Department of Justice Attorney Nicholas W. Brown told Democratic New York Rep. Jerry Nadler in a hearing Tuesday that reallocating resources from police to “holistic approaches” is supported by law enforcement officers.
“The problems that we face in terms of crime, does it make sense in some cases, or in most cases, or in few cases to reallocate resources from police to, say, mental health or others to work in conjunction with the police which will result in a net reduction in crime?” Nadler asked Brown in the hearing. (RELATED: Democrat Who Pushes To Defund The Police Spent Thousands Of Taxpayers Dollars On Private Security, House Records Show)
“In my experience, you can’t tackle crime, including violent crime, with just law enforcement,” Brown responded. “You need additional support and programs to really intervent (sic) and prevent crime from occurring and making sure that we’re breaking the cycle of crime.”
Brown continued, saying, “from my perspective, I hear that from law enforcement officers themselves as well. They recognize that they can’t do this themselves, and they want to work with community organizations that will help them interrupt violence and prevent crime from occurring again.”
To clarify, Nadler asked whether reallocation of police resources to a combination of police, mental health agencies and other social services “might actually result in a reduction in crime?”
Brown said that, because of the “myriad” causes of crime, there needed to be “holistic approaches” to tackle the issue.
Since the start of the “defund the police” movement in 2020, homicide rates have risen nearly 30%, according to the Heritage Foundation. FBI data showed that after the lockdowns ended in the summer of 2020 and the George Floyd riots commenced, violent crimes peaked nationwide, and have continued to increase. President Biden used his State of the Union address to argue that, “the answer is not to defund the police. It’s to fund the police. Fund them. Fund them,” according to The Washington Post.