‘Defund the Police’ Did Happen

Rather than reckon with the failures of the pervasive anti–law enforcement policies that were implemented in the wake of summer 2020, many advocates of criminal-justice reform have continually attempted to rewrite the story. The latest iteration of this is a new video posted by Hannah Cox and Brad Polumbo, co-founders of the libertarian “Based Politics” outfit, ostensibly dedicated to “debunking” Ben Shapiro’s criticisms of the criminal-justice-reform movement. In the video, responding to Shapiro’s claim that “2020 was the year of . . . defund the police,” Polumbo queries: “Also, the whole defund the police thing — did that actually happen? It was a lot of talk, but . . .” To that, Cox responds:

Cox posted the clip of that exchange on Twitter, with the caption: “The right wants to paint the entire justice reform movement as part of a move to defund the police. Not only was the defund movement always fringe though, it also never happened. In fact, most departments got pay increases.”

About the Author

Nate Hochman

Nate Hochman was a staff writer at National Review.

Featured Tags

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Ilhan Omar

Democrats

Defund the Police

Rather than reckon with the failures of the pervasive anti–law enforcement policies that were implemented in the wake of summer 2020, many advocates of criminal-justice reform have continually attempted to rewrite the story. The latest iteration of this is a new video posted by Hannah Cox and Brad Polumbo, co-founders of the libertarian “Based Politics” outfit, ostensibly dedicated to “debunking” Ben Shapiro’s criticisms of the criminal-justice-reform movement. In the video, responding to Shapiro’s claim that “2020 was the year of . . . defund the police,” Polumbo queries: “Also, the whole defund the police thing — did that actually happen? It was a lot of talk, but . . .” To that, Cox responds:

Cox posted the clip of that exchange on Twitter, with the caption: “The right wants to paint the entire justice reform movement as part of a move to defund the police. Not only was the defund movement always fringe though, it also never happened. In fact, most departments got pay increases.”