz has the ability and responsibility to use force and law enforcement to stop criminal violence, but he has failed to do so,” the report states. “Governor Walz is unwilling to take immediate steps necessary to stop the riots as he debates whether he should use force and law enforcement to stop criminal violence.” A philosophical debate on the use of force to stop violence.
Those unrest and Floyd’s death sparked a series of looting and riots in cities across the country.
“Governor Walz and Kamala Harris are two peas on the ideological spectrum of the left,” Mark Ehlinger, president of the Republican National Lawyers Guild, told The Center Square. “Vice President Harris urged Democrats to help bail out violent rioters like Walz in Minneapolis in 2020, so it makes sense that they would join forces again to continue pushing their aggressive, mild-crime agenda that has led to the nationwide A crime wave in the area.
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“The American people do not want Tim Walz to allow what happened in Minneapolis to happen in their communities,” he added
Harris is roughly tied in polls with her opponent, former President Donald Trump, who is likely to join Republicans in attacking Democrats for their handling of the BLM riots.
Walz has also been criticized for Minnesota’s role as a sanctuary state in the illegal immigration crisis and his stance on gender reassignment surgery for young people, as Minnesota is further to the left than most of the country.
“By 2021, Minnesotans are about as likely to move to Florida as Minnesotans to move to Florida,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis wrote on “They are fleeing from states that, under Governor Tim Walz, have turned their backs on law and order, increased taxes, and implemented unscientific coronavirus restrictions that are harming children. And destroying businesses. Walz is an unbridled leftist, an Ilhan Omar-style Democrat who puts ideology above all else.
Co-organized with permission from Center Square.
