CNN's Alisyn Camerota has a big fear about the Minneapolis city council voting to defund its police department. Not only is she worried about who can be called if you have a home breaking but what perhaps worries her even more is that this movement to defund police will help President Donald Trump in his re-election campaign.
This fear came out in her interview on Monday with the Minneapolis city council president, Lisa Bender. In fact you can see that fear cause Camerota's face to assume an expression of frozen panic while listening to Bender reply to Camerota's concern about calling the police who won't be available to being defunded out of existence.
Here's the key quote with the CNN host fretting about the "defund" movement helping Trump:
On a political point, as a Democrat, are you worried that you have just handed President Trump a great talking point or slogan or battle cry for his re-election to be able to say, see, Democrats want to get rid of your police? First, they come to take away your guns, as he says. Now, they're taking away your police officers. Does that concern you?
The interview kicked off with Camerota worrying about if reform actually meant dismantling the Minneapolis Police Department.
ALISYN CAMEROTA: Joining us now is Minneapolis City Council President Lisa Bender. Ms. Bender, we're so happy to have you this morning, because the move by the city council certainly got a lot of people's attention last night and we're so happy to have you clarify this. So what are you trying to do? Are you hoping by dismantling the Minneapolis Police Department that you will be getting rid of the police department?
LISA BENDER: I think in Minneapolis, watching George Floyd's death, and the four -- the actions of the four police officers that were involved has been a huge wake-up call for so many in Minneapolis to see what many already knew, which is that our police department is not keeping every member of our community safe.
And so I think step one for us is to tell the truth. Nine council members from communities all across the city of all different backgrounds, standing together to tell the truth and say, this system isn't working for too many of our neighbors for too long, our reform efforts have failed and we have done many, many attempts at reform and new leadership in the department and many things and we still see this tragic death.
And so I think the wake-up of our community is what's driving the city council's announcement yesterday. And now the hard work begins for us to rebuild systems that really work to keep all of our communities safe.
Uh-oh! Not exactly comforting words from Bender but what comes next makes Camerota even more worried.
CAMEROTA: But to be clear, you're not talking about reform. The word, dismantle, is intentionally different than reform. This is more than reform. This is dismantling. I mean, activists who support this are calling this a police-free future.
BENDER: Yes. And, you know, a lot of us were asked if we could imagine a future without police back in 2017, when we were running for office. And I answered yes to that question. To me, that future is a long way away and it would take an enormous amount of investment in things that we know work to keep people safe.
I mean, for a lot of folks in our community, stable housing is a safety issue. Having access to healthcare is a safety issue. And so, having -- you know, I think one thing folks are asking is to stop investing so much money in this militarized police force and instead invest in the things that our community really needs.
So, you know, I know the statement was bold and I stand by that bold statement, but the work ahead of us will be long, it will include every member of our community. It has to. And, you know, I think we have very immediate things, we have a state action against our police department, which gives us legal mechanisms in the very short-term.
Camerota then asks Bender a question most normal people would ask if you lived in a community without police.
CAMEROTA: Do you understand that the word, dismantle, or police-free also makes some people nervous, for instance? What if in the middle of night, my home is broken into? Who do I call?
BENDER: Yes, I mean, hear that loud and clear from a lot of my neighbors. And I know -- and myself, too, and I know that that comes from a place of privilege. Because for those of us for whom the system is working, I think we need to step back and imagine what it would feel like to already live in that reality where calling the police may mean more harm is done.
While listening to this, Camerota's mind must have fast-forwarded to the election campaign and brought up the big fear among many liberals. The fear of the Big Bad Orange Man winning in November due to the suicidal embrace of defunding the police by much of the woke left.
CAMEROTA: On a political point, as a Democrat, are you worried that you have just handed President Trump a great talking point or slogan or battle cry for his re-election to be able to say, see, Democrats want to get rid of your police? First, they come to take away your guns, as he says. Now, they're taking away your police officers. Does that concern you?
BENDER: You know, that's why I said at the beginning that it starts with telling the truth. And I think we've been afraid of a lot of things, of those political dynamics of what would happen in our city, you know, to have our police force hearing these kinds of words. And that fear is what we have to really work through, because, again, that's the fear that so many in our community are facing. That's the fear that we see, you know, from George Floyd's family, or the family of Jamar Clark or Justine Damon, who were also killed by Minneapolis Police, who have told us, we never want to see this happen again.
And so the efforts we have taken so far to stop this, to make sure no one is killed in this way have not worked. So our statement is to try something new.
Apparently Lisa Bender did not understand that what she was portraying as a fear was not aligned with what much of the mainstream media considers their real fear...the re-election of Trump.
