18 Apr 2022 Real Criminal Justice Reform Doesn’t Defund the Police

While liberals were recently in lockstep agreement about defunding the police, concerns about political viability are causing trepidation.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is being undercut in her attempts to distance herself and her colleagues from the Defund the Police movement as firebrands in her ranks such as Representative Cori Bush still claim that liberals “haven’t totally delivered” everything Bush believes they can and should when it comes to undercutting the law enforcement community.

In a Newsweek commentary, Project 21 member Demetrius Minor wrote that – while there is legitimate concern about officers overreacting – defunding the police “isn’t a viable solution.” And it’s unpopular. In fact, an August 2020 Gallup poll, taken at the height of the riots over the death of George Floyd, showed that 81% of blacks opposed neutering law enforcement.

There are alternatives.

Demetrius mentioned legislation proposed by Senator Tim Scott that was shunned by liberals.

And then there are ideas from Project 21:

Project 21, a vast network of black conservative leadership across the county, issued a blueprint for improving public safety, which includes getting police departments out of the regulation business, disarming federal agencies that do not have a direct role in law enforcement and reprogramming those funds to local police departments to improve community relations, and providing special training for law enforcement in identifying and responding to people with autism, Alzheimer’s disease and other developmental and mental disabilities.

Project 21 will soon be releasing a new edition of the “Blueprint for a Better Deal for Black America” containing even more criminal justice reform recommendations.

“Conservatives must take advantage of an atmosphere that is ripe for political and cultural movement,” Demetrius wrote. “Black Americans don’t want to see a system of protection become completely eradicated, because it makes them more vulnerable and at-risk. But they also want to see conservatives speak up for them – loudly and boldly – and to fight against the progressive narrative that they don’t care about those in marginalized communities.”

To read all of Demetrius’s commentary – “Nancy Pelosi has a Defund the Police Problem” – at the Newsweek website, click here. To be notified when Project 21’s new Blueprint is released, subscribe to the National Center’s email list.