Rep. Cori Bush Defends ‘Defund the Police,’ Says ‘Absolutely’ When Asked if She Would Still Use Slogan
Right-wingers were the ones killing law enforcement on January 6, 2021, congresswoman adds
A progressive Democratic congresswoman is defending use of the slogan “defund the police,” even though some in her own party believes it's a liability in the run-up to the crucial November midterm elections.
“Defund the police,” which came into more common usage after a then-Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd in May 2020, is a slogan that supports divesting funds from police departments and reallocating them to non-policing forms of public safety and community support, such as social services, youth services, housing, education, healthcare and other community resources.
Those on the right have begun co-opting the slogan to try to paint Democrats as “soft on crime.”
Democrats are defending their razor-thin majorities in both houses of Congress in November.
Rep Cori Bush (D-Mo), who represents an urban district including all of the city of St. Louis and most of northern St. Louis County, disputes the negative association attributed to the saying.
“No, because there is no data that actually shows that saying defund the police cost actual elections, not that that one thing specifically did it. You know, there were other factors there,” she said Wednesday in an on-camera appearance on CNN. “You know, someone lost elections when we look at, you know, what happened two years ago, there were other things at play: The way that they campaigned, how they did not use digital technology and, you know, many other things.
“And when we talk about right now, we have Republicans saying defund the FBI. You know, where are we — where is our narrative?” the congresswoman asked. “Let me tell you this: There were not Democrats scaling walls on January 6 when I was at the Capitol. They weren’t the ones outside scaling walls. Democrats didn’t kill police officers. That came at the hands of those that felt like that their candidate should be the president of the United States.
“So, defund the police is not the issue, but this is my thing with that. People are more upset about defund the police than they are about the fact that black people are still killed disproportionately in this country and with impunity,” added Bush. “They won’t fix the problem. Fix the problem, and I never have to say defund again.”
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