Tipsheet

Clyburn: No One Is Going to Defund the Police. We're Just Going to Reform It... Or Something

Beth Baumann
Beth Baumann  |  June 14, 2020 7:20 PM

House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC) on Sunday told CNN's Jake Tapper that the "Defund the Police" movement isn't actually about abolishing law enforcement. He said it's about "deconstruct[ing]" police departments and having the ability to "reimagine" what policing should look like.

"I would say what I have always said. Nobody is going to defund the police. We can restructure the police forces. Restructure, reimagine 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. I didn’t grow up in fear of the police, even in a segregated environment. We never feared police," Clyburn explained. "All of a sudden I now do fear the police."

"The young blacks fear the police. Why? Because we have built in a system that’s responding, once again, to Brown v. Board of Education and everything that comes with it," the majority whip explained. "When I was growing up, we didn’t have black police. I remember when the first black policeman. Remember his name to this today. There was two of them. One of them's name was Gilliard. One was named China. The fact of the matter is this is a structure that is developed that we have got to deconstruct. So I wouldn’t say defund. Deconstruct our policing."

Notice the Democrats are suddenly changing their tune? Before it was "defund the police" and "abolish the police." Now it's about "reform" and "restructuring." Even if they cut every single cop that's on a force, what do they do to protect citizens while a new force is established? Or did they suddenly think that criminals will halt their crimes while they wait for a new police department to pop up?