Biden backs funding more police to fight crime wave
President Joe Biden has unveiled an idea which includes funding more police to combat a nationwide surge in homicides, which he blamed on lax gun control.
He said officials in high crime areas can hire more law-enforcement personnel using coronavirus relief funding.
Mr Biden's crime-fighting strategy demands curtailing rogue gun dealers and firearms trafficking.
Republicans are depicting Mr Biden's Democrats as weak on crime, amid calls by left-wingers to defund the authorities.
Announcing his five-point strategy at the White House on Wednesday, the president urged cities and states to use $350bn (£250bn) of funding from a Covid-19 relief bill on public safety efforts, including adding more cops, even beyond pre-pandemic levels.
"It means more cops, more nurses, more counsellors, more social personnel or community violence interrupters to greatly help resolve issues before they escalate into crimes," the president said.
Some members of Mr Biden's party have amplified calls by Black Lives Matter activists to defund the authorities, though the president himself has resisted the slogan, which is unpopular with most voters.
Mr Biden - who as a senator wrote a 1994 crime bill widely blamed for mass incarceration of black people - said on Wednesday: "This is simply not a time to carefully turn our backs on police or our communities."
Unless tamed, the crime wave will probably become a major issue ahead of next year's congressional mid-term elections.
During his remarks at the White House, the president also took aim at armed insurrectionists, saying they would "need F-15s and maybe some nuclear weapons" to take on the US government.
The Biden administration has proposed gun control as a solution for violent crime, although Democratic bills in Congress to limit Americans' usage of firearms have already been blocked by Republicans.
The administration's strategy also proposes investing in community violence intervention programs, occupations and summer activities for teenagers and adults, and support for formerly incarcerated Americans re-entering their communities.
The president recently hosted several big city mayors at the White House for a discussion on crime prevention.
