Edited by: Fern Sidman
President Donald Trump and his allies have seized on calls to “defund the police” as a dangerous example of Democratic overreach as he fights for momentum amid crises that threaten his reelection, as was reported by the AP.
Key Democrats, including presumptive presidential nominee Joe Biden, are distancing themselves from the “defund” push, which some supporters say is a symbolic commitment to end systemic racism and shift policing priorities rather than an actual plan to eliminate law enforcement agencies.
But confusion over the proposal’s intent has created an opportunity for the Republican president, who has struggled to navigate the delicate debate over racial justice, risking support from people of color, suburban women and independents less than five months before Election Day.
Facing increasing pressure to weigh in, Biden addressed the issue Monday in an interview with “CBS Evening News.”
“I don’t support defunding the police. I support conditioning federal aid to police based on whether or not they meet certain basic standards of decency, honorableness and, in fact, are able to demonstrate they can protect the community, everybody in the community,” Biden said.
AP reported that other opponents of the movement include Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., a former presidential candidate and one of two black Democratic senators, and Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., head of the Congressional Black Caucus.
NAACP President Derrick Johnson, in an interview, also declined to endorse calls to defund the police.
“I support the energy behind it. I don’t know what that substantively means. As I’m talking to people about the concept, I’ve gotten three different explanations,” said Johnson, who has criticized Trump. “We know there has to be a change in the culture of policing in this country.”
In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio said during a press conference Sunday that the city would move funding from the New York Police Department to youth initiatives and social services in its next budget, according to a report on The Hill web site. He did not say how much he plans to divert from the police department, which has an annual budget of $6 billion, or more than 6 percent of de Blasio’s proposed fiscal 2021 budget, The New York Times noted.
“The details will be worked out in the budget process in the weeks ahead,” de Blasio said. “But I want people to understand that we are committed to shifting resources to ensure that the focus is on our young people.”
“I also will affirm, while doing that we will only do it in a way that we are certain continues to ensure that this city will be safe,” he added.
The Hill reported that the announcement came just hours after de Blasio said a citywide curfew would no longer be in effect. The mayor said the end to the policy stemmed from protests being largely peaceful in the city over the weekend.
A group of social justice anti-police activists compromised of allegedly city hall workers appeared on the Instagram social media platform and announced their intentions to rally against the mayor Monday morning.
Identifying themselves as the City Workers for Justice Group, they laid out their demands on Instagram.
They wrote: “Police exacerbate systemic failures, they don’t resolve them. Our communities need investment & support, not overpolicing. #DefundNYPD & reallocate funds to housing support, rental relief, food assistance, education & healthcare.
We are outraged by the NYPD’s rampant violence against black & brown communities, protesters, bystanders, essential workers, medics & legal observers. These officers are a danger to the communities they claim to serve. Each of them must go.
For far too long, police have abused our communities and violated the rights of New Yorkers with near-impunity and little public accountability. This changes now. #Repeal50a and release all disciplinary records for public review.”
On Sunday, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo also weighed in on the issue of defunding the police and his opinion was in stark contrast to that of the mayor. Speaking to reporters in Albany, the governor said: “You have New York City, that is still reeling from the COVID virus, and now you have this night of looting, that I’m telling you shook people in the city to the core. You don’t need police? You don’t need police? That’s what happens when you don’t have effective policing.”
On Monday, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said that he is “1000 percent” behind a proposal to shift police department funds to city youth groups. “To help the kids of our city, I’m 1000 percent behind shifting some funding from the police to youth programs,” Shea said on Twitter. “It’s incumbent upon all of us to dig down and do what’s needed.”
In Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti vowed to cut as much as $150 million that was part of a planned increase in the police department’s budget, as was reported by the AP.
In a recently published op-ed piece on the subject of defunding the police that appeared on the JNS.org web site, editor and columnist Jonathan S. Tobin wrote:
“While some will cheer if this money is diverted to programs to benefit the African-American community, it may not sound like such a good idea to some of the city’s citizens who want more security, rather than less, after this week’s protests led to rioting and looting. Among them are the LA Jews who were cleaning up the anti-Semitic and anti-Israel graffiti on one synagogue, as well as the owners of Jewish businesses that were attacked and looted.
In the wake of increased incidents of anti-Semitic violence in the last two years, including two murderous shooting attacks inside synagogues, American Jews have been rightly focused on providing greater security for their institutions. This has meant communities and Jewish organizations have been relying on greater cooperation with law-enforcement agencies and seeking a greater police presence at potential Jewish targets.”
A Minneapolis city councilmember said in a tweet on Thursday that the city would “dramatically rethink how we approach public safety and emergency response.”
“We are going to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department,” Jeremiah Ellison wrote. “And when we’re done, we’re not simply gonna glue it back together.” He did not explain what would replace the police department.
AP reported that a majority of the members of the Minneapolis City Council said Sunday they support disbanding the city’s police department. Nine of the council’s 12 members appeared with activists at a rally in a city park Sunday afternoon and vowed to end policing as the city currently knows it.
“It is clear that our system of policing is not keeping our communities safe,” Lisa Bender, the council president, said. “Our efforts at incremental reform have failed, period.”
Disbanding an entire department has happened before. In 2012, with crime rampant in Camden, New Jersey, the city disbanded its police department and replaced it with a new force that covered Camden County. Compton, California, took the same step in 2000, shifting its policing to Los Angeles County.
AP reported that Democrats are well-positioned to win over the political center this fall, according to Republican pollster Frank Luntz, who said Trump’s uneven actions and rhetoric at a time of sweeping social unrest are “killing him.”
Luntz added, however, that Democrats risk their advantage by embracing policies viewed as radical following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The handcuffed black man died after a white officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes.
Municipal officials in Minneapolis have endorsed the “defund the police” language backed by some civil rights activists and a handful of progressive House Democrats. Protesters over the weekend also painted “DEFUND THE POLICE” in large yellow letters on a street close to the White House.
But there was little evidence that the effort was gaining momentum in Congress. Some Democrats described it as bad politics, even if most Democrats shared the desire to overhaul policing.
AP reported that former Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., a white moderate who lost her 2018 reelection bid, said “defund the police” is “a horrible name” that misconstrues the goal.
“By starting with the word ‘defund,’ you’ve left the impression that you are doing something much more radical than what needs to be done,” said Heitkamp, a leader of the One Country Project, which is trying to help Democrats connect better with rural voters.
She said the term left her frustrated that “there’s going to be somebody who’s going to try to find an opportunity in this, especially among the Republican Party, and use it now as an excuse not to address what is a very real problem in America.”
That’s largely what played out as the Trump campaign and congressional Republicans sought to link Democrats to the defund effort.
“This year has seen the lowest crime numbers in our Country’s recorded history, and now the Radical Left Democrats want to Defund and Abandon our Police,” Trump declared on social media. “Sorry, I want LAW & ORDER!”
AP reported that the House GOP campaign arm sent out emails condemning “defund the police” and connecting it to Democratic candidates.
“No industry is safe from Democrats’ abolish culture,” said Michael McAdams, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee. “First they wanted to abolish private health insurance, then it was capitalism and now it’s the police. What’s next, the fire department?”
Democrats on Capitol Hill unveiled a sweeping proposal Monday to address police brutality that did not include plans to strip funding from the police. The Justice in Policing Act would limit legal protections for police, create a national database of excessive-force incidents and ban chokeholds, among other changes, as was reported by the AP.
Rep. Greg Meeks, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus and a group of moderate House Democrats called the New Democrat Coalition, said Trump’s tweets accusing Democrats of seeking to abolish the police are a diversion.
“It sounds like the guy that’s the 45th president is trying to distract from what the real issue is, the brutality and the murder of George Floyd,” said Meeks, who represents New York. “And we’re not going to allow them to do that.”
Democratic Rep. Matt Cartwright, who is white and represents a Trump-leaning district in northeastern Pennsylvania, rejected calls to defund the police outright.
“I don’t care how it’s named, I’m not for that,” he said, while noting he’s joined protest marches in his district.
Asked if GOP use of the term “defund the police” might erode his support, Cartwright said, “If they can get voters to believe that lie about me, I suppose. Am I afraid of it? No.”
AP reported that Trump, meanwhile, is grasping for a strategy that might generate some momentum. A NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll this weekend found that 80% of Americans believe the country is out of control.
Some Trump advisers have considered having the president deliver an address on police-community relations and racial injustice, while others believe it would do little good, according to two White House officials and Republicans close to the White House. They also discussed creating a task force featuring Housing Secretary Ben Carson, the only black member of Trump’s Cabinet, but that has yet to get off the ground, according to the AP report.
The people spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Before the pandemic, Trump advisers believed the president had a real chance of making inroads with black voters, given his support for criminal justice reform and the strength of the economy. They’re less confident now.
(AP)
