This article was written by Marisa Powers & Tasha Khosla.
Introduction
The “defund the police” cause has been pushed more aggressively by activists and other liberal voters after the death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020. A movement largely associated with the Democrat party is being criticized for the party’s lack of efforts to defund the police. This is largely a result of rising crime rates in cities across the United States, prompting many prominent Democratic leaders to back-pedal efforts to defund the police.
Campus Conservative, Marisa Powers
In his first State of the Union address, President Biden denounced the “defund the police” movement, an unexpected sentiment due to his democratic political leaning. He said, “We should all agree: The answer is not to defund the police […] The answer is to fund the police with the resources and training they need to protect our communities.” Democrats and Republicans in fact, do not all agree.
Fewer than 40% of Americans approve of how Biden has handled crime. Democrat Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has stated that there is an “attitude of lawlessness in our country that springs from I don’t know where,” when in fact members of her party have cut police funding in major cities across the US, including Chicago, New York City, and Portland. Policies like this may be why the US murder rate is the highest it’s been in 25 years. Now, these cities are refunding their police departments as the midterm elections are approaching, and their approval rates are lower than they expected. Of course, this is with the exception of some unwavering Democrats such as Congresswoman Cori Bush.
I feel my opinion can be summed up best by a Democrat Representative from Ohio, Tim Ryan. “It seems like the Democrats can’t get out of their own way. The Democrats have got to do a better job of being clear on what they’re trying to do.” Changing their position on this significant issue months before elections will not make up for the past two years of mistakes, and the countless lives lost because of their soft-on-crime policies and rhetoric.
Campus Liberal, Tasha Khosla
A persistent problem for Democrats in the media is presenting a unified perspective when it comes to presenting their core beliefs. President Biden’s call to “fund the police” has generated backlash from fellow Democrats, including Representative Cori Bush. Bush tweeted, “With all due respect, Mr. President. You didn’t mention saving Black lives once in this speech […] Defund the police. Invest in our communities.”
For President Biden, his aversion to the “defund the police” ideology is nothing new. In 2020, after arriving in Houston to meet the family of George Floyd a month after his murder, Biden stated, “No, I don’t support defunding the police […] I support conditioning federal aid to police based on whether or not they meet certain basic standards of decency and honorableness.” His statements during his State of the Union speech serve to completely distance himself from that ideology but alienate himself from other Democrats, such as Bush.
Moreover, Biden’s address raises additional issues such as the need for police funding and police brutality. 2021 saw a record high of police shootings, with “the highest number recorded since 2015.” Additionally, despite promises to decrease funding, “26 of the 50 largest cities raised their police spending for 2021.” Given the number of police killings and the high police budgets, funding the police does not seem to be the solution.
Overall, Biden’s claims are an attempt at distancing Democrats from the “defund the police” doctrine but falls short in addressing the reasoning behind this doctrine.
Conclusion
Both sides agree that President Biden’s State of the Union Speech highlights how disjointed the Democrats have been when taking a stance on social issues. The presence of the upcoming midterm elections seem to have influenced Biden’s remarks and have divided Democrats even further.
The Conversation is an Opinion column written by two students of opposing political viewpoints, used to discuss current events from different perspectives.
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