By Sofia Leguria
ST. LOUIS, MO – President Joe Biden gave his State of the Union this week, and rejected the Democratic party’s call to defund the police—Rep.Cori Bush (D-MO) strongly disagreed and said so.
As Democrats get geared up for the midterm elections coming up in the next few months, political commentators said Biden decided to distance himself from many in the party who have supported defunding the police.
Bush took to Twitter to respond to Biden’s statements and continued to push her agenda to shift government resources away from the police.
She tweeted, “All our country has done is given more funding to the police. The result? 2021 set a record for fatal police shootings.”
The Washington Post reported 1,055 fatal police shootings nationwide last year, the most the outlet has documented in a year since it began compiling data on police killings in 2015.
In his speech Biden said, “We should all agree, the answer is not to defund the police. The answer is to fund the police. Fund them. Fund them. Fund them with resources and training. Resources and training they need to protect their communities.”
In response Bush tweeted “defund the police… invest in our communities…With all due respect, Mr. President, you didn’t mention saving Black lives once in this speech.”
Last year the American Rescue Plan Act was approved by Congress and got $350 million dollars for law enforcement to hire more police officers and invest in more training.
Last October a survey went around that showed a small minority of Americans wanted police budgets to decrease.
This is very different from the same survey that was taken in June 2020 that showed 26 percent of people wanted police budgets to decrease significantly.
Political consultant Mike Berg said, “Defunding police is absolutely toxic with voters, but the most prominent Democrat in Missouri still wants to do it—Cori Bush is going to ensure Democrats are forever known as the party of ‘defund the police.’”
Bush is also a pastor, registered nurse, criminal justice reformer and Black Lives Matter activist.
It wasn’t just “Defund the Police” that Biden distanced himself from, he also said he was bringing back manufacturing jobs, backed way off COVID restrictions and actually said we need to secure our borders. I mean he seriously said that but does anyone believe him?
Many pundits said Biden sounded more like Trump than himself.
By the end of his SOTU speech I was actually expecting Biden to shout “Drill, Baby, Drill”.
I thought that the “official” line is that “defunding the police” was just a poorly-chosen slogan? 🙂
Not as long as we’re relying upon Russian oil.
I always find it amusing when there’s concern regarding rising gas prices, while simultaneously claiming to be concerned about climate change.
Rising prices are the most effective way to reduce “demand” (and consumption). But of course, there’s the usual cry that this impacts those with less income (as if they don’t contribute to global warming due to their economic status).
Pick a lane! (But not a literal traffic lane.) 🙂
And it’s the most effective way to lose the House and the Senate in the midterms. Biden and the Democrats are starting to realize that, therefor the reason for the “right” turn at the SOTU.
True, and it’s also the reason that we’re screwed regarding climate change. Turns out that people generally vote their pocketbooks, over the environment.
Unless governments use other methods.
Ultimately, the same type of dynamic is at play regarding the police. If folks believe that defunding them will increase crime, they’ll never do so (regardless of any “equity” concerns).
“Virtue signaling” always takes a hard-right turn, when (personal) reality smacks them in the face.
I would suggest, however – that “social justice” concerns are trumping (so to speak) environmental concerns, at this point.
Hence, the “poor people can’t afford gas” argument, for example. “Extra points” if it disproportionately impacts those of some skin colors.
In keeping with the exchange between Keith and me, I’m going to assume that the following is the reason that they didn’t give “Sulu” command of a starship during the initial series run:
In contrast, Captain Kirk would know that this wouldn’t fly. Let alone a comment like mine (in regard to rising prices resulting in curbing greenhouse gas emissions).
But it sounds like the comment section of Twitter is not unlike that of the Vanguard. (At least, when the Vanguard had more commenters.)
https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/celebrity/george-takeis-plea-for-americans-to-endure-higher-gas-prices-to-put-the-screws-to-putin-sets-off-a-twitter-war/ar-AAUFBFm?li=BBnb7Kz