Defund the Democrats (& their city wrecking record)

By James Ball
House District 36 candidate

This article provided by Oregon Transformation Newsletter.

In the midst of a global pandemic, racial injustice has once again been brought to the forefront of our national discussion with the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This brought attention to another black person killed by police: Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, a few months earlier. Add to the list Botham Jean in Dallas, Texas; Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota; Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Maryland; Eric Garner in New York City; Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Ohio; Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mississippi; and many others. What do these high-profile cases have in common? Democratic leadership.

George Floyd

Mayor’s political party: Democrat

Governor’s political party: Democrat

Breonna Taylor

Mayor’s political party: Democrat

Governor’s political party: Democrat

Botham Jean

Mayor’s political party: Democrat

Governor’s political party: Republican

Philando Castile

Mayor’s political party: Undetermined*

Governor’s political party: Democrat

*Castille was killed in Falcon Heights (pop ~5,000) by a police officer from St. Anthony (pop ~8,000); both towns are suburbs of Minneapolis.

Freddie Gray

Mayor’s political party: Democrat

Governor’s political party: Republican

Eric Garner

Mayor’s political party: Democrat

Governor’s political party: Democrat

Tamir Rice

Mayor’s political party: Democrat

Governor’s political party: Republican

Michael Brown

Mayor’s political party: Republican

Governor’s political party: Democrat

With a single exception, these high-profile killings took place in cities with a Democratic mayor. Am I saying that Democratic leadership is causing police killings? Of course not, but they certainly are not doing anything to prevent those killings either.

I live in downtown Portland. I’m attempting to represent District 36 in the State House, which is the district where the majority of violent protests have been taking place, both at the Justice Center and the area around Pioneer Place. I’ve been watching the finger-pointing taking place among our leadership: Gov. Brown condemning the police, Speaker Kotek condemning Mayor Wheeler, the Police Union voting “no confidence” in the City Council. Everyone in power is trying to assign blame rather than fix the problem. What do all these entities have in common? All Democrats.

In fact, Democrats have controlled the City of Portland, as well as the governor’s office for 30 years. They’ve had opportunity after opportunity to implement systemic change, enforce police accountability, and fight racial injustice. Time and again, they have chosen not to. You simply cannot blame Trump for 30 years of Democrat inaction.

The political positions and policies implemented by the Democratic Party have condoned, continued and deepened racism in this country. Not overt racism like burning crosses, but the subtle, sinister racism of apathy. Democrats pretend to care about black lives once every four years (or when riots burn down their cities) and then go back to ignoring black people and black issues until they need black votes in an election. To be clear, neither party has made sufficient progress on racial justice; the difference is that Democrats have the political power to make a change, and they choose not to.

To fix racial justice in America, we don’t need to defund the police, we need to defund the Democrats.

This article provided by Oregon Transformation Newsletter.