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A group of more than 60 active and retired law enforcement officials have endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris’s bid for the presidency, calling the former prosecutor and her running-mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, “the only candidates we trust to keep our communities safe.”
The list of top law enforcement executives giving their imprimatur to the Harriz-Walz campaign include elected sheriffs in Durham and Henderson, North Carolina, as well as active sheriffs and chiefs of police in Alabama, California, Maine, Colorado, Michigan, Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, Indiana, New York, and Illinois.
It also includes retired sheriffs and top police officials, including Charles Ramsey, the former chief of police in Washington, DC who later served as the Philadelphia police commissioner, and former Dane County, Wisconsin sheriff David Mahoney. Also appearing on the list are Harry Dunn and Aqulino Gonell, the former US Capitol Police officer and sergeant who emerged as fierce critics of Donald Trump in the wake of the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
“We trust Vice President Harris and Governor Walz to support law enforcement’s work to keep communities safe because they have been doing it their entire careers. Throughout her career, Vice President Harris has worked side-by-side with law enforcement to protect the public and hold offenders accountable,” they said in a letter announcing their endorsement.
The law enforcement officials go on to detail Harris’s record as a courtroom prosecutor and later as an elected district attorney and attorney general. During that time, she prosecuted child sex assault cases and went up against transnational criminal gangs while racking up increased conviction rates and bringing in large monetary judgments from big banks that managed the Golden State’s massive pension fund.
They also cite Walz’s gubernatorial record of investment in law enforcement needs as evidence of their commitment to public safety matters, and compared it favorably with Harris’s work as Vice President under President Biden.
“Their investment in our departments and colleagues is working: they have presided over the largest drop in murders over a one-year period in American history. And, as the leader of the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, Vice President Harris has built on her career-long commitment to preventing gun violence. After helping to pass the most significant gun safety law in nearly 30 years, Vice President Harris has helped close the gun show loophole and prevent domestic abusers from buying guns—keeping more dangerous guns off our streets,” they said.
By contrast, the law enforcement experts said Trump, the first convicted felon to run for president as a major party nominee, “has shown he will undermine our departments and make our country more dangerous.”
“Trump has repeatedly shown he does not respect law enforcement or the rule of law. After his supporters injured police officers on January 6th, he promised to pardon them. When he was convicted of 34 felony counts, he attacked the system instead of taking responsibility. He has called for defunding federal law enforcement. He said he would terminate the Constitution, weaponize the Department of Justice, and rule as a ‘dictator.’ He creates disorder that puts law enforcement and all Americans at risk,” they added.
The long list of active and retired police and law enforcement officials adding their names to the roster of Harris-Walz supporters comes as Trump, who is facing sentencing for his conviction on 34 felony counts in his former home state of New York later this month, is set to announce that he has been endorsed by the nation’s largest police union.
Law enforcement unions have generally been supportive of the ex-president, despite his criminal record and endorsement of violence against police officers during and after the January 6 riot.
Dunn, who retired from the Capitol Police to mount an unsuccessful campaign for a House seat in Maryland, said on a call for reporters on Thursday that Trump, who is set to address Fraternal Order of Police members on Friday, will “lie” to the police union members about his allyship with law enforcement.
“He’s going to tell my fellow officers that he’s their ally, he’s their friend, and he’s the candidate, the candidate of law and order — well, after what I experienced on January 6, I can assure you that he is not,” Dunn said. “He only backs the blue who are loyal to him.”
The former Capitol Police officer added that the ex-president “doesn’t care that he put my life and the lives of my fellow Capitol police officers in danger on January 6.”
“He doesn’t care that it was because he encouraged a mob of violent insurrectionists to march on the Capitol that five officers died because of that day, and now he’s running to pardon those very same insurrectionists … he doesn’t care about Capitol Police or any law enforcement. He only cares about getting power for himself,” Dunn said.
Another signatory on the endorsement letter, Durham County, North Carolina sheriff Clarence Burkhead, told reporters that Trump has “proven time and time again he can’t be trusted to deliver on his promises to law enforcement officers like me and my colleagues,” citing the ex-president’s proposed $4 million cut to law enforcement funding.
“Not only does Trump want to slash law enforcement funding, but he also wants to strip agencies like mine of crucial federal assets by weaponizing the FBI and Justice Department to prosecute his political enemies,” he said. “Under Trump, the Feds would waste precious time and money on his personal grievances, instead of pouring valuable resources into communities like mine that rely on assistance from our federal partners.”
Burkhead also pointed out how the ex-president “killed the most aggressive bipartisan border deal in decades,” hampering law enforcement efforts to combat gangs and drug trafficking for no reason except political expediency.
“Trump has repeatedly demonstrated to the American people that he cares about one thing himself,” he said.
He added that Harris was the only candidate on the ballot “who has spent her entire career fighting for people and standing with local law enforcement like me.”
