Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said Tuesday that defunding or disbanding U.S. police departments is not the answer to nationwide protests against police brutality, arguing for the ouster of Democrats who run cities with the most problems.
In an interview on “Fox & Friends” with hosts Brian Kilmeade, Steve Doocy, and Ainsley Earhardt, Huckabee remarked that even 2020 Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden seemed like he was “walking away a little bit from his own radical left party” after telling CBS News he did not back the idea of defunding the police.
Instead, he explained he supports “conditioning federal aid to police based on whether or not they meet certain basic standards of decency and honorableness. And, in fact, are able to demonstrate they can protect the community and everybody in the community.”
The death of 46-year-old African-American George Floyd — while in the custody of Minneapolis police officers — and the shooting of 26-year-old African-American Breonna Taylor sparked nationwide outrage. Thousands upon thousands of Americans took to the streets, calling for justice and equality. But, in many cases, they were not met with empathy.
Demonstrators, with signs attached to their packs, gather outside the State Capitol in Denver, Tuesday, June 2, 2020, to protest the death of George Floyd, who died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers on May 25. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
The Minneapolis officers were charged in Floyd’s death — which was caught on video — but the officers involved in Taylor’s killing have not been held accountable. One of them was accused of sexual assault by two women on Monday.
In a nationwide conversation about next steps and change, Democrats’ calls to defund police departments have grown louder over the last week — believing reform is not enough to put an end to police violence.
According to The Washington Post, there have been over 1,040 shootings by on-duty police officers this year alone.
On Monday, Minneapolis lawmakers vowed to disband the city’s police force — against the pleas of their Democratic mayor, and congressional Democrats proposed sweeping legislation to reform law enforcement.
Crime rates were already down across the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but there are more questions than answers as some Democratic leaders have already started slashing their police departments’ budgets.
“What we need to do is get rid of some of these Democratic mayors who are running the cities where the most problems are,” Huckabee asserted. “That’s what I think is missing here in the analysis.
“Most of the cities where there is real trouble are completely run and have been for decades by Democrat mayors with liberal ideas,” he added.
“It doesn’t work. And, maybe they ought to wake up to that,” Huckabee concluded.
(Fox News).