OPINION:
Susan Rice, former national security adviser during Barack Obama’s presidency, went on “CBS This Morning” and said police need a massive “re-imaging” — meaning, a total rework. Meaning, a total reshaping. Meaning, a total collapse.
“Re-imagining” is code for watering law enforcement to the point where they’re no longer law enforcement.
Watch out, America.
“Could It Be Vice President Susan Rice?” The Atlantic just wrote.
“Former Obama advisor Susan Rice emerges as a serious contender for Joe Biden’s VP pick,” CNBC also just wrote.
This woman could be Biden’s right hand stand in the White House. And as everyone with a pulse can see, due to Biden’s lack of noticeable pulse, that would put Rice pretty much in charge of White House policy, which in turn would give her pretty much free rein with her police “re-imaginations.”
Police, no more.
Police, be gone.
And most Americans won’t even see it coming because it’ll all happen slowly but surely, by coded, disguised, deceptive lingo.
CBS question to Rice: Do you support defunding the police?
Answer from Rice: “That’s not terminology that I would use.”
Because it’s clear; because there’s clarity in ’dem der words.
“But what I would say is this,” Rice went on. “We have a long history of inequality, of oppression that endures in this country. And we need the police to be part of the solution. In some instances, they are. In other communities, they are not. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach. So I’m for re-imaging the role of the police, getting them out of things like social work.”
Sounds rational. Sounds reasonable. But the very fact that the “re-imagining” will be overseen by the feds — which it would, in a Rice “re-imaging” scenario — already strips away the community independence. It already puts the “re-imaging” in the “one-size-fits-all box.
Rice used the same phrase to advance the same principle in an earlier interview with Washington Post Live.
“I’m not a fan of the terminology ’defunding the police’ because it’s been manipulated and misunderstood by many,” she said a couple weeks ago. “I think that there is a place for, in certain local circumstances depending on what is going on in the particular area, to re-imagine, re-envision the role that police play to get them out of some of the work that they customarily do that is more akin to social work than traditional policing.”
And then she went on to slide in a defunding plan — without using the “defund the police” language — and said, “And yes, there are places where there can be some responsible reallocation of resources, but there’s no one size fits all model. There’s no cookie cutter approach that you can apply.”
Except she would.
Except she kind of is.
Except that is exactly what Rice’s plan for police would be, should she become Biden’s vice presidential pick — to set forth national standards for local police that would include funding carrots for reform sticks. That would bring the top-down federal approach to policing. That would strip locals of control of their police units.
That would ultimately leave police defenseless to fight crime. How do we know this?
This is what’s going on right now in Democratic-controlled jurisdictions. If Rice wanted to make clear she supported police as important chains in the law and order link, she would’ve said so. Instead, she spoke the Black Lives Matter defund and dismantle message, with the special politically savvy language.
Rice, if vice president, would use her White House platform as well as the Justice Department to simply “re-imagine” away police from basic law enforcement duties. They’d be gate guards to protesters — to keep the protesters safe while they toss bricks into store windows and set cars on fire.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE.
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