(CALMATTERS) – California U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris is emerging as the top contender for Joe Biden’s vice president amid protests over police brutality and a renewed reckoning about racism in America.
On Monday, she introduced a sweeping police reform bill and has made numerous TV and talk show appearances to discuss the intersection of race and law enforcement.
They point to incidents like her decision in 2008, as California attorney general, to prosecute a schizophrenic woman shot by police and to her flip-flopping on issues that have taken on renewed urgency in recent days.
For example, Harris’ police reform bill calls for a stricter national standard for when police are legally able to use deadly force — but she didn’t take a stance on the issue in 2019, when California passed a landmark law raising the state standard from “reasonable” to “necessary.”
Her bill also calls for independent investigations of police departments, though she didn’t back a California bill to that effect as attorney general.
