Biden picked the only VP candidate whose record on police and criminal justice reform is just as terrible as his own.
------------------
Subscribe to our YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/ReasonTV?subconfirmation=1Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Reason.Magazine/Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/reasonReason is the planet's leading source of news, politics, and culture from a libertarian perspective. Go to reason.com for a point of view you won't get from legacy media and old left-right opinion magazines.
----------------
Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden has picked Sen. Kamala Harris (D–Calif.) as his running mate, making her the first African American vice-presidential candidate in U.S. history.
Harris had positioned herself during the primary campaign as a reformer who has tirelessly worked to correct the abuses of the criminal justice system, and she confronted Biden in the debates about his atrocious record on race and law-and-order policies.
Biden will rely on Harris to energize the ticket and win over the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. The irony of Biden's decision, particularly in the wake of widespread protests against police misconduct and racial injustice, is that Harris has her own troubling record on criminal justice issues.
Like Biden, Harris deserves credit for endorsing vital reforms even at this stage in her career, but it's worth setting the record straight about her priorities over the course of her 16 years in public life, before criminal justice reform became front and center for the Democratic Party.
Harris' record is that of a 1980s-style drug warrior, a defender of dirty prosecutors, and a political opportunist who made life more dangerous for sex workers.
Hosted by Katherine Mangu-Ward, written and edited by Justin Monticello, shot by Austin Bragg and Meredith Bragg, additional graphics by Joshua Swain and Isaac Reese
For full text and sources:
https://reason.com/video/kamala-harris-drug-warrior-vice-cop-draconian-prosecutor/Music: Futuremono and Marco Martini
Photos: Jonathan Ernst/REUTERS/Newscom; Kenneth Song/News-Press/ZUMA Press/Newscom; Chris Kleponis/CNP/AdMedia/Newscom; Yichuan Cao/Sipa USA/Newscom; ELIJAH NOUVELAGE/REUTERS/Newscom; Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call/Newscom; Hector Amezcua/ZUMA Press/Newscom; Ron Sachs - CNP / MEGA / Newscom, imageSPACEimageSPACE/Sipa USA/Newscom; Jeff Malet Photography/Newscom; AURELIA VENTURA/LA OPINION/Newscom (2); imageSPACEimageSPACE/Sipa USA/Newscom; Paul Kitagaki Jr./ZUMA Press/Newscom (2); KEVIN DIETSCH/UPI/Newscom; Lucas Jackson/REUTERS/Newscom; AURELIA VENTURA/LA OPINION/Newscom; Photo credits: Officer Uniform, ID 145899162 © Marcos Calvo Mesa | Dreamstime.com; Handcuffs, ID 82777950 © Osipets79 | Dreamstime.com.
points