Cedric Richmond, President Joe Biden’s senior adviser, recently claimed on Fox News that the widespread surge of violence in Democrat-run cities is due to the GOP attempting to defund the police. He first blamed the uptick in crime rates on the “plethora of guns” flooding the streets and then slammed House Republicans for blocking the COVID-19 emergency relief plan, which included funding for police departments. Talk about getting some seriously mixed messaging from the Dems.
“Let’s talk about who defunded the police. When we were in Congress last year trying to pass … an emergency relief plan for cities that were cash-strapped and laying off police and firefighters, it was the Republicans who objected to it. And in fact, they didn’t get funding until the American Rescue Plan (ARP), which our plan allowed state and local governments to replenish their police departments and do the other things that are needed,” Richmond argued.
He went on to say that Republicans are very good at “staying on talking points” of who says defund the police, but that they actually tried to defund the police. He even claimed that Democrats funded crime intervention and “a whole bunch of other things.”
As everybody in the nation knows, the “defund the police” movement was started last summer over the death of George Floyd, which included Black Lives Matter activists and Democratic lawmakers. They pushed local governments to redirect some of their funding from law enforcement departments into social programs. They even tried to introduce “violence interrupters” as a police alternative in some of the most dangerous streets.
Some Democratic lawmakers have reallocated funds back into their police departments after seeing spikes in crime when they attempted to defund the police last summer. Less police equals more crime? Who would’ve thought…
But now, even White House press secretary Jen Psaki has repeated the claim that Republicans defunded the police by opposing the American Rescue Plan. She told Fox News’ Peter Doocy that the ARP didn’t receive a single Republican vote, which included funding to keep cops on the beat in communities across the country.
Doocy argued back that at the time, these local police departments were experiencing pandemic-related budget shortfalls, not massive waves of crime. Psaki responded that the bill did all of those things and claimed that it was a pretty good piece of legislation.
But Republican leaders aren’t falling for it, with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy blasting the Democrats and their statements on crime. He told reporters that Democrats have sustained the movement to “defund, dismantle, and demonize our cops” for over a year now. He said that it has taken a toll on our communities and manifested itself into the crime crisis our nation faces today. He said that the Biden Administration, so far, has been soft on crime and silent on radical policies.
“Supporting the police and striving for safe communities should not be partisan objectives – they are shared values of the American people. It’s troubling that Democrats continue to vilify the police at a time when they truly need our support,” McCarthy said.
When Republican policies work, they claim it was their policies. When their policies fail, they claim it was Republican policies. From the start, “Defund the police” was about having the police force work for the left instead of the citizens. But policing, like education, should be local. We don’t need Washington DC telling local authorities how to do their job.
Just look at the thousands of National Guard troops that stood outside of the U.S Capitol Building at the beginning of the year. Democrat politicians haven’t pulled that move in any riot-infested cities. It’s just more proof that they’ve put themselves as a priority before the people.
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