‘Squad’ Democrats call to abolish the police following Daunte Wright shooting
Democratic lawmakers are proposing radical anti-law enforcement agendas, including calls to abolish the police and prisons.
The calls come in the wake of the shooting of Daunte Wright, who resisted arrest and attempted to flee law enforcement during a traffic stop in Minneapolis. Police attempted to arrest Wright over a warrant stemming from an aggravated armed robbery charge, in which Wright allegedly choked a woman and threatened to shoot her if she did not hand over her money.
The officer who shot Wright, Kim Potter, says that she believed she was holding her taser when she shot and killed Wright.
Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib responded to the news in a statement on Twitter claiming the shooting “wasn’t an accident,” despite the fact that Potter has not yet been charged with murder or tried in a court of law.
“It wasn’t an accident,” Tlaib said. “Daunte Wright was met with aggression & violence. I am done with those who condone government funded murder. No more policing, incarceration, and militarization. It can’t be reformed.”
It wasn't an accident. Policing in our country is inherently & intentionally racist.
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) April 12, 2021
Daunte Wright was met with aggression & violence. I am done with those who condone government funded murder.
No more policing, incarceration, and militarization. It can't be reformed.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, another vocal supporter of the “defund the police” movement also took to Twitter on Tuesday, seemingly backing Tlaib’s statement.
“Daunte Wright’s killing was not a random, disconnected ‘accident’ – it was the repeated outcome of an indefensible system that grants impunity for state violence, rewards it w/ endlessly growing budgets at the cost of community investment, & targets those who question that order,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote. “Cameras, chokehold bans, ‘retraining’ funds, and similar reform measures do not ultimately solve what is a systemic problem. That system will find a way – killings happen on camera, people are killed in other ways, retraining grows $ while often substituting for deeper measures.”
Cameras, chokehold bans, “retraining” funds, and similar reform measures do not ultimately solve what is a systemic problem.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 13, 2021
That system will find a way - killings happen on camera, people are killed in other ways, retraining grows $ while often substituting for deeper measures.
Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliott responded to the shooting by saying, “I don’t believe that officers need to necessarily have weapons every time they’re making a traffic stop.”
Fact-finding website Heavy.com released information from a Facebook account that allegedly belonged to Wright. The account had various posts that included degrading remarks about women, jokes about attacking officers and running from the police.
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