Amid a wave of “defund the police” sentiment on the left, one MSNBC contributor argued that New York City’s crime wave is actually the fault of law enforcement.
The moment
On Monday, Brittany Packnett Cunningham, a social justice activist and former member of President Barack Obama’s 21st Century Policing Task Force, suggested that police had not actually been defunded but that their failure to stop spiking crime was proof they should be — garnering nods of approval from MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle.
Money quote: “Why should we keep funding systems and institutions that keep rendering themselves ineffective?” Cunningham asked.
The data
Refund the police: Cunningham cited a Bloomberg report, which found that police funding as a share of municipal budgets in the 50 largest American cities rose slightly in 2020 — she did not mention the same report’s determination that police budgets were still down 5.2% in the aggregate.
New York state of mind: Ahead of Tuesday’s Democratic mayoral primary in New York, the city’s spike in violence has made crime a top issue for residents — just as for the rest of the country, where it appears to have contributed to declining nationwide support for the Black Lives Matter movement.
THE KICKER
Meanwhile, some commentators have speculated that the crime wave is responsible for the poor projected finishes for the race’s progressive candidates.
