Jill Stein on Exploring 'What it Means to Disarm Our Police Force'




By
MICHAEL EDISON HAYDEN
Aug 21, 2016, 4:20 PM ET

Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein elaborated on her aim for the U.S. "to explore what it means to disarm our police force," saying that it was something to look into in the future.

"We are in a violent society," Stein said on ABC's "This Week." "We're all being caught in the crossfire."

Stein was responding to ABC's George Stephanopoulos' asking about her statement in a Facebook live stream in July that we "need to explore what it means to disarm our police force because as a society we have become armed combatants, all of us."

Stephanopoulos said Stein was "saying things that no other candidates are willing to say," and asked how her plan would work "in a society where there are millions of guns."

"Exactly, which is why I used the term something to explore for the future," Stein said. "The context there really was talking about violence and police violence in particular ... It's important to see that it's not just police violence."


LAURA BUCKMAN/AFP/Getty Images
People rally in Dallas, Texas, July 7, 2016 to protest the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile.The U.S. had as many as 310 million guns in 2009, according
to a report by the Congressional Research Service.


In some other countries including England and New Zealand, officers on patrol don't typically carry firearms.


Stein told Stephanopoulos that the Green Party has "called for not only a police review board, not only investigators to look into each death at the hands of police, but also to call for a truth and reconciliation commission so that we can address this ongoing climate of fear and racism."

In July, police reform advocates spoke to ABC News about the potential ways to reduce police shootings, including stronger anti-bias and de-escalation training, independent oversight, and a revised description of policing duties.

They did not mention any notion of disarming the police.

Jill Stein on Exploring 'What it Means to Disarm Our Police Force ...