Top Dems Celebrate as Biden Denounces Defund the Police Movement: ‘Democrats Don’t Want to be Robbed’

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President Joe Biden called for more funding for embattled cops in New York on Thursday, and top Democrats are reportedly pleased.

Biden met with New York City Mayor Eric Adams in Manhattan, where he made comments about soaring crime rates and gun violence.

“Mayor Adams, you and I agree, the answer is not to abandon our streets, that’s not the answer,” Biden said.

“The answer is to come together, police and communities, building trust and making us all safer,” Biden added. “The answer is not to defund the police, it’s to give you the tools, the training, the funding to be partners, to be protectors and the community needs you, know the community.”

The stance has been a consistent position from Democratic Party’s leadership about law enforcement officers, despite some vocal outliers 18 months ago.

Notable Democrats called for widespread law enforcement reforms, including defunding police departments, in 2020.

POLITICO Playbook reported it spoke to a number of whom it called “top Dems” about Biden’s meeting with Adams, and its potential to pivot the party away from extreme solutions to public safety issues.

Reality: Crime, especially homicide, has spiked in cities across the country. Black mayors in big progressive-dominated cities like San Francisco (LONDON BREED) and Chicago (LORI LIGHTFOOT) have been more vocal about the problem than well-known Washington Dems who are now playing catch-up. The Adams race was catalytic.

The election of Adams, a former NYPD officer, was celebrated as a sort of bridge toward a rational approach to policing crime while balancing holding police officers accountable.

“Adams becoming mayor of one of the most liberal cities in America shifted the politics,” one unnamed Democrat told the outlet. “He captured it the right way: It’s a false choice to pit civil rights against public safety.”

Apparently there is also a sense among powerful Democrats that the conviction of Derek Chauvin in the killing of George Floyd is evidence the criminal justice system is working.

With crime rates sparing, and high-profile cases with racial ramifications resulting in convictions, one Democrat told Playbook the approach to safety is complicated with one caveat.

“Democrats don’t want to be robbed while pumping their gas or to live in fear,” someone referred to as a former Biden administration official said. “The White House just needs to make sure the violent crime conversation does not over take the police reform conversation because they are two different things. I believe they are sensitive to that dynamic.”