Obama cautions activists against using 'defund the police' slogan

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Washington (CNN)Former President Barack Obama cautioned young activists against using the slogan “defund the police” to achieve changes in policing practices, instead urging them in a new interview to have a more inclusive discussion to better enact changes.

In doing so, the former president, who still holds enormous influence in the Democratic Party and has voiced support for protesters in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death, is taking a strong stance on a contentious phrase that is a dividing point among Democrats, and speaks to the friction between the more liberal wing of the party and President-elect Joe Biden’s calls for a moderate path forward.

“If you believe, as I do, that we should be able to reform the criminal justice system so that it’s not biased and treats everybody fairly, I guess you can use a snappy slogan like ‘Defund The Police,’ but, you know, you lost a big audience the minute you say it, which makes it a lot less likely that you’re actually going to get the changes you want done,” Obama told Peter Hamby on Snapchat’s "Good Luck America" when asked what his advice is to an activist who believes in using the slogan although politicians are likely to avoid it.

“But if you instead say, ‘Let’s reform the police department so that everybody’s being treated fairly, you know, divert young people from getting into crime, and if there was a homeless guy, can maybe we send a mental health worker there instead of an armed unit that could end up resulting in a tragedy?’ Suddenly, a whole bunch of folks who might not otherwise listen to you are listening to you.”
 
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I guess Barack learned something over the summer or now that “his man” will be in the “White House” they need to tone down the rhetoric so as not to scare everyone away. This man makes my stomach turn!
 
One eye toward the '22 midterms. They can’t allow any more “defund” talk and they definitely have to keep BLM and Antifa under firm control. We get another summer like the last one, Democrats will lose the House and I believe Obama is smart enough to realize this.

Americans, even minority Americans, mostly do not appreciate the deemphasis on law and order in light of the massive disorder that took place during the summer. Yet the Democrats are still more clueless than not why they nearly lost the House? Why Biden’s coattails didn’t extend to them? Biden voters were more anti-Trump than anything else, but politics are local so people saw their locality impacted negatively by the protests and the defund talk. And they voted accordingly.
 
Zzyzx_Road said:
Biden voters were more anti-Trump than anything else, but politics are local so people saw their locality impacted negatively by the protests and the defund talk. And they voted accordingly.
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NPR did a story that agrees with you on this; between riots and talk of defunding the police, there were a lot of people that were turned off by the idea of voting for a Democrat since that was seen as supporting such policies.

Note: Biden has stated that he does not support defunding the police.
 
Basically what we are seeing here is a rational and educated individual attempting to bring those who are neither to their senses.

I hope he is successful but not sure they will listen. Especially the protesters on the street. Their minds have been slipping into a dark place for months.
 
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