SAN FRANCISCO, CA – At this point in her vice-presidential campaign, California Senator Kamala Harris has promised to “hold police accountable” while also pushing black Americans to vote for herself and former Vice President Joe Biden.
But, a look back at her time as a prosecutor shows she has not always used her office to hold police accountable or promote the Black Lives Matter movement, despite her new push for both.
Vice President Mike Pence called her to the carpet on at least one of those topics last Wednesday during the vice-presidential debate.
Pence slammed his democratic opponent by pointing to her time as a prosecutor in San Francisco from 2003 to 2010.
While Harris was in that role, Pence said that African Americans were “19 times more likely to be prosecuted for minor drug offenses than Whites and Hispanics.”
Pence said:
“When you were Attorney General of California, you increased the disproportionate incarceration of blacks in California. You did nothing on criminal justice reform in California.
You didn’t lift a finger to the First Step Act on Capitol Hill. The reality is your record speaks for itself. President Trump and I have fought for criminal justice reform, and we’ll do it for four more years.”
Various news outlets have dug into the prosecution and conviction records from Harris’ office. Here is what they found:
- The Daily Torch reported that in 2010, Harris’ office prosecuted Jamal Trulove for first degree murder. Prosecutors accused the 25-year-old of killing his friend. A single witness testified, and her testimony “shifted over time.”
In 2014, his conviction was overturned. Prosecutors retried Trulove and a jury acquitted him. He received a settlement in excess of $13 million dollars for his wrongful conviction and the six years he spent in prison.
- One of Harris’ final acts as San Francisco District Attorney was to send the case of 50-year-old Caramad Conley back to trial. The Daily Mail reported that the trial came after he had been cleared of a 1989 double murder.
His conviction was later vacated after a judge discovered that a key witness had committed perjury. Harris’ successor dismissed the case against Conley. He received a $3.5 million dollar settlement for his nearly two decades in prison and wrongful conviction.
- Bloomberg reported that Harris’ office opposed vacating a wrongful rape conviction against Jose Diaz. Eventually, her office backed down on that front, but continued to oppose compensating Diaz for his wrongful conviction and nine years behind bars.
Even so, Diaz was eventually paid $300,000 for the injustice.
That was not the only time Harris rebelled against compensating innocent people who were wrongly incarcerated. The Daily Torch reported that she also fought against paying Rafael Madrigal after he was mistakenly convicted of murder and spent nine years in prison.
Meanwhile, the same news outlet stated that prosecutors in Harris’ office were further instructed to urge judges to keep non-violent prisoners behind bars as a precaution, should the state need help on the front lines of future wildfires. The wage for a prisoner to fight a wildfire in California is $2 per day.
Furthermore, Harris said in 2010 that she would like to prosecute parents of truant students.
A video of her speech at an event, hosted by the Commonwealth Club, has recently resurfaced. Tweeted by journalist Walker Bragman, he captioned the post:
“Kamala Harris at an event hosted by the Commonwealth Club in 2010, explaining her decision as San Francisco DA to get tough on truancy. Critics of truancy crackdowns say such efforts unfairly target poor parents and children without actually helping students.”
Kamala Harris at an event hosted by the Commonwealth Club in 2010, explaining her decision as San Francisco DA to get tough on truancy.
Critics of truancy crackdowns say such efforts unfairly target poor parents and children without actually helping students. pic.twitter.com/GKkDpayxuv
— Walker Bragman (@WalkerBragman) January 28, 2019
A follow up tweet detailed Harris’ own account of prosecuting a single homeless mother of three. It reads:
“Kamala Harris continued on to describe how she’d brought charges against a single homeless mother of 3 who was working 2 jobs because her children were truant…and this was a success story.”
Kamala Harris continued on to describe how she’d brought charges against a single homeless mother of 3 who was working 2 jobs because her children were truant…and this was a success story. pic.twitter.com/FT5uJmI6x9
— Walker Bragman (@WalkerBragman) January 28, 2019
While she now serves herself up to Americans as a champion for people of color, statistics from California in 2016 to 2017 show that the issue of truancy disproportionately affects communities of color, foster youth, homeless youth and students with disabilities.
Here is another article from Law Enforcement Today on Harris’ push for black voters to vote for Biden:
Kamala Harris: ‘wrongheaded’ to think only way for safer communities is more police, as she pushes for black Americans to vote for Biden
September 23, 2020
DETROIT, MI- In a recent visit to Michigan, Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris urged black voters to participate in the November 3rd election and to vote for Joe Biden.
Kamala Harris urges Black Michiganders to vote for Biden during events in Flint, Detroit https://t.co/xtgaLb9O3t
— Danny (@IHateDannyD) September 23, 2020
While speaking with black voters, Harris said:
“Let’s talk about America’s failure when it comes to creating safe communities. It is outdated. It is wrongheaded to think the only way you’re going to get communities safe is to put more police officers on the street.”
She continued:
“What we have to do and what we will do is reimagine public safety. If you want a safe community you have to invest in the health and well-being of that community.”
The future with #democrats Seattle hires convicted pimp as ‘street czar’ to work on police reform, paying him $150k https://t.co/SQqpqbdAf8 @JoeBiden @KamalaHarris @realDonaldTrump #DemocratsAreDestroyingAmerica @FoxNews @CNN @NBCNews
— link (@apowars) September 23, 2020
Back in June, Harris again, spoke about reimagining public safety with less police officers on the streets. In an appearance on ABC’s “The View,” Harris was asked by co-host Meghan McCain what “defunding the police” actually meant. Harris stated:
“I think that a big part of this conversation really is about reimagining how we do public safety in America, which I support, which is this: we have confused the idea that to achieve safety, you put more cops on the street instead of understanding how to achieve safe and healthy communities.”
She continued:
“That’s how I think about this. You know, in many cities in America, over one-third of their city budget goes to the police.
So, we have to have this conversation, what are we doing? What about the money going to social services?
What about the money going to helping people with job training? What about the mental health issues that communities are being plagued with for which we’re putting no resources?”
https://youtube.com/watch?v=5Akv-2eSyqw
However, it seems Harris is not reading recent reports, which show that most black Americans throughout the country want at least the same number of police in their communities, if not more. As calls to defund and abolish police grow around the country, a new poll by Gallup finds:
“That a large majority, 81 percent of black Americans want the same or increased levels of police presence in their neighborhoods.
Just 19 percent of black Americans said they want the police to spend less time in their neighborhoods, a figure that accords with earlier surveys finding that only 22 percent of black Americans want to get rid of police forces as we know them.”
The survey also asked Americans to estimate how often they see police in their neighborhood.
Black Americans’ reported exposure to local police as slightly above the national average, with 32 percent saying they see the police often or very often in the neighborhood. This compares to 22 percent of White Americans and 21 percent of Asian Americans. 28 percent of Hispanic Americans often see police where they live.
The results of this Gallup poll about the perspectives of black Americans on policing shouldn’t be surprising, but they likely will be to some, and for that reason should be shared more: e.g., 81% of black Americans want the same level or more of policing.https://t.co/WDlPjpFCvG
— Matt Allen (@MattWAllen) August 6, 2020
In late August, Michael McHale, the president of the National Association of Police Organizations stated:
“As a senator, Kamala Harris pushed to further restrict police, cut their training, and make our American communities and streets even more dangerous than they are.”
He added:
“The difference between Trump-Pence and Biden-Harris are crystal clear. Your choices are the most pro-law enforcement president we’ve ever seen and the most radical anti-police ticket in history.”
A recent Gallup poll also found that 81 percent of black Americans want the police presence in their neighborhoods to remain the same or be increased. That’s more than the 67 percent of all adults in the poll who prefer the “status quo” on policing. https://t.co/b63TpO88RF
— Brewer Shettles (@BrewerShettles) August 6, 2020
In her appearance in Michigan, Harris told the American people that the presidential race will impact generations to come, stressing that a Biden-Harris administration will bring much-needed investment to black communities.
She touted Biden’s proposed $2 trillion investment in public infrastructure and other investments in job training, manufacturing jobs, and raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour. She said:
“We will keep coming back because so goes Michigan goes the rest of the country as we as we are concerned.”
Democrats’ path to victory in 2020 election ‘runs straight through Michigan,’ Kamala Harris tells Detroit supporters https://t.co/LSN2yCjKhD #SmartNews
— JoAnne Williams (@jo_williams5) September 23, 2020
Harris went on to say that Trump has been more concerned with the virus’ impact on the stock market as the death tolls rose throughout the year. She said that Trump misled Americans about the severity of the coronavirus and continues to put people at risk by holding large rallies against the recommendation of health experts.
She then expressed disgust that Trump would even try to attempt to eliminate the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in the midst of a public health pandemic. She noted that black Americans have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic, facing a higher rate of infection and death than other groups.
In an effort to prevent potential COVID-19 outbreaks in high-risk communities, the Trump administration said it has started shipping rapid coronavirus tests to more than three dozen historically Black colleges and universities. https://t.co/iWlheSiX3N
— Miami Herald (@MiamiHerald) September 22, 2020
In a statement from Paris Dennard, senior communications advisor for Black Media Affairs, the Trump campaign hit back and highlighted the president’s accomplishments for black communities:
“While Democrats like Kamala Harris and their radical policies have failed black Americans for decades, President Trump and the GOP have an impactful track record of historic victories, like the investments in HBCUs through the FUTURE Act, criminal justice reform through the First Step Act, and Opportunity Zones through the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs act.”
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