Sanders Says US Must 'Demilitarize Police' at Democratic Debate

U.S. presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said that the key to ending police killings of Black citizens was to “demilitarize” the police, during the fourth Democratic debate in Charleston, South Carolina, Sunday.

Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, responded to a question on how to deal with the conflict of interests between prosecutors and police in cases of law enforcement shootings by saying he would “demilitarize police departments so they don’t look like occupying armies.”

Instead, he would make them “look like the communities they serve in their diversity.”

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Sanders pointed out that the U.S. imprisons more people than China, asking, “Who in America is satisfied” with the criminal justice system?

Healthcare was also a central theme in the debate, with Clinton plugging a “more cost-effective” version of outgoing President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, while Sanders outlined a new plan “to stand up to the private insurance companies and all of their money and the pharmaceutical industry.”

This is the final Democratic debate before the Iowa Caucus Feb. 1. Two more Democratic Party debates remain in primary season.

According to a poll conducted by the Wall Street Journal and NBC, Clinton is currently in the lead nationally, with the support of 59 percent of respondents, while Sanders is at 34 percent. Former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley is polling at 2 percent.

Low-paid fast-food workers in Charleston met the debate with a walkout and protest outside the Gaillard Center, challenging the candidates to “come and get our vote” and demanding a US$15 per hour minimum wage. Sanders endorsed that call during the debate.

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Ahead of the debate, the Clinton campaign changed its strategy to directly attack Sanders for his positions on gun control – in the past he opposed efforts to make gun makers legally accountable for gun violence – and his support of a nationalized, single-payer health care system.