'Defund the police' is not the policy of the Democratic Party, Pelosi says

[brooklynite]

Source: Politico

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday that the idea of defunding the police, a frequently used slogan during the 2020 elections, is not the direction that the Democratic Party is headed.

“Make no mistake, community safety is our responsibility,” Pelosi said on ABC’s “This Week.” “I quote one of my colleagues from New York, Ritchie Torres, a brand new member of Congress way on the left, saying that ‘defund the police’ is dead. That causes a concern with a few in our caucus. But public safety is our responsibility.”

Host George Stephanopoulos noted that rising crime was a major concern of Americans these days and cited divisions within the party on law enforcement, referring to Missouri Rep. Cori Bush as someone backing the idea of defunding the police.

“That’s not the position of the Democratic Party, with all due respect to Cori Bush,” Pelosi said. “Community safety to protect and defend in every way is our oath of office.”

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/13/pelosi-defund-police-democrats-00008449

[comradebillyboy]

1. Is Cori Bush the last of the DSA types still pushing the

Defund the Police nonsense? Some really terrible political instincts at work here.

[Budi]

14. She claims to have had at least 4 times her car was shot at. Did she ever call the police?

She may have a $70,000 a yr Private Security now, but that's a luxury millions don't have.
So what's her suggestion for the millions who don't live as high up the ladder of such priviledge?

Has she offered an answer? I haven't heard her address an alternative. Anyone know?

[JohnSJ]

17. I suspect our illustrious press will mostly cover her views on this, instead of most Democrats views

on this

[empedocles]

26. Long been a problem - and election burdens

[brush]

31. Amen. It's the dumbest slogan ever...a for sure vote loser.

[Thomas Hurt]

2. If it is called fiscally responsible cuts in the police budgets to return to...

a smaller gov't footprint it would work.

[brooklynite]

7. No, it wouldn't.

It MIGHT have been a better choice two years ago when it was cooked up. In today's atmosphere of growing crime rates, no reduction in police funding is going to be a viable campaign message.

[Budi]

13. K & R "when it was cooked up".

That's the fallacy of Populism.

[George II]

16. Thankfully Mayor Eric Adams doesn't believe in any of that "defund" garbage. He knows first hand....

....what crime in NYC is like.

[JohnSJ]

18. +++

[multigraincracker]

23. It would have been better to "let the cops defund themselves".

Every civil suit payout for cop violence could come out of their budget. This would encourage the good cops to cross the Blue Line to report the bad and dishonest cops and it would cost them to keep them.
I was told by a cop, "I'm a member of the largest gang in the country, you fuck with one of us, you fuck with all of us". Excuse my language, but it is what I was told.

[ck4829]

4. Democrats: *Make any policy on police reform*. Republicans: It's defund the police

Media: Why do Democrats want to defund the police?

Democrats: I guess we won’t do this. We don’t want to be seen as defunding the police.

And on and on it goes.

[Ace Rothstein]

10. What? Activists were literally screaming defund the police.

Last edited Mon Feb 14, 2022, 11:35 AM - Edit history (1)

[George II]

20. No. A group of Democrats WERE calling it "Defund the police", and when asked if that meant...

...."police reform or reallocating resources", they insisted it was indeed "defund the police". There was little or no discussion about reallocating resources.

[betsuni]

39. AOC: "Defunding police means defunding police."

[LisaM]

5. One of the worst slogans ever.

I don't know what they were thinking.

[patricia92243]

9. Yes! n/t

[Mz Pip]

19. It gave the GOP plenty of free advertising

Good grief, if you have to continually explain the slogan doesn’t mean what it says it means then you need a new slogan.

Republicans ran on this stupidity in 2020 and will do so again. This put Democrats on the defensive - not a good place to be when you have such a thin margin in Congress.

[brush]

32. So true. It was not smart at all. If the idea was to get rid of...

rogue/killer cops, say so.

"Fire bad cops", or "Ditch Qualified Immunity"...no, that would need explaining too to some people.

Maybe just, "Get rid of Killer Cops".

[ificandream]

6. Defunding police not ok, but ....

defunding Planned Parenthood is, if you're a Fawks fan.

[mucifer]

8. It doesn't matter republicans and many independents will believe the lie

[brush]

33. It matters all right...especially if actual elected Dem reps...

keep stupidly and publicly backing the dumbest slogan ever.

[cadoman]

45. it matters because we need to move on from it and someone might try to use it in a primary

Pelosi's doing what a leader needs to do which is lead and set boundaries. She doesn't want to see candidates using "DEFUND THE POLICE" in the primaries or the general.

Notice also that she says "is not" rather than "is no longer". Words matter. She doesn't want this policy associated with the Democratic Party in any way, and would likely prefer it ended up in the "conspiracy" or "misinformation" bin if we can help make that happen. @ck4829 already showing the way on this.

[Budi]

11. To those millions of citizens & their communities who cannot afford a $70,000 private security

Thank you Speaker Pelosi & Rep Ritchie Torres.

New York, Ritchie Torres, a brand new member of Congress way on the left, saying that "defund the police’ is dead.

[multigraincracker]

12. It may not fly but I think it would work.

Drug test all cops that are armed with deadly weapons on a regular bases. Hold them responsible for deadly mistake.
It is a tough stance to take, but no tougher than the stance they take.

[brooklynite]

15. What evidence has there been that shootings by police are correlated to drug use?

[multigraincracker]

21. I was married to a cop and hung around them for a few years.

There was also a private gym near where I lived that was owned by a cop and lots of his customers were LEOs.. It got closed down for sale of steroids.

I assume it is common, from my experience drug use by cops is the same as the general population.

I have been around those that use them and familiar with roid rage. Watch phone cam shots of cop brutality, it's pretty obvious to me. Plus they and their unions fight against drug test for a reason.

Be happy to see an experiment using one of the more violent departments, like Chicago or LA try it and then look at the data.

Why would they oppose it?

[aocommunalpunch]

28. They're above the law.

That’s about it.

[toopers]

48. The police forces are having such a hard time keeping enough police . . .

that some municipalities are relaxing the drug policy for new recruits. Candidates with 1 or 2 prior misdemeanor busts are being accepted now. Before a misdemeanor disqualified you a person from joining the force.

[L. Coyote]

22. Interesting what Politico decides to focus on. Meanwhile, here's Nancy:

Link to tweet

[Voltaire2]

24. The police and fascist militias are an overlapped set.

But carry on.

[Cha]

25. Thank You Naancy Pelosi!

[Nixie]

37. Absolutely! Thanks to Nancy for focusing!

Enough of the losing group messaging.

[Cha]

38. Nancy for so Excellent at it in

2018.. she wants it AGAIN!

[nycbos]

27. It never was.

In 2020 we did not make that clear enough. We allowed that BS to define us and it cost us seats in both the House and the Senate.

[DownriverDem]

29. What it is really about

Remember when all that military stuff came home? It's about the militarization of the police departments with tanks, weapons and other gear.

[JohnnyRingo]

30. I think police could free up some of the money they foster.

There's a small town near here that bought a surplus armored personnel carrier, basically a tank with rubber tires. That's for a town where the biggest crime has been shoplifting at the mall and busting meth dealers.

There's another one East of there that has US 80 running through it, though there's no on ramp. Police set up speed cameras on the freeway and pulled in $2 million in a year and a half.

All police departments are eager to confiscate luxury vehicles, homes, and cash involved in crimes, but here's thing, unlike the traffic tickets, those properties and cash has to be spent on the police dept by law. That conundrum has caused many departments to hang onto contraband, using the cash, SUVs, and homes to set up new undercover drug deals. Once in a while they have an auction for bonuses and the Policeman's Ball.

I would like to defund the police enough so they don't look like Seal Team Six when responding to an incident. If it's so bad they need armor and machine guns, call in the National Guard. Your local police department may be the wealthiest land baron in the county.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

34. All the reasons Democrats say they did poorly down ballot

This article explains why Democrats did poorly in the 2020 elections.

Link to tweet

3. Moderate Democrats got slammed by “defund the police” and “socialist” and “Medicare-for-all” ads. These were the predominant ads that Republicans ran in competitive House and Senate races. Some of it was fearmongering and inaccurate. In retrospect, a number of Democrats, especially moderate ones, don’t think the party took those attacks seriously enough.

Here’s what Rep. Harley Rouda (D-Calif.), who lost, told The Washington Post: “Many [voters], I believe, bought into the message that Democrats are marching in that direction [of socialism], and that was a false narrative. I would tell you, the Democratic Party, in my opinion, is more moderate than it has ever been. We did not combat that message as effectively as we should have.”

“My opponent only talked about three words: Defund the police,” Democrat Cameron Webb said on a private call this week, Politico reported. He lost what Democrats hoped was a winnable race in Virginia.

“I’m not sure that as a party we took that attack head on, and provided our counter narrative,” Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.) told Politico of “socialist” attacks resonating with Hispanic voters in Florida, costing Democrats two House seats. “It’s not enough to say what you’re not, you have to define what you are. And we have to define it in a way that doesn’t scare the American people.”

“[T]he [liberal] rhetoric and the policies and all that stuff — it has gone way too far,” Rep. Conor Lamb (D-Pa.) told the New York Times. “It needs to be dialed back. It needs to be rooted in common sense, in reality, and yes, politics. Because we need districts like mine to stay in the majority and get something done for the people that we care about the most.”

[cinematicdiversions]

35. Actually medicare for all is fairly popular.

Socialism is a death sentence with Latino groups, however. There is a reason Republicans are picking up so many from that group.

Defund the Police appeals to very rich people who live nowhere near actual crime. IE some donor groups.

[Nixie]

36. +1000, Spanberger is right and Carville is too. Losing is

not winning, so quit doing what lost. This gives me hope that common sense and realism will prevail. Defund the police and socialism are losing slogans, so just stop.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

41. Our policy?

Here on DU?
I think not.
You really are trying too hard.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

42. Well, that troll didn't last long.

[Lunabell]

43. It is.

But, it isn't. I agree with the action 100% but the name really throws off a LOT of people and gives the GQP a talking point. We need to rebrand the efforts to reform policing in this country.

[cyclezealot1]

44. The Squad

Google is there for proof checking. The last time, I've to google defund the police as attributed to the Squad, I could find no positive results indicating anyone one of its members, used that kind of language. Much of our problem, we let the Repukes twist our speeches, simplify them in a way that lets them slander our original intent, as we say; they are swell at gaslighting.
We dem's need take from their methods and gaslight back.

[betsuni]

46. The Squad are Justice Democrats and Defund the Police has been their policy.

AOC: "Defunding the police means defunding the police." On her campaign website, "Defunding police" is still listed as something she strongly supports.

IIhan Omar called for the Minneapolis Police Department to be dismantled.

Rashida Tlaib said there should be "No more policing, incarceration, and militarization. It can't be reformed."

Cory Bush: "'Defund the police' is not the problem."

They have been very clear about defunding the police. "Defunding the police" is a Justice Democrats platform position and The Squad are Justice Democrats. They follow the platform.

[Corgigal]

47. So is the republicans slogan,

When can we start using the guns?

Cause one person said it somewhere where republicans were meeting.

Just asking the media?