#On ‘defund the police,’ Obama clearly right — Squad is wrong

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her allies are assailing former President Barack Obama for saying “Defund the Police” is a bad slogan and bad policy.

Obama told an interviewer that 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,’ but, you know, you 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 alternative? To say: “Let’s reform the police department so that everybody’s being treated fairly. . . . And if there was a homeless guy, can maybe we send a mental-health worker there instead of an armed unit that could end up resulting in a tragedy. . . . Suddenly a whole bunch of folks who might not otherwise listen to you are listening to you.”

“Do you want to actually get something done,” he asked, “or do you want to feel good among the people you already agree with?”

AOC’s Squad answered that conclusively.

“The whole point of protesting is to make people uncomfortable,” she tweeted, and “activists aren’t PR firms for politicians.”

“It’s not a slogan but a policy demand,” added Rep. Ilhan Omar.

“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,” declared Rep. Ayanna Pressley.

“It’s hard seeing the same people who uplift” Rosa Parks’ “courage, attack the movement for Black lives that want us to prioritize health, funding of schools & ending poverty, rather than racist police systems,” huffed Rep. Rashida Tlaib.

Obama not only was right that the “Defund the Police” slogan was political suicide for Democrats this year, he’s morally right that the answer to rare instances of police misconduct is not to get rid of cops. All that will do is leave poorer communities, and people of color, further brutalized by crime. That Obama is considered too far right on this issue is madness.

The Squad already cost Democrats gravely in the election. What will they cost America if they get their way?