Booker: ‘We Are Over Policed as a Society’

Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) called America “over-policed.”

Booker said, “So this is the outrage that I think people on the streets are feeling and that I share is that we are over-policed as a society, that we are investing in police which is not solving problems, but making them worse when we should be in a more compassionate country, a more loving country. I know love is at the core of our ideals, but it needs to be made manifest in our policies. We would spend less money and elevate human dignity and potential, and we would set a standard on the planet earth for how we treat those who are vulnerable as opposed to what we’re seeing right now.”

He added, “I fully put my faith in Joe Biden to be the person who can preside over this transformative change. And I’m going to tell you right now the heroes for me as I look at great presidents past, the time of LBJ, for example, extraordinary, capable leader like Joe Biden. But the real heroes in that generation were the people who were sick and tired of being sick and tired, and if there are protesters listening to the show, I want to say, and I want to say in all sincerity, stay on the streets with non-violent protests and stay with the change. I think Joe Biden’s election can do that. Donald Trump can’t center himself in this. This is such a bigger moment than him. This is not a referendum on one person and one office. This is a referendum on who we are as Americans and who we are going to be to each other. This is a moral moment. Will we become a more loving and compassionate society, not with our rhetoric, but with our laws and our rules and how to treat the most vulnerable and so this is the moment that Joe Biden can be the president for, but the responsibility is not on any individual. it’s on all of us.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN