2016 Vice-Presidential Debate: on Crime
Mike Pence:
Law enforcement is not a force for racism or division
Q: Senator Tim Scott, who is African-American, recently spoke on the Senate floor. He said he was stopped seven times by law enforcement in one year.KAINE: A U.S. senator!
Q: He said, "I have felt the anger, the frustration, the sadness, and the
humiliation that comes with feeling like you're being targeted for nothing more than being just yourself." What would you say to Senator Scott about his experiences?
PENCE: I have the deepest respect for Senator Scott, and he's a close friend.
And what I would say is that we need to adopt criminal justice reform nationally. I signed criminal justice reform in the state of Indiana, and we're very proud of it. I worked when I was Congress on a Second Chance Act. We have got to do a better job
recognizing and correcting the errors in the system that do reflect on institutional bias in criminal justice. But what Donald Trump and I truly do believe is that law enforcement is not a force for racism or division in our country.
Source: 2016 Vice-Presidential Debate at Longwood University
Oct 4, 2016
Mike Pence:
Bringing up "implicit bias" demeans police officers
Police officers hear the bad-mouthing that comes from people that seize upon tragedy in the wake of police action shootings as a reason to use a broad brush to accuse law enforcement of implicit bias or institutional racism. That has got to stop.
When an African-American police officer in Charlotte was involved in a police action shooting that claimed the life of Keith Lamont Scott, it was a tragedy. Clinton actually referred to that moment as an example of implicit bias in the police force;
when she was asked whether there was implicit bias in law enforcement, her only answer was that there's implicit bias in everyone in the US. We ought to stop seizing on these moments of tragedy. We ought to assure the public that we'll have a full and
complete and transparent investigation whenever there's a loss of life because of police action. Enough of this seeking every opportunity to demean law enforcement broadly by making the accusation of implicit bias every time tragedy occurs.
Source: 2016 Vice-Presidential Debate at Longwood University
Oct 4, 2016
Mike Pence:
Inner-city families should want stop-and-frisk
Law enforcement in this country is a force for good. They truly are people that put their lives on the line every single day. But I would suggest [that] what we need to do is assert a stronger leadership at the national level to support law enforcement.
You just heard Kaine reject stop-and-frisk. I would suggest to you that the families that live in our inner cities that are besieged by crime [would benefit from it].
Source: 2016 Vice-Presidential Debate at Longwood University
Oct 4, 2016
Mike Pence:
Police officer are the best of us; restore law & order
Police officers are the best of us. And the men and women, white, African-American, Asian, Latino, Hispanic, they put their lives on the line every single day. And let my say, at the risk of agreeing with you, community policing is a great idea.
It's worked in the Hoosier state. And we fully support that. Trump and I are going to make sure that law enforcement have the resources and the tools to be able to really restore law and order to the cities and communities in this nation.
Source: 2016 Vice-Presidential Debate at Longwood University
Oct 4, 2016
Tim Kaine:
I opposed death penalty but upheld the law
Q: Can you discuss a time when you struggled to balance your personal faith and a public policy position? KAINE: For me, the hardest struggle in my faith life was the Catholic Church is against the death penalty and so am I. But I was governor of a
state, and the state law said that there was a death penalty for crimes if the jury determined them to be heinous. And so I had to grapple with that. When I was running for governor, I was attacked pretty strongly because of my position on the death
penalty. But I looked the voters of Virginia in the eye and said, "look, this is my religion. I'm not going to change my religious practice to get one vote, but I know how to take an oath and uphold the law. And if you elect me, I will uphold the law."
And I was elected, and I did. It was very, very difficult to allow executions to go forward, but in circumstances where I didn't feel like there was a case for clemency, I told Virginia voters I would uphold the law, and I did. That was a real struggle.
Source: 2016 Vice-Presidential Debate at Longwood University
Oct 4, 2016
Tim Kaine:
Racial biases do exist in the criminal justice system
Philando Castile, who was killed in St. Paul, was a valued worker in a local school. He was killed for no apparent reason in an incident that will be discussed and will be investigated. They called him Mr. Rogers with Dreadlocks in the school
that he worked. The kids loved him. But he had been stopped by police 40 or 50 times before that fatal incident. And if you look at sentencing in this country, African-Americans and Latinos get sentenced for the same crimes at very different rates.
Source: 2016 Vice-Presidential Debate at Longwood University
Oct 4, 2016
Tim Kaine:
Community policing makes community safer AND police safer
Q: Do we ask too much of police officers?A: We put a lot on police shoulders. Here's what I learned as a mayor and a governor. The way you make communities and police safer is through community policing. You build the bonds between the community and
the police force, build bonds of understanding, and then when people feel comfortable in their communities, that gap between the police and the communities they serve narrows. And when it does, it's safer for the communities and for the police.
Source: 2016 Vice-Presidential Debate at Longwood University
Oct 4, 2016
Tim Scott:
I have felt the humiliation from being targeted by police
Q: Senator Tim Scott, who is African-American, recently spoke on the Senate floor. He said he was stopped seven times by law enforcement in one year.KAINE: A U.S. senator!
Q: He said, "I have felt the anger, the frustration, the sadness, and the
humiliation that comes with feeling like you're being targeted for nothing more than being just yourself." What would you say to Senator Scott about his experiences?
PENCE: I have the deepest respect for Senator Scott, and he's a close friend.
And what I would say is that we need to adopt criminal justice reform nationally. I signed criminal justice reform in the state of Indiana, and we're very proud of it. I worked when I was Congress on a Second Chance Act. We have got to do a better job
recognizing and correcting the errors in the system that do reflect on institutional bias in criminal justice. But what Donald Trump and I truly do believe is that law enforcement is not a force for racism or division in our country.
Source: 2016 Vice-Presidential Debate at Longwood University
Oct 4, 2016
Page last updated: Dec 09, 2018