Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum tried to dispel the rumors Wednesday that he is anti-police, contending that rather he is for “police accountability.”
“We’ve got to navigate in my state the fact that they think I’m Mr. Break-The-Law and all this other stuff that they say,” Gillum said on the “Pod Save America” podcast. “God knows I don’t want to give life to it, but all the stuff that they say, I’ve got to let them know — anti-police? No, I’m for police accountability.”
Gillum faced backlash after reports emerged that he signed a “Freedom Pledge” by the Dream Defenders. The primary goal of the Dream Defenders is to abolish private prisons, with its mission aimed at black Floridians. The Freedom Pledge, which addressed a multitude of issues with law enforcement, compares police to plantation slave owners and further explicitly calls police and prisons racist.
The pledge also states that signees will “fight for a Florida that divests from prisons, detention centers, guns, and police.”
“Law enforcement society cannot work, and quite frankly, law enforcement can’t do its job, if it does not have a trusting relationship with the community,” Gillum continued. “At the time that a law enforcement official has to go to a weapon, to a gun, to a baton, to a taser, they have already had to go too far.”
Republican Rep. Ron DeSantis, Gillum’s challenger, brought up the pledge during the Oct. 21 gubernatorial debate. Gillum denied having any knowledge of the pledge, saying he has “no idea what pledge [DeSantis] is talking about.”
