I get the anger at the historic and egregious abuses by police towards people of color. I understand it at a remove, but I get it. However, any message that has to be explained with fifteen caveats and clarifications is a bad message. It also hurts you with precisely the moderate voters that you were trying to lure into your coalition. Those voters likely were on board with police reform and, indeed, many of the specific proposals umbrellaed under "defunding."
But it was bad politics, especially running against a would-be authoritarian. Finally, there is some evidence that those who bridled at "defunding the police" for the reason that fewer police would make people less safe were right. We saw it in Baltimore after the Freddie Gray murder and now they are seeing it in Minneapolis.
Police power absolutely requires a countervailing check. But you can't do that if your rhetoric hands victories to "Back the Blue" absolutists.
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