Republican attorneys general across the country are pushing back on calls to defund law enforcement agencies in the wake of the protests over police brutality and racial injustice – arguing that cutting budgets to police departments would be “extremely dangerous and reckless.”
Police departments have recently come under renewed scrutiny following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for almost nine minutes. Floyd’s death, along with that of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky., fueled nationwide protests and elevated calls among some activists and demonstrators to defund the police.
But a number of Republican attorneys general say that cutting funding to police departments would only increase crime and not solve the issue of reforming law enforcement agencies. At least a dozen GOP AGs have spoken out against the push.
“Calls to defund and disband the police are extremely dangerous & reckless. That’s not the right answer,” Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron said on Monday during a roundtable with President Trump at the White House. “We face incredible public safety challenges throughout the Commonwealth that can only be solved when law enforcement and our communities work together.”