On Wednesday’s “CNN Newsroom,” Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) refused to walk back his previous calls for cutting down on police and said that “there are other approaches to respond to mental health crises so someone doesn’t end up dead when they shouldn’t end up dead. There are other ways to respond to the variety of issues that are happening in our community.”
Host Dana Bash brought up Bowman’s previous desire to see a “dramatic reduction” in police and asked, “With the volume of crime that we’ve seen, even since we had that conversation less than two years ago, do you still think that’s appropriate?”
Bowman responded, “Police are one part of the solution. They are not the only part of the solution. And police cannot work in silos and in isolation. They have to work with education officials, with clergy, with workforce development, and with mental health professionals as well. We have to do a better job of identifying young people who are at risk, people who are at risk, whether it’s in the education system or whether it’s through mental health or whether it’s people who have been arrested for a minor crime. Once we identify and assess the needs of vulnerable people, how are we providing intervention? So, we have to do a lot more when it comes to intervention and prevention. Police respond often after the fact, after a crime has been committed, but what are we doing on the front end — not just to stop gun trafficking — but to deal with the issues that lead to someone picking up the gun in the first place? I mentioned poverty. I mentioned trauma. I mentioned mental health. We still have an opioid epidemic happening in our country. So, substance abuse is an issue. So, it needs to be a holistic, systemic approach to what’s happening in our community.”
Bash then followed up, “So, you don’t think that police forces should be reduced anymore, you’re saying that they should be redirected? How would you describe your position, at this point, given where we are, about police?”
Bowman said, “So, we often have police forces responding to mental health crises, right? And we often have police forces responding to things that are not violent crime. What I’m saying is, there are other approaches to respond to mental health crises so someone doesn’t end up dead when they shouldn’t end up dead. There are other ways to respond to the variety of issues that are happening in our community. So, again, police are part of the problem, but they are not the entire conversation and they’re not the entire solution to what’s happening.”
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