Democrats Backtrack on Extremist Defunding Police Movement

The “Defund the Police” movement that was fueled by the police-involved death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, appears to have come to a screeching halt after President Joe Biden and other prominent Democrats have backtracked on their support for defunding police.

During his State of the Union addresses last month, President Joe Biden unequivocally stated that police should be funded with “resources and training.”

“We should all agree: The answer is not to defund the police. It's to fund the police. Fund them. Fund them. Fund them with resources and training,” said President Biden.

The “Defund the Police” was a losing effort for Democrats, particularly for those Democrats running in contested elections, and because Republicans are expected to sweep the 2022 midterm elections, Democrats appear desperate to try to retain their slim majorities even if it means pushing back against one of the issues the Progressive faction of the Democratic Party has been championing.

In Florida, Progressive Rep. Anna Eskamani- (D-Orlando) introduced her anti-Police, defund Police “Criminal Legal System Reform” platform, where she called on the divesting of police.

“Investing in alternatives to police as crime prevention strategies works. Local resources should be moved away from programs that threaten communities to instead community-based alternative systems that support our people, that feed our people, that ensure we have jobs, and housing — the things we need to take care of ourselves and our communities,” stated Rep. Eskamani

But while the defunding of the police narrative is supported almost exclusively by Progressive Democrats, there are some Republicans who also support defunding police, but not at the scale that Rep.Eskamani has called for.

Rep. Clay Yarborough, who is running for the State Senate District 4 to replace retiring Senator Aaron Ben, appears to have voted to defund police when he was a member of the Jacksonville City Council.

Back in 2008, when municipalities were scrambling to cut costs after the housing market-fuel economic crash of that year, then-Councilman Yarborough voted in favor of city budgets that slashed police jobs.

In other words, the City of Jacksonville Council voted to defund police before it was cool to defund police.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who just last year began to dole out bonus checks for Police officers around the state when Democrats were pressing their defund narrative, recently asserted his pro-Police, First Responder agenda.

“We are a law and order, state. We've been able, with the legislature really leading the way, to leave no doubt that this is the best law and order state in the entire country, We never bought into the canard of defunding law enforcement in the state of Florida. In fact, not only have we supported them -- this budget that the legislature passed is going to -- for the second year in a row -- give a thousand dollar bonus to every single firefighter, EMT and police officer in the entire state of Florida,” said Gov. DeSantis as he closed out the 2022 legislative session.”

Gov.DeSantis added that “HB 3 that was passed has $5,000 signing bonuses for new law enforcement recruits coming from out of state, or even starting in the profession from the state of Florida; millions of dollars for law enforcement scholarships; [and] actually allows school choice for sons and daughters of our police. That piece of legislation is by far the most law enforcement friendly piece of legislation, anywhere in the country.”

HB 3 passed in the Florida House of Representatives by a vote count of 114-3.

DeSantis has also vowed to defund municipalities who act to defund police.