Democrat Representative Karen Bass, chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), said that calls to “defund the police” are using a terrible slogan to rally people.
“I told some friends that’s probably one of the worst slogans ever,” Bass said during a Washington Post live broadcast on Monday, as reported by the New York Post.
But she also said that police should not have to get involved in situations where social workers may handle them better.
“Police officers are the first ones to say they are law enforcement officers, they’re not social workers. What we have done in our country is, we have not invested in health, social and economic problems in communities. We leave the police to pick up the pieces. In my city [Los Angeles, CA], for example, on any given night, we have over 40,000 people who are homeless. Why should the police be involved with that?”
Bass also asked why police need to clean up society’s problems regarding issues such as drug abuse, floating an idea that law enforcement may be able to forgo funding should other agencies take on certain priorities.
Bass’ idea is still pretty bad and misses the point, but at least not all Democrats have gone full-on nuts on defunding police departments.
