“To black and brown communities out there that deal with the impact of excessive force by police: I would say that we see you, we hear you.” —Julián Castro

As the 2020 presidential race continues to unfold, there are certain things I have come to expect from particular candidates during the Democratic debates. When it comes to former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro, I now anticipate him calling out racial inequalities and police brutality on debate stages.


Most recently, during the October 15 debate in Westerville, Ohio, Castro was the only candidate to mention police violence during the three-hour-long event. And that was not the first time he named the victims of police violence when laying out his policy measures for addressing the problem.


However, his decision to call out bad behavior from police officers and the need for reform does not come without criticism. In an interview with The Root, Secretary Castro said, “For a lot of people in politics, addressing police brutality is not something that they’re comfortable doing because it gets very easy for people to try and label you ‘anti-police.’”



In the video above Castro outlines his People First Policing Plan; specifically how he plans on stopping the school-to-prison pipeline, ending qualified immunity and federally investigating police shootings.