Veepstakes contender Amy Klobuchar gets more money from police union PACs than all but one other senator
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Isaac Scher
Jun 11, 2020, 00:28 IST
Then-presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar speaks at a North Carolina Democratic Party event in Charlotte, North Carolina, on February 29, 2020.Reuters
Police union and law enforcement PACs have given $15,000 to Sen. Amy Klobuchar since she took office in 2007, the Center for Responsive Politics reported.
Sen. Patrick Leahy is the only senator to receive more money from such PACs.
On a yearly basis, Klobuchar typically receives more money from those PACs than Leahy.
Klobuchar has faced scrutiny over her former role as head prosecutor of Hennepin County, Minnesota, which includes Minneapolis, where she did not prosecute any officers in 30 police killings.
That history has come under renewed scrutiny as she's considered as Joe Biden's running mate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination and a wave of anti-police-brutality activism following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
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Over the course of her career in the Senate, Democratic Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar has received $15,000 from police union and law enforcement PACs — more money than all but one of her colleagues.
The donation data begins in 1994. On an annual basis, Klobuchar, who took office in 2007, has received more than Leahy, whose tenure began in 1975. Klobuchar has typically received $1,153 per year since 2007, while Leahy has typically received just over $817 per year since 1994.
Even before dropping out of the presidential race just before Super Tuesday, Klobuchar faced scrutiny over her record as head prosecutor of Hennepin County, Minnesota, which became the epicenter of anti-racist protests after Minneapolis police killed Black man George Floyd in late May.
A spokesperson for Klobuchar's congressional office told Insider that the senator has "a long record" of addressing racialized police violence.
"Senator Klobuchar has a long record of working on justice reforms and police accountability. As a prosecutor she pushed for police accountability reforms such as videotaped interrogations and publicly supported outside investigations for police officers," the spokesperson said.
On June 8, Klobuchar co-sponsored the Justice in Policing Act, "which will end the racist and excessively violent policing by banning dangerous practices like chokeholds and no-knock warrants, prohibiting racial profiling, and reducing the barriers to holding police officers accountable for misconduct and violence," the spokesperson added.
And in an interview with NPR earlier in June, Klobuchar said it was standard practice for prosecutors to refer police killing cases to a grand jury instead of bringing charges themselves.
"At that time, that's pretty much what the practice was," she said. "The idea was that you would be able to get rid of any political bias and present it to a jury. ... Every single one of those cases, we did present the facts to a grand jury so they could decide whether or not there should be criminal charges."
Klobuchar now supports having prosecutors themselves decide whether to bring charges against an officer.
In a 2001 incident, police shot and killed Efrain Pompa De Paz, 21, alleging that Paz was reaching for a gun in his vehicle after a car chase. No weapon was found, the Star Tribune reported.
In 2004, police fatally shot 15-year-old Black boy Courtney Williams during a shots-fired call. The police officer had been running after Williams, they said, and appeared to be reaching for something in his waistband. After Williams was shot, police found a pellet gun near his body, according to the Star Tribune.
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'This is very tough timing for her'
Floyd's killing has reinvigorated political discourse on racialized police violence. There's been a broad push among protesters, advocates, and some politicians to defund or disband police departments. The Minneapolis City Council has a veto-proof majority of support for disbanding the Minneapolis Police Department.
Though presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden opposes defunding the police, competition for his vice president spot is heating up, and Klobuchar appears to be losing steam.
"Klobuchar herself may still be a contender for the vice-presidential nod, but certainly one would think that the events of the past couple of weeks have significantly reduced her chances of being selected," a Center for Politics blog said, noting that white candidates like Klobuchar face more difficulty demonstrating their opposition to anti-Black police violence than Black candidates.
That sentiment was echoed by House Majority Whip Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), a crucial Biden-backer.
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