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STOCKTON, CA - According to reporting by the Stockton Record and Federal Election Commission records, Congressional candidate Josh Harder accepted $5,000 from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s “Courage to Change” political action committee.* In order to receive funding, the Record and Fox News reports that candidates must fill out a questionnaire, which includes a pledge to “defund police.”
This PAC requires those who accept funds to say yes to the following pledge, "If running for a legislative position . . . do you pledge to vote for the following: A public safety strategy to reduce the annual budget for law enforcement and defense spending and shift those funds towards community resources and programs… .”**
It has been reported that at least four Congresspersons have thus far returned the contribution due to public pressure. We call on Mr. Harder to also return the money. And, if Harder took the pledge to defund police as has been reported, we call on him to denounce it. It is offensive to those of us fighting on the front lines to protect our community to have our federal representative pledge to vote for legislation that would require cuts to our ranks.
We are experiencing one of the worst crime waves in recent memory. We just experienced the terror of having a serial killer on the loose in our community. He was finally apprehended solely because of the good people in law enforcement.
Defunding police in other areas, like Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Portland has proven to be a disastrous policy. Crime skyrocketed in these cities, forcing many to reverse their position. Defund police implies that police are the problem, not the criminals.
But soft-on-crime policies are the problem. We have seen in cities like San Francisco what happens when we reorder the justice system to favor the criminal over the victim. We do not want Josh Harder to bring San Francisco criminal justice polices to San Joaquin County.
We will be holding a “Fund the Police” rally at the San Joaquin County Correctional Officers Association headquarters at 131 D’Arcy Parkway in Lathrop tomorrow, Friday, October 28, at 5:30 PM. The rally is in support of San Joaquin County Supervisor Tom Patti, whom we have endorsed for Congress. Media is welcome to attend and ask questions.
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