The Black Lives Matter PAC on Friday affirmed its commitment to defunding law enforcement and denounced Senate Democrats who have rejected the goal.
“We meant what we said when we said #DefundThePolice,” BLM PAC said in a fundraising email.
Senate Democrats distanced themselves from the Defund the Police movement in early August by voting with Republicans to punish localities that stripped funding from law enforcement.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., introduced an amendment to the Senate budget resolution that punished anti-police cities. The amendment passed 99-0. One Republican did not vote.
Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., praised Tuberville’s amendment, calling it a “gift” to Democrats who wanted to retreat from the historically unpopular Defund the Police movement.
“If it wasn’t complete abdication of Senate procedures and esteem I would walk over there and hug my colleague from Alabama,” Booker said in a glowing speech, according to the New York Post.
He said the amendment will “put to bed this scurrilous accusation that somebody in this great esteemed body would want to defund the police.”
BLM PAC expressed a feeling of betrayal:
“After all the hard work we did—after we made countless strides to combat voter suppression and show up in record numbers to the polls to elect the very people in office— every senator decided that this was okay.”
The group said that the amendment “is not” and “never will be” acceptable.
“Defunding the police means funding our communities and investing in Black futures so that Black people can thrive—not just merely survive,” BLM PAC said. “It means investing in new ideas for public safety that come from the community itself.”
Tuberville defended the amendment as a way to protect federal taxpayers from irresponsible Democrat-run cities.
“If your city council wants to defund their police, don’t expect the federal government to make up the difference,” he said, according to a press release. “The American taxpayers in Alabama [shouldn’t] have to pick up the tab for the local leaders in Oregon and Minnesota who value the woke ‘Defund the Police’ movement over their own community’s safety.”
