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When it comes to the issue of defunding the police, Democrats and their media allies have been out front and center proclaiming their support for the movement to show how socially aware and “woke” they are. But when you press them for specifics on what it means, some of them try to claim that it’s not really about completely defunding the police (even though it is).

The downplayers say this even as high-profile Democrats like Squad leader Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Democrat-run city councils like the one in Minneapolis unapologetically push for fully defunding and dismantling departments in favor of a more “community-based policing” approach involving social workers and neighbors well-known in their respective communities.

Naturally, defund the police proponents have their share of apologists in the media, like the Dallas Morning News’s Todd Gillman, who wrote a piece Wednesday “fact-checking” statements by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and other Republicans including President Trump on how Democrats want to abolish the police.

Gillman wrote that it was a “false” and “unsubstantiated” claim to make:

Sen. Ted Cruz falsely claimed Wednesday that the Democratic Party supports “abolishing the police.”

President Donald Trump trotted out the same unsubstantiated allegation three weeks ago, and Cruz’s broadside dovetails with his effort this week to portray Democrats as fellow travelers of “antifa,” a loose affiliation of anarchists the White House blames for clashes at protests against police brutality.

[…]

Abolishing police is not part of the Democratic Party platform.

Trump’s challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, explicitly rejects calls to “defund the police.”

Most advocates of “defunding” don’t mean elimination of funding. They mean shifting some funds away from traditional policing into social workers or improving public health and education to reduce poverty and crime.

Here’s the tweet the DMN posted on the story:

Echoing Trump, Ted Cruz falsely claims ‘the Democrats are arguing for abolishing the police' https://t.co/tuZXxVLFMU

— Dallas Morning News (@dallasnews) August 6, 2020

Cruz responded accordingly by pointing out that Gillman kinda debunked his own claim in his own piece:

.@toddgillman the guy who wrote your headline didn’t actually read your article.

“Bill de Blasio proposed cutting the New York Police Department budget by $1 BILLION”.”

AOC “insisted that was not sufficient, saying: ‘Defunding police means defunding police.’” https://t.co/xzjhnYgDNH

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) August 6, 2020

The man has a point!

Gillman, trying to save face, continued to act as an apologist and spokesman for defund-the-police Democrats in his reply:

As @TedCruz says, facts are stubborn things.
His claim: “the Democrats are arguing for abolishing the police”
His evidence:
–@AOC wants deeper NYPD cuts than @NYCMayor
-Minn debated replacing PD w/new public safety dept, still w/armed officers

That’s not “the Democrats.” https://t.co/y5EQauTBPt

— Todd J. Gillman (@toddgillman) August 6, 2020

Cruz again dunked Gillman:

So the DMN’s response is that Bill DeBlasio, AOC, & the Minneapolis city council…aren’t Democrats??

Ok, then. https://t.co/XzrrDg2EyV

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) August 6, 2020

Gillman continued digging the hole he was in, but by that point, Cruz had moved on:

De Blasio, AOC and the Minneapolis city council aren't "the Democrats."
Just as you, @tedcruz, aren't "the Republicans" and I am not "the media."#LogicalFallacy https://t.co/i3qnySTYZ2

— Todd J. Gillman (@toddgillman) August 6, 2020

Something Gillman didn’t note in his piece is that Cruz has never claimed abolishing the police was in the Democratic party’s official platform, but then again it doesn’t have to be in order for what he said be a true statement. A substantial number of them are on record as calling for the defunding/dismantling/disbanding of the police so much so that it’s become a part of the national conversation.

Also, like many past positions held by Democrats and their far-left allies, some are willing to accept short term partial victories on partially defunding the police now if it means they eventually are fully disbanded. Don’t believe me? Just ask Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors, a leading proponent of fully defunding the police:

While, ultimately, Cullors said she believes that law enforcement as we know it today should be abolished entirely, she acknowledged that the road to abolition could be a long one—that is why, she said, it needs to be taken step by step.

The first step, she said, would be significantly reducing funding to law enforcement bodies and redirecting that money into initiatives directly serving communities, including education, healthcare, and community programming.

“We don’t disband law enforcement in just one day. That’s not logical,” she said.

“I think we should ultimately abolish [law enforcement],” Cullors said. “What we can do right now is drastically reduce law enforcement’s relationship to the community.”

[…]

“Policing and incarceration are part of a continuum. The policing is the first response and then incarceration is the last response. And these two systems rely on each other very, very deeply. We have to be working on getting rid of both systems,” she said.

Any more questions?

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