There is trouble in progressive paradise.
More specifically, ultra-liberal lawmakers cannot seem to come to an agreement on what their criminal justice reform message should be following the wrongful death of George Floyd.
Because the way things are now, liberal Democrats and their allies are all over the place with their call to “defund the police.”
On the one hand, there are lawmakers such as Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, who has gone so far as to call for the disbanding of the Minneapolis Police Department. There are also Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, both of whom have thrown their support behind the “defund the police” movement.
Then there is independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who caucuses with the Democrats, who said in an interview this week that defunding is not the way to go.
Sanders is catching grief from his corner of the political world for proposing recently in a letter to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer that an effort should be made to ensure “that the resources are available to pay wages that will attract the top tier officers.”
In reference to the criticism Sanders has weathered for his letter, the New Yorker’s Andrew Marantz asked the senator specifically whether he supports the “defund” movement.
“Do I think we should not have police departments in America?” Sanders responded. “No, I don’t. There’s no city in the world that does not have police departments. What you need are — I didn’t call for more money for police departments. I called for police departments that have well-educated, well-trained, well-paid professionals.”
The senator added, “And, too often around this country right now, you have police officers who take the job at very low payment, don’t have much education, don’t have much training — and I want to change that. I also called for the transformation of police departments into — understanding that many police departments and cops deal every day with issues of mental illness, deal with issues of addiction, and all kinds of issues which should be dealt with by mental-health professionals or others, and not just by police officers.”
The messaging around the “defund” movement remains extremely unclear. While some supportive politicos and journalists claim the movement is about reforming and restructuring law enforcement agencies and improving community relations, other activists maintain that “defund” is absolutely a call to abolish police departments.
Sanders falls into that first category, the one that wants sweeping reforms as opposed to the total demolition of existing police departments.
“I think we want to redefine what police departments do, give them the support they need to make their jobs better defined,” the senator told the New Yorker. “So I do believe that we need well-trained, well-educated, and well-paid professionals in police departments.”
He added, “Anyone who thinks that we should abolish all police departments in America, I don’t agree.”
