Vice President Joe Biden Talks ‘Gangbangers’ and ‘Bad Apples’ at Policing Event

Speaking at the “Champions of Change” event honoring police efforts to reach out to minority youth, Vice President Joe Biden blamed a lack of funding and “community-oriented policing” for the bad relationship between cops and minority youth.

“The law enforcement officer in a tough neighborhood looks at a corner and sees a kid with dreadlocks and sees a gangbanger instead of a kid who has an opportunity to be a great poet or author,” Biden said, noting that much of the problem stems from a lack of visibility between police and they communities they serve.

AP

After stepping from behind the podium, he walked around in the crowd and told attendees at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, “I have a really nicely written statement my staff drafted. This is from my heart.”

The audience applauded the potential Democratic presidential candidate's statement.

He later referred to some of the police shootings where police are believed to have overstepped. “Folks, you know, there are some bad apples in every bunch,” Biden said. “There’s bad senators, there’s bad vice presidents, there’s bad presidents, there’s bad everywhere. So we’ve seen some bad cops, it’s been highlighted. We’ve got to get the good cops. We’ve got to get them some ammunition, and I don’t mean ammo.”