Seattle to cut police funding as homicides spike
Seattle radio host Jason Rantz provides analysis on ‘Fox & Friends.’
"The View" co-host Sunny Hostin ripped former President Barack Obama on Wednesday for his critical words about the "defund the police" movement, saying the former community organizer should know better.
"You know, I’m always loathe to criticize President Obama because I’m such a fan, but I do think he’s wrong here," said Hostin, a former federal prosecutor . "When you think about 'defund the police,' that’s not a term that was crowdsourced or tested in focus groups. You know, that's a term that was born, a rallying cry, out of this over-policing of Black and Brown communities."
Obama drew fire from progressives after warning the party can alienate voters with "snappy slogans" like "defund the police." Some House Democrats have cited the movement as a key reason for their disappointing showing during the 2020 election, in which the party lost congressional seats in spite of President-elect Joe Biden's victory.
PROGRESSIVE DEMS FIRE BACK AT OBAMA AFTER HE CRITICIZES 'DEFUND THE POLICE' MOVEMENT
A frustrated Hostin said that "for the hundredth time," defunding police did not mean abolishing police departments. The slogan has a broad meaning, however, with advocates calling for everything from reallocation of police budgets to abolishing police entirely.
"We defund school programs all the time, and they call it defunding school programs, yet no one seems to have a problem with that, but people all of a sudden have a problem with defunding the police," she said.
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"I don’t think you should allow people to co-opt the movement and tell protesters what language they should use ... President Obama was a community organizer, and I really think that he, you know, knows better.”
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The "defund the police" movement drew attention this summer following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody in May, but even the idea of reducing police budgets did not poll well with voters.
Cities that sliced municipal police funding this year, such as New York and Minneapolis, have seen significant spikes in crime.
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