His proposed solution to addressing both urgent calls for police reform and animosity from law enforcement toward Democrats is one he’s long relied on: He’ll just get everyone in the same room.

By Alexander Burns @ NYTimes.com, Oct. 24

[....] If elected, Mr. Biden would bring to the White House a long career’s worth of relationships with police chiefs, union leaders and policy experts that is unmatched by any other major figure in the Democratic Party, according to more than a dozen current and former law-enforcement officials who have worked with Mr. Biden in various capacities.

During a late-summer speech in Pittsburgh, Mr. Biden pledged to draw both racial-justice activists and police leaders “to the table” to forge durable solutions. “I have worked with police in this country for many years,” Mr. Biden said. “I know most cops are good, decent people. I know how they risk their lives every time they put that shield on.”  Yet the 2020 election has also underscored the difficulty Mr. Biden may have in achieving that goal [....]

Some of Mr. Biden’s colleagues from the Obama administration, including Eric H. Holder Jr., the former attorney general, have worked to organize law-enforcement backing for Mr. Biden outside traditional police groups, and in September the campaign released a long list of endorsements stocked heavily with former sheriffs and prosecutors. Yet Mr. Trump has relentlessly exploited gaps between Mr. Biden and police leaders, running television ads accusing Mr. Biden of siding against the police in a time of unrest and berating him at the first presidential debate about his lack of police endorsements.

Mr. Biden’s response in that debate captured the risky political assumption of his candidacy, and a potential Biden presidency: that through a combination of good faith and long relationships, he might bring about peace between warring factions.

“What I’m going to do as president of the United States is call together an entire group of people at the White House,” Mr. Biden promised. “Well, everything from the civil rights groups, to the police officers, to the police chiefs, and we’re going to work this out.” [....]