Brian Fallon, the national press secretary for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, joined Thursday the rising calls on the left to slash law enforcement budgets.
“Defund the police,” tweeted Mr. Fallon, executive director of Demand Justice.
His tweet came as a sign that establishment Democrats may be surging leftward on law-and-order issues, pushed by the left-wing protesters besieging U.S. cities over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody.
All four officers at the scene when Mr. Floyd died on May 25 during an arrest have been arrested and charged.
Dave Abrams, Republican State Leadership Committee deputy executive director, said Democrats need to come clean on whether they support the “defund the police” movement.
“Every single Democrat in the country must answer to whether he or she agrees with this radical idea to rid communities of the women and men in blue who put their lives on the line to keep Americans safe,” Mr. Abrams said in an email. “Silence is part of the problem, isn’t it? Time for Democrats to speak up.”
Conservative media critic Stephen L. Miller and others were quick to mock Mr. Fallon’s message.
“Hey look, Dems finally found a public government cause they want to spend less money on!” he tweeted.
Others pointed out that Democratic governors and mayors have recently deployed officers to enforce social-distancing rules amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Said the popular Seymour Sludgeworth account: “The same people that say Defund the Police are the same people that want to take away your guns, leaving you and your family to the mercy of the mob. Just let that sink in.”
The “Defund the Police” slogan has taken off during the recent protests, but some advocates say the movement favors reducing law enforcement funding, not abolishing police departments, and shifting the revenue to social services.
At least two officers, Federal Protective Service Officer Dave Patrick Underwood and retired St. Louis Capt. David Dorn, have been killed in the rioting that began in Minneapolis in response to Mr. Floyd’s death.
So I guess they are really running with this one. https://t.co/UDzzsdfzrq
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) June 4, 2020
The same lefties who want to defund the police also say only police should have guns.
— Grand Old Partisan (@Michael_Zak) June 4, 2020
And two weeks ago were asking the police to lock up people for violating the QT and not socially distancing. These people are clinically insane.
— Jason (@jayhup) June 4, 2020
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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