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We Can Support, and Criticize, Kamala Harris
Incremental change is often needed for candidates of color to succeed and win in America
It is official that Kamala Harris is Joe Biden’s running mate in the upcoming presidential election and during a summer of police protests and turmoil, she has not been quiet about reimagining public safety in America. However, her record on police reform suggest it may be more talk than action.
Kamala Harris became California’s attorney general in 2011 and largely avoided intervening in cases involving killings by police. She was of the mindset that it was not her job. With that being said, her approach was subtly changing.
During her second term as attorney general, she stated that there was a crisis of confidence in the nation’s police forces. By the end of her tenure in 2016, she had taken steps to become modestly more aggressive towards the police. Still, critics say the steps taken were not enough and that bold reform was needed, rather than yielding to the status quo.
Kamala Harris is of Jamaican and Indian ancestry’s, having to negotiate and gauge how far she could wield her power amongst two powerful forces in America: the police and the left in California, one of the most liberal states in America.
