The disappointment underscores the continuing divide between the Biden campaign and many Black Lives Matter activists, even as they present a united front to oust President Donald Trump. It also shows the cautious line Democrats are trying to follow: While the Black Lives Matter movement has gone mainstream, most American pollsters say they do not support withholding money for police.
Biden seeks to punish the demands of the movement without alienating swinging voters. He spoke of his “stain of racism” in his nomination address without offering policy presentations. Although Biden is likely to benefit politically from the seismic shift in support of Black Lives Matter, he kept the most activist element of the movement at bay during the four-day convention – even when he highlighted Republican politicians who him support for president.
Biden’s campaign worked with progressives on police reform in the weeks leading up to the convention. On the first night, the virtual meeting focused on racial injustice, with a round table with the nominees on police violence and speeches on racism and inequality by Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser and House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn.
But many of the figures chosen to tackle systemic racism are the same politicians who are targeted by the movement through pressure campaigns.
“It took seven years for Democrats to articulate that Black Lives matter. Now the country is watching to see if and how they will close the gap between symbolism and substance, “said Alicia Garza, another co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement and head of the voter engagement group. Black Futures Lab.
Garza and other leaders of the movement pointed to Democrats’ rejection of language aimed at abusing police officers who drafted activists for the party’s platform. And the calls from the Biden campaign to “purify qualified immunity” – which gives police legal protections against civil cases brought by families of victims of abuse – have left many activists behind them suggest.
Monifa Bandele, a leader in the Movement for Black Lives coalition, a coalition of more than 150 black-led organizations, said she was heard by recording Gwen Carr, Eric Garner’s mother, in Monday’s lineup. Garner was killed in 2014 by police. But Bandele said the party should listen closely to Carr’s pleas for national legislation on police brutality.
‘Just do not give [Carr] the microphone, make sure that what she says on the microphone translates into a written promise from the party, ‘Bandele said. “You can have a lot of conversation heads at a convention that say a lot of great things, but unless you put it on paper that these are the issues we are required to address, continue with the new administration, then it is performative. ”
Activists respond to what they see as Biden’s election strategy: embrace the larger goal of the Black Lives Matter movement, while white voters choose to target heavy voters who want racial injustice but do not think the police answer is.
“I can make jokes to myself, but I think people are ready for change,” Biden said during the round of racial justice. Although Biden’s approach is progressively progressive – much brustled when he said “most cops are good” – it frustrates the right as well. At the same time, Trump’s campaign sought to cast Biden as a tool of the left, whose administration would defy the police, and a tough politician who did not change his ways.
“I do not expect him to suddenly sound like a member of ‘The Squad,'” the progressive senator said. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), referring to the group of Liberal Home Magazines that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez included. ‘I expect he will build coalitions, listen and get progressive change. But if anyone expects him to be Bernie Sanders, that will not happen. ”
Schatz said Biden’s creation of “unity” task forces with Bernie Sanders as a way to bridge policy differences with progressives was “very senatorial” – using bipartisan techniques to work with opposing forces within the party.
“Joe Biden is very effective at getting the ball away, but he does not feel the need to fall into any trap or even jump,” Schatz added.
In one critical field trip state, Pennsylvania, Democratic operatives said Biden’s support for the Black Lives Matter movement and the declaration at the convention that “most politicians are good” make political sense. Internal polling shows that Black Lives Matter and the Fraternal Order of Police are both popular in the swing state, but police defense is not, said a Democratic strategist based there.
Symone Sanders, a senior adviser to Biden, said the campaign was listening to activists, but reiterated criticism that the party was unfair in its approach.
“I do not think George Floyd’s brother, Philonise, thought it was performative that he joined the Democratic National Convention, not a few months after the horrific murder of his brother,” Sanders said in an interview.
However, Cullors, a long-time leader in the movement, joined Biden’s campaign while Democrats set up the party’s platform.
Biden’s team told Bernie Sanders’ aides that they want Cullors to incorporate changes to the platform it introduced to support the BREATHE Act, according to Cullors and other people familiar with the consultation. The proposal would eliminate federal programs “used for funding and extension” of legislation. As a compromise, she was offered the opportunity to give a spoken word, which she did.
“I think no one was acceptable,” Cullors said of the tradeoff. “Every single amendment was rejected.”
In the speech at a meeting of the platform platform committee of the convention, she walked into the Democratic establishment, asking, “Can any of you really stand up here and say, ‘My party is the party of principles’?”
During the convention, the Movement for Black Lives Electoral Justice Project released an open letter to the Democratic National Committee, saying it was signed by 10,000 people, and called on it to support the BREATHE Act and protect the police.
At the same time, Cullors and other leaders of the Black Lives Matter praised the Democratic convention for displaying various speakers and marking racial justice, and said they would work to elect Biden.
Organizers of Progressives and Black Lives Matter have also questioned Biden’s position regarding qualified immunity, a rule supported by police unions that protect police from lawsuits for abuse. The Biden campaign has said several times that it supports ‘reining in’ qualified immunity, but provided few specifications on what that would look like.
On the contrary, the Justice in Policing Act, adopted by the House of Representatives and co-sponsored by Biden’s Vice President Harris, would terminate qualified immunity. A recent Pew survey found that two-thirds of Americans effectively want to drop out of school.
Sanders’ appointees sought to abolish the rule when negotiating criminal justice reforms with Biden’s camp over the Unity Task Force. Biden, which supports decriminalization of marijuana, has also opposed calls for progressives and moderates to legalize it.
“These are the reforms we demanded a decade ago,” said Bandele, former vice president of the law firm MomsRising. “2020 demands more. When I re-enter it, I do not even know what that means. ”
Symone Sanders defends Biden’s position on qualified immunity as a “deliberate and thoughtful.” She said Biden’s views on the subject differed from the provisions in the Justice in Policing Act, which the campaign “is just considering a start.” Biden has applauded some aspects of the legislation.
“There are a number of things in that bill that he absolutely supports wholesale, such as a ban on chokeholds,” she said. ‘But it is true that the bill does not present in our policy and the perspective of the Vice President. But what’s also true is this – that we think judicial reform and police reform should be a bilingual problem. ”
She added that Biden finds that “qualified immunity as it is today for police officers is too expansive”, and that “there are a range of activities that do not need to be addressed,” such as chokeholds. The campaign said that “abuse of power” should not be protected either, but refused to expand.
Carr, Garner’s mother, said in an interview that she attended the round table at the invitation of Biden’s team. She acknowledged that racism had received more attention than at previous conventions, but wanted more specifications.
“There are a lot of things I would like to sit down and talk to Biden and his team,” she said. “A lot of times things get tackled, but then that’s where it remains.”
