While several American cities broke records for the number of homicides last year, Joe Biden is traveling to New York this Thursday, devastated by an outbreak of gun violence. After a shooting in the Harlem neighborhood,
which caused the death of two young police officers, the US president will visit the city’s police headquarters with new mayor Eric Adams, before meeting with local officials in Queens, one of the five boroughs.
According to a December ABC/Ipsos poll, the percentage of Americans approving of the president’s action on security fell to 36% from 43% in October – amid widespread dissatisfaction with Joe Biden. The Democrat is regularly accused by the American right of ignoring the rise in crime and of wanting to cut into the means of the police.
A mined subject for Joe Biden
The subject of security is politically undermined for Joe Biden. On the one hand, he must not lend his flank to accusations of passivity from the Republican opposition, a few months before legislative elections which are already off to a bad start for the Democrats.
But Joe Biden cannot afford to antagonize the African-American electorate either, mostly favorable to the Democrats, and to whom he promised, during his campaign, more justice. Activists who fight against police violence have not forgotten that in 1994, Senator Biden had fervently supported a harsher criminal law deemed responsible, subsequently, for the mass incarceration of people from minorities.
What actions has the White House taken?
In fact, the White House seems to have muted certain promises made to the progressive camp in terms of criminal policy. The president has certainly appointed, at all levels of the judicial system, magistrates from minorities. But he has not so far really sought to revive police reform inspired by the “Black Lives Matter” movement, which failed in Congress last year.
Joe Biden, however, announced several programs to try to deal with the rise in crime in the country. The White House has declared war on unlisted pistols, assembled from kits, the “ghost guns” (ghost weapons). She also promised to fight against arms trafficking, release funds to recruit police officers and finance prevention programs at the local level.