Mehdi Hasan Says He’s Tired of Dems Running Away From Talk of Abolishing, Defunding the Police

HASAN: “...have a problem with institutionalized racism in this country, which is not surprising, given the history of the police in this country, which goes all the way back to the early 18th century slave patrols, as multiple scholars and historians have repeatedly pointed out. Look, if police departments are targeting black communities, and you are a part of the police, you are going to be targeted black communities regardless of your own skin color. The issue here, as plenty of people have pointed out, is not black versus white, it’s blue versus the rest of us. Which is why this whole reform nonsense from Democrats is so tiring and so dishonest. You can’t reform this stuff with body cameras or diversifying the police, as we just saw in Memphis. That doesn’t solve the problem either. Now Democrats, of course, want to run away from talk of abolishing the police or even defunding the police, that is way too radical, way too out there. But consider this. The Memphis Police Department’s response to all this controversy and camera footage on Saturday was to announce that it was disbanding the specialized police unit whose officers inflicted that brutal assault on Tyre Nichols, the so-called Scorpion Unit. Yeah, they defunded and abolished it.”