John Fetterman, the Democrat running for U.S. Senate from Pennsylvania, said talk about defunding police was "always absurd."
Fetterman, who will face Republican Mehmet Oz in next month's midterm elections, made his comments in an interview posted Tuesday by Semafor.
"It was always absurd to defund the police," he said. "From my own experience I'd say anytime you have fewer police, you're going to have more crime.
"I just feel that police are always going to be a critical part of the conversation, and they are critical to being successful. They're the most important tool to make the street safer. I think that's at the core of it; having them not be treated in a way that's antagonistic.
"The most effective recipe is a police department that understands that they have to do what they need to do in terms of making sure things be safer, but not at the expense of the community feeling that they're over-policed. I think it's critical in any conversation to really begin to beat back the crime."
The Hill noted that Fetterman, who served as mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania, from 2006-19, has nine tattoos representing a date when someone died violently in the town.
Republicans have used the "defund the police" slogan to attack Democrats as soft on crime.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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