Sunny Hostin: Obama Is ‘Wrong’ to Come Against ‘Defund the Police’ Slogan

EXCERPT:

HOSTIN: “You know, I’m always loathed to criticize President Obama because I’m such a fan, but I do think he’s wrong here. I mean, when you think about defund the police, that’s not a term that was crowdsourced or tested in focus groups. You know that's a term that was born, a rallying cry, it was born out of this overpolicing of black and brown communities, born of frustration of seeing black and brown men and women killed in the streets by police officers. And 'defunding the police' does not mean -- for the hundredth time I’ve explained it, it does not mean eliminating police departments. It doesn’t mean stripping agencies for all of their money. It’s re-imagining policing in this country to address systemic racism. We defund school programs all the time, and they call it defunding school programs, yet no one seems to have a problem with that, but people all of a sudden have a problem with defunding the police, that term, and I don’t think you should allow people to co-opt the movement and tell protesters what language they should use. I think, you know, President Obama was a community organizer, and I really think that he, you know, knows better.”