Joe Biden biography by Jules Witcover: on Crime


Joe Biden: 1970: DE Public not receiving needed police protection

Joe also set himself up early as a crime fighter and defender of the police. In August 1970, when the New Castle County police released the latest statistics showing a 35 percent increase in major crime in the first six months of the year, candidate Biden accused the Republican-led county officials of "a deplorable lack of leadership," saying the public was "not receiving the police protection to which they are entitled" despite a 17 percent increase in the budget for that purpose. He proposed a four-point program that included an expanded police criminal division and the hiring of a full-time police director to achieve better cooperation between county and state police.
Source: A Life of Trial & Redemption, by Jules Witcover, p. 58 Oct 5, 2010

Joe Biden: 1990 crime bill: more police & tougher penalties

Biden championed more community policing and spent long hours and days immersing himself in law enforcement culture, frequently attending and addressing police organization meetings. And in a pending crime bill in 1990, Biden fought for more money for police departments, for a ban on assault weapons, and for tougher penalties for drug offenders, the bill was watered down by Republican opposition. Finally, in 1994 Congress passed a $30.2 billion Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, sometimes known simply as the Biden Crime bill, which called for one hundreg thousand more police in the nation's city streets over six years. The measure won strong political support for the Democrats and President Clinton from a police community that earlier had considered the Republicans as the law-and-order party. Biden ballyhooed the Community-Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program as reducing crime for eight straight years, from 1993 through 2001.
Source: A Life of Trial & Redemption, by Jules Witcover, p.306-307 Oct 5, 2010

Orrin Hatch: 1992: Supported COPS program and Violence Against Women Act

Biden continued through 1992 and into 1993 with hearings documenting the spreading growth of domestic and sex violence crimes against women. Then help came from an unexpected quarter. Republican Senator Hatch, who had been attending the hearings as a critical Judiciary Committee member, held hearings of his own in his state and was appalled at what he learned. Hatch became Biden's staunch ally and partner on the violence against women legislation and also the COPS program in a period when they alternated as committee chairman. Later they joined in pushing for the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 against sexual predators, named after the kidnapped and murdered son of John Walsh, host of the television show "America's Most Wanted.
Source: A Life of Trial & Redemption, by Jules Witcover, p.313 Oct 5, 2010

  • The above quotations are from Joe Biden: A Life of Trial and Redemption
    by Jules Witcover.
  • Click here for definitions & background information on Crime.
  • Click here for other issues (main summary page).
  • Click here for more quotes by Joe Biden on Crime.
  • Click here for more quotes by Barack Obama on Crime.
2016 Presidential contenders on Crime:
  Republicans:
Gov.Jeb Bush(FL)
Dr.Ben Carson(MD)
Gov.Chris Christie(NJ)
Sen.Ted Cruz(TX)
Carly Fiorina(CA)
Gov.Jim Gilmore(VA)
Sen.Lindsey Graham(SC)
Gov.Mike Huckabee(AR)
Gov.Bobby Jindal(LA)
Gov.John Kasich(OH)
Gov.Sarah Palin(AK)
Gov.George Pataki(NY)
Sen.Rand Paul(KY)
Gov.Rick Perry(TX)
Sen.Rob Portman(OH)
Sen.Marco Rubio(FL)
Sen.Rick Santorum(PA)
Donald Trump(NY)
Gov.Scott Walker(WI) 		Democrats:
Gov.Lincoln Chafee(RI)
Secy.Hillary Clinton(NY)
V.P.Joe Biden(DE)
Gov.Martin O`Malley(MD)
Sen.Bernie Sanders(VT)
Sen.Elizabeth Warren(MA)
Sen.Jim Webb(VA)

2016 Third Party Candidates:
Gov.Gary Johnson(L-NM)
Roseanne Barr(PF-HI)
Robert Steele(L-NY)
Dr.Jill Stein(G,MA)
Please consider a donation to OnTheIssues.org!
Click for details -- or send donations to:
1770 Mass Ave. #630, Cambridge MA 02140
E-mail: submit@OnTheIssues.org
(We rely on your support!)

Page last updated: Feb 14, 2019