ArcaMax

National outrage over Floyd’s death crossed racial, partisan and geographic lines in a way that has drawn long-standing but unresolved criminal justice issues into the presidential race and onto the floor of Congress.

Suddenly what once seemed to be a potential gift to Trump’s reelection now looks more like a gift to his Democratic opponent Joe Biden. Caught between the need to answer protesters’ calls for a law enforcement overhaul (“defund the police”) and the danger of alienating moderate voters, I think he chose the best course, consistent with his beliefs and those of most Americans.

He boldly chose the middle ground of supporting more spending to improve law enforcement, community policing and social services to answer the many other social and mental health needs that can attack crime problems at their root causes.

Community policing, in particular, is an often underappreciated set of strategies for getting police out of their squad cars and into the communities they are sworn to serve. Improving community relations and violence-reduction programs helps police work with victims and witnesses more closely and, in turn, reduce crime rates.

Of course, the devil is in the details as to what Biden and his congressional allies can win legislatively. Lawmakers have been pulling an array of law enforcement and criminal reform proposals off of their dusty shelves amid the new explosion of interest in improving police practices and fighting systemic racism.

But with even President Trump, no softy on crime, promising a conversation about ideas for policing “better and how we can do it, if possible, in a much more gentle fashion," the Overton Window is opening so wide that some overdue revamping of law enforcement just might slip through.

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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)

(c) 2020 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.