Most policing decisions and prosecutions are not the federal government's responsibility, but Democrats in New York and other states have shrunk bail requirements, often allowing the fast release of even repeat offenders.
“Just in the last week, we saw a New York Post item about a pickpocket with more than 30 arrests back out on the street. We’ve seen an arsonist burn down a half-million-dollar Christmas tree in New York City back out on the streets,” Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked Psaki during her regular briefing. “Does the President think that that is good governance?”
“I think I’ve spoken to the President’s concerns about retail thefts … and the actions we’ve taken,” Psaki replied. “For specific cases, I would point you to the local police department or the Department of Justice.”
The Post reported Sunday that Gary Teasley, 65, was released a day after a bust last week for supposedly pickpocketing tourists at the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. He’s been detained more than 30 times.
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Also last week, homeless man Craig Tamanaha, 49, who has a long rap sheet, was released after his arrest for allegedly torching the 50-foot Christmas tree outside the building that houses Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, and The Post.
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During his 36-year Senate career, Biden wrote and pushed harsh federal laws that critics say “mass incarcerated” minorities with rigid penalties. This attracted criticism from Leftists in his party and also from some Republicans. But he was conspicuously silent last year about calls to defund the police during the early phase of national anti-police brutality protests after the murder of George Floyd. This year, Biden encouraged local officials to use COVID-19 relief funds to hire police as violent crime surged in many cities.
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Psaki deflected other questions from Doocy on Monday, including whether Biden believes that “prosecutors are too soft on crime.”
“We have seen an increase in crime over the course of the pandemic,” she said. “There are a range of reasons for that. And what our focus is on is what we can do to address it. The president has proposed additional funding in the budget to make sure local police departments and cops have the funding they need.
“We have also worked directly with police departments in areas where they are seeing the highest impact of the crime, the retail thefts, which we have great concern about. That’s what our focus is on currently.”
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Doocy followed up: “What good does it do if you’re going to give police departments extra money, if they arrest bad guys and they bring them to jail and then they’re not prosecuted? They’re just right back out on the streets.”
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