Democratic Rep. Cori Bush is going to keep calling for defunding police departments, even while she complains that Democrats can’t get any meaningful police reforms across the finish line. Go figure.
The Missouri Democrat wondered aloud recently how, if Democrats couldn’t pass their police reform bill “back when millions of people were marching in the street,” then how could Democrats expect to push police reforms through as smaller, individual pieces of legislation. All the while, she insists that “’Defund the police’ is not the problem” and that she will keep pushing the slogan, no matter how many of her Democratic colleagues ask her to stop.
Bush amazingly has no idea how ridiculous her comments are. She doesn’t understand that “when millions of people were marching in the street,” Republicans controlled Congress and indeed tried to pass a bipartisan police reform bill just before the 2020 election. Democrats stopped that effort cold, which had been led by South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott. All momentum for police reform died then and there.
Bush also doesn’t understand that Black Lives Matter became increasingly unpopular as protests turned to riots and caused billions of dollars in damage in several cities. The surge in riots coincided with a surge in homicides, as Democrats who supported Black Lives Matter stripped police departments of funding and vilified officers with narratives of systemic racism. In June 2020, 67% of people supported the movement in polling. By September, that fell to 55%. By July 2021, police officers were 24 points more popular than Black Lives Matter.
Police reform was never the priority for the Black Lives Matter movement. Congressional Democrats used it as an election issue but never as a serious issue of reform. Activists wanted police departments to be defunded or even abolished, and Democrats at the local level humored their delusions. Corporations, so vocally supportive of the movement, used it to pander to potential customers and nothing more.
Meanwhile, the Black Lives Matter organization cared only about money and buying new houses for its founders, not about getting police reform passed.
Bush, somehow, missed all of this. She also continues to miss that she makes “reform” less likely every time she calls for defunding the police. Most people of all races like public safety. The riots and the historic surge in homicides have been enough to persuade the public that only crazy people want police departments defunded. Privileged politicians and activists who have their own private security, as Bush does, won’t have to live with the consequences of their radical, anti-police proposals. But everyday citizens will, and they recognize that.
All of these things would be easy to see for someone paying attention to the last 21 months surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement. It was driven by anti-police activists, power-hungry politicians, and pandering corporations. Bush can complain and sloganeer all she wants, but Black Lives Matter torched its own credibility, along with buildings in cities across the country.
