James Clyburn Dismisses Calls To Defund Police
In an interview with CNN broadcast on Sunday, Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina dismissed activist calls to defund law enforcement.
Progressive activists and some lawmakers began advocating for slashes in police budgets following the death of George Floyd. Floyd, an African American, died in the custody of the Minneapolis Police Department after a white officer named Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck.
“Nobody is going to defund the police,” the House Majority Whip told anchor Jake Tapper on State of the Union, calling for milder reforms.
“We can restructure the police forces. Restructure, re-imagine policing. That is what we are going to do.”
“The fact of the matter is that police have a role to play. What we’ve got to do is make sure that their role is one that meets the times, one that responds to these communities that they operate in,” he said.
Clyburn echoed what he told CNN a day earlier, when he suggested that calls to defund police departments are counterproductive and only help President Donald Trump.
The Democrat said that calls to defund the police give Trump “the cover he needs.”
“I’ve been saying to people all the time, ‘If you allow yourself to play the opponent’s game, you’re going to lose and the opponent will win.’ Let’s not play his game,” he said.
As The Washington Post reported, Trump and his allies have indeed accused the Democratic Party of siding with rioters and advocating to slash law enforcement budgets.
The president has repeatedly tweeted about the issue, suggesting that Democrats in the United States Congress moved on from trying to get rid of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to wanting to abolish the police. Prominent Republican lawmakers have echoed his remarks.
Other Democrats have also dismissed activist calls to defund police departments. Notably, former Vice President Joe Biden openly stated that he would not be in favor of such a policy.
Most Americans seem to agree with Clyburn, Biden and others. According to a HuffPost/YouGov poll released earlier this week, only 27 percent of Americans are in favor of defunding the police. Republicans, Democrats and Independent voters all said that they oppose such measures.
Still, the survey found that most Americans believe the police system requires changes, and they support various reform measures. A majority of respondents were in favor of banning chokeholds, abolishing qualified immunity, appointing independent prosecutors when necessary and establishing a federal registry for complaints against police officers
Earlier this week, congressional Democrats unveiled a bill that would ban chokeholds and introduce a variety of similar measures, but not defund police departments.
