Lois Frankel, Lori Berman panel members debate ‘defund the police’ slogan

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U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel and state Sen. Lori Berman are the latest Democratic lawmakers to argue the “defund the police” slogan is harming the police reform movement more than it is helping.

The lawmakers made the comments during the latest meeting in their local discussion series on racial injustice. Frankel, Berman and Palm Beach County Commissioner Melissa McKinlay launched the series following George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police and the ensuing social justice protests seen throughout the nation.

Both Frankel and Berman said they supported aims to increase funding for social services, perhaps allowing some police responsibilities to be shifted to other organizations or agencies. But they argued to activists who have latched onto the “defund the police” motto that the phrase is making it harder to put those reforms into place.

The latest conversation was organized as a more inclusive discussion, putting the topic of police reform to several panelists. Those panelists disagreed on the effect of the “defund the police” phrasing.

“There’s a difference between ‘abolish the police,’ which is a real movement. Those are people who feel like we should find other structures [for community safety],” explained Nik Harris, the LGBTQ consumer advocate for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

“‘Defund Police’ simply means that we try to utilize those resources in different ways.”

In other words, Harris argued the slogan doesn’t mean eliminating all funding for police. It simply means cutting funds to beef up community safety elsewhere, such as tasking mental health professionals to handle mental distress calls rather than cops.

“What we’re talking about is a reallocation of some of our tax dollars to better benefit our community because what we know is, in a lot of these communities that are suffering, the budgets are out of whack,” Harris added.

That’s not how Republicans and other opponents have framed the debate. During the recent political campaign, Republicans intentionally jumbled the “defund the police” and “abolish the police” movements, arguing at times that any reduction in funding is intended to ultimately hamper police forces from keeping people safe in times of crisis.

While some of those attacks were exaggerated for political purposes, marketing entrepreneur and social justice advocate Leontyne Brown argued that supporters of police reform need better messaging.

“I have, as a marketer, a lot of tools that I can use in order to get information out there to you in a very, very clear and concise way,” Brown said. “And I don’t think that that has been done.”

Frankel added that time spent debating the differences between different reform movements is time lost getting any reform approved.

“Do you want to argue a message or do you want to argue policy?” Frankel asked. “I think we can agree on the policy.”

Berman seconded that line of thinking. “I know I have a lot of trouble with that wording,” she said of the “defund the police” movement.

Berman acknowledged existing racial disparities during the meeting. The series itself is aimed to bring more attention to these issues. But she concluded that pushing a message of “defund the police” isn’t the way to go.

“I do think we need to just work on improving our relationships between the police and the community.”

Tameca West, the assistance chief of the West Palm Beach Police Department, was invited to the panel to share a law enforcement perspective. She unsurprisingly backed up the Frankel and Berman argument, arguing the “defund the police” message prompts concern she may lose critical funding or be out of a job.

“People that live in gated communities, or their safe environment and never have been a victim of crime, of course it’s easy for them to say,” West said. “But without the police, there would be chaos.”

Again, not all those pushing to lower the budgets of police departments are pushing for a world “without the police.”

West did clarify that she understood certain activists are simply pushing a plan to take away funds and then apply them to social services. That aim too has its flaws, West argued. She circled back to the claim that police handle too many responsibilities, such as responding to low-danger wellness checks which are susceptible to escalation.

“Most people on this panel know that all came about because initial things were defunded. So really, things just fell into our lap,” West said, noting many individuals are going to be prompted to call the police first.

“When those things are defunded again, they’ll still fall in the police officers’ laps.”

The debate has flared up in recent weeks following Democrats’ disappointing election cycle in the U.S. House and Senate. Democrats’ chances of taking over the Senate are hanging on the results of two runoff Senate races in Georgia after they failed to win several purported competitive contests. House Democrats also lost several seats.

House Majority Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina, a leader among Black lawmakers, agreed that Democratic candidates were harmed by the “defund the police” phrasing even though the movement was mostly supported by activists rather than candidates or sitting lawmakers.

Progressive U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, a California Democrat who is being floated as a replacement for Kamala Harris in the U.S. Senate, concurred with Clyburn’s assessment. President-elect Joe Biden, whose winning campaign was a bright spot among Democrats’ disappointing cycle, worried during a private call that the movement could hurt Democratic candidates in the Georgia Senate runoff.