Joe Biden is calling for an end to the violent protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota over the killing of George Floyd, but his campaign staff...
Joe Biden is calling for an end to the violent protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota over the killing of George Floyd, but his campaign staffers are also funding bail money to protesters who were arrested in the midst of the riots.
In a statement posted to Medium and sent out to his supporters through a campaign email, Biden demanded demonstrators stop 'burning down communities' in the midst of their protests.
'Protesting such brutality is right and necessary,' the presumed Democratic nominee admitted in the statement. 'It's an utterly American response.'
'But burning down communities and needless destruction is not,' he continued. 'Violence that endangers lives is not. Violence that guts and shutters businesses that serve the community is not.'
'The act of protesting should never be allowed to overshadow the reason we protest. It should not drive people away from the just cause that protest is meant to advance,' Biden urged.
Presumed Democratic nominee Joe Biden called on Sunday for an end to the violent riots that broke out in the wake of the killing of a black man, George Floyd, by a white police officer
Biden's comments also come as it was confirmed that at least 13 of his campaign staffers donated to a fund that helps pay bail for those arrested in Minneapolis – where the riots originated
The riots broke out after video emerged of a black man, George Floyd (pictured), being killed during an arrest after a white police officer held his knee on his neck for eight minutes in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis wasn't the only city where rioters took to the streets. Here a protester stands in front of a street fire in Los Angeles on Saturday
The former vice president is responding to the riots that broke out in Minneapolis after video emerged of four police officers holding down a black man, George Floyd, until he died from suffocation.
Derek Chauvin, a white cop, can be seen in the video kneeling on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes as he repeatedly says he can't breathe.
The 44-year-old police officer was fired after the video emerged and was taken into custody on Friday following days of protests calling for his arrest – and the victim's family continues to call for a more serious charge than third-degree murder.
Biden's comments calling for an end to the violence, which has broken out all over the country, comes as it was revealed that at least 13 of his campaign staff have donated to the Minnesota Freedom Fund, which helps pay the bail fees of those arrested in the city.
Reuters confirmed that 13 of the candidate's staff advertised their donations on Twitter.
In their Twitter posts, Biden's staff called attention to U.S. inequities based on race and income.
'It is up to everyone to fight injustice,' Colleen May, who identified herself as an campaign organizer for Biden in South Carolina, Wisconsin and Florida, said in a Twitter post.
She included an image of her receipt from donating $50 to the Minnesota Freedom Fund.
The fund specifically opposes the practice of cash bail, or making people pay to avoid pre-trial imprisonment, and uses donations to pay bail fees in Minneapolis.
This has translated most recently to the donations paying the bail fees in the largest Minnesota city after its police jailed people rioting in the streets over the killing of Floyd.
It is unclear how many people have been jailed after four nights of protests, but Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said on Saturday that many of those arrested have been from out of state.
Biden campaign spokesman Andrew Bates affirmed that the former vice president opposes the institution of cash bail as a 'modern day debtors prison,' but he declined to answer questions on whether the donations were coordinated within the campaign, underscoring the politically thorny nature of the sometimes violent protests.
Bates instead pointed to Biden's comments that protesters have the right to be angry but that more violence won't solve justice problems.
In his statement, Biden sympathized with those experiencing loss and economic hardship in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic and in the black community – even seeming to point to his own experience with loss.
'I know that a grief that dark and deep may at times feel too heavy to bear,' Biden wrote. 'I know.'
Biden lost his first wife Neilia and their one-year-old daughter Naomi in a car accident in 1972 – just one week after winning his Senate election. In 2015, he lost his 46-year-old son Beau to brain cancer.
'We are a nation in pain, but we must not allow this pain to destroy us,' Biden continued in his statement. 'We are a nation enraged, but we cannot allow our rage to consume us. We are a nation exhausted, but we will not allow our exhaustion to defeat us.'
President Donald Trump has threatened to respond to the 'thugs' with deadly force, but has also expressed sympathy over Floyd's death
President Donald Trump, who has previously described himself as a 'law and order' president, criticized violent protesters on Friday as 'thugs' and threatened to respond with deadly force.
The president has also, on the other hand, expressed sympathy over Floyd's death.
Minnesota could be critical in determining the winner of the Nov. 3 presidential election.
The Democratic candidate in the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton, narrowly won the state by a 1.5 percentage point margin. Trump hopes to win the state this year and held a large rally in Minneapolis in October.
Trump has struggled to attract African American voters, with only 8% of African Americans voting for him in 2016, according to a Reuters/Ipsos Election Day poll. However, a nationwide decline in black voter turnout in 2016 was widely seen as contributing to Trump's victory.
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