Stacey Abrams, the Democratic try-hard who once served as a state-level representative for Georgia, has her talking point memorized for when she’s asked about the “defund the police” movement.
Like a lot of what Abrams has to say, it’s bland, weak, and mostly serves to keep her safe as a potential pick as Joe Biden’s running mate.
She was asked Monday on CNN about her thoughts on defunding the police, and she said the same thing she had said in a previous interview — that it was a “false choice” to talk about either supporting police or effectively eliminating law enforcement. But then, she more or less said she agreed with at least reducing the money given to police departments.
“We have to reallocate resources, so, yes,” she said. “If there is a moment where resources are so tight that we have to choose between whether we murder black people or serve black people, then absolutely: Our choice must be service.”
Talk about a “false choice.”
The suggestion that police right now exist for the purpose of murdering black people around the country is absurd. They don’t. According to the Washington Post, slightly more than 1,000 people were shot and killed by police in 2019. Only one-quarter of them were black. For white people, it was nearly double the number.
Abrams and others might counter that black people are still overrepresented in police shootings that end in death because they make up far less of the national population. True, but Justice Department data show that black people are involved in far more violent crime. In crimes of homicide alone, black people are both the victims and offenders at a rate 6 and 7 times higher, respectively, than white people.
In other words, the data do not offer any reason to believe that cops are running around “murdering” black people on a widespread basis.
The debate has already gotten dumb, with some liberals using the moment to call for reparations and free healthcare. Abrams is making it worse.
