Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joined the left-wing criticism of former President Barack Obama after he said the “defund the police” movement was a “snappy slogan” that alienated voters.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, a democratic socialist, said people who complain about the wording of the movement are missing the point.
“What if activists aren’t PR firms for politicians & their demands are bc police budgets are exploding, community resources are shrinking to bankroll it, & ppl brought this up for ages but it wasn’t until they said ‘defund’ that comfortable people started paying attn to brutality,” she tweeted to her 10.7 million followers.
“The thing that critics of activists don’t get is that they tried playing the ‘polite language’ policy game and all it did was make them easier to ignore,” she continued. “It wasn’t until they made folks uncomfortable that there was traction to do ANYTHING even if it wasn’t their full demands.
“The whole point of protesting is to make ppl uncomfortable,” she added. “Activists take that discomfort w/ the status quo & advocate for concrete policy changes. Popular support often starts small & grows. To folks who complain protest demands make others uncomfortable… that’s the point.”
Mr. Obama sparked a backlash from progressives this week after he said on Snapchat’s “Good Luck America” that the word “defund” turned people off from the real purpose of the movement.
“If you believe, as I do, that we should be able to reform the criminal justice system so that it’s not biased and treats everybody fairly, I guess you can use a snappy slogan, like ‘defund the police,’” the former president said. “But you know you’ve lost a big audience the minute you say it, which makes it a lot less likely that you’re actually going to get the changes you want done.”
His comments drew backlash from Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s fellow “Squad” members, Reps. Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley and Ilhan Omar.
“Rosa Parks was vilified & attacked for her civil disobedience,” Ms. Tlaib tweeted Tuesday night. “She was targeted. It’s hard seeing the same people who uplift her courage, attack the movement for Black lives that want us to prioritize health, funding of schools & ending poverty, rather than racist police systems.”
“The murders of generations of unarmed Black folks by police have been horrific,” Ms. Pressley tweeted. “Lives are at stake daily so I’m out of patience with critiques of the language of activists. Whatever a grieving family says is their truth. And I’ll never stop fighting for their justice & healing.”
“We lose people in the hands of police,” Ms. Omar tweeted. “It’s not a slogan but a policy demand. And centering the demand for equitable investments and budgets for communities across the country gets us progress and safety.”
