As Vice President Kamala Harris continues to build her campaign against former President Donald Trump as a matter of “prosecutor vs convicted criminal," 101 former and current law enforcement officials from across the country have endorsed her candidacy.
“Throughout her career, Vice President Harris has worked side by side with law enforcement to protect the public and hold offenders accountable,” the letter reads. The letter also credits Harris’s running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, for having “invested heavily in law enforcement” with funding to hire, equip and train police and for community engagement programs.
The letter is more cutting toward the former president. “Donald Trump has shown he will undermine our departments and make our country more dangerous,” it reads. “He proposed cuts to law enforcement funding and in his own words ‘did nothing’ to take on gun violence.”
More than 101 active and retired police officers, lieutenants, county sheriffs, and deputies who signed the letter represent battleground states such as Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina and Wisconsin. The signatories also include former Capitol Police officers, retired chiefs of police — including former leaders of the Major Cities Chiefs of Police and the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement — and Sarah Saldana, the last director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the Obama administration.
The timing is auspicious: Trump is expected to speak at a Fraternal Order of Police event Friday night in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Both the Harris and Trump campaigns have sought to position their respective candidates as the law and order choice in November. Harris has stood behind her record as a prosecutor, district attorney and California attorney general; Trump has leaned on his backing from police associations — amid his pledges to “overfund the police” — while speciously claiming that crime has “skyrocketed” during the Biden administration.
The letter points out the murder rate spiked under Trump’s watch “more than any other time in history over a one-year period.” In 2020, the murder rate increased by nearly 30% across the country. Per FBI data, the national homicide rate jumped from 5.1 homicides per 100,000 people to 6.5 homicides. The aggravated assault rate also jumped up from 250.4 to 279.7, while the overall violent crime rate jumped from 380.4 to 398.5.
Trump’s campaign website currently has the false claim that murders spiked to “all-time highs in Democrat-run cities” and “radical prosecutors and District Attorneys have given free rein to violent criminals who threaten our citizens” under the Biden administration.
“While overdose deaths from synthetic opioids tripled while Trump was in office, he tried to gut the Office of National Drug Control Policy, and then he opposed bipartisan border legislation that would have provided more resources to combat fentanyl trafficking,” the letter continued.
“Trump has repeatedly shown he does not respect law enforcement or the rule of law. After his supporters injured police officers on January 6, he promised to pardon them,” the letter said, referring to those convicted of participating in the 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol building. “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.”
Harry Dunn, a former Capitol Police officer, said on a press call that Trump “doesn’t care” about law enforcement, pointing to Jan. 6 as an example.
“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, pardoning the people who pled guilty, people who had their day in court. He doesn't care about Capitol Police or any law enforcement,” Dunn said.
“He stands next to us in our uniforms as I mentioned at the DNC, and he smiles and gives everybody red hats, and again moves on with his life. It's a very transactional-type relationship that he has with law enforcement,” said Sheriff Javier Salazar, of Bexar County, Texas. Salazar spoke at the Democratic National Convention last month. “He purports to support law enforcement until we get in his way, until we stand in the way of him doing exactly what he wants to do. He proved it on January 6th.”
In response to the letter, a spokeswoman for the Trump campaign told Spectrum News that “a vote for Kamala is a vote to allow illegal immigrants from all over the world to invade our country, a vote to defund the police, abolish ICE, and bail violent criminals out of jail. President Trump is the only candidate in this race who will restore law and order and make America safe again.”
In a statement, the Harris campaign said that officers supported the vice president “because they know she has spent her entire career working side by side with law enforcement to protect the public and hold offenders accountable.”