Report Details Eye-Popping Total ‘Defund the Police’ Dems Spent on Private Security in 2021

As several Democratic members of the so-called “Squad” in the House are advocating for slashing funding to police departments around the country, they have been spending thousands of dollars on private security for…

Bradley CortrightFeb 1, 20223 min read

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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) was the next highest spender of the year. According to Fox, she spent $9,800 in the fourth quarter and under $75,000 for the whole year.

Other Democrats in favor of defunding the police spent thousands of private security last year as well.

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) spent $30,000, Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) spent roughly $14,000, Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) spent $7,872, and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) spent less than $3,000.

After the George Floyd protests in 2020, several cities tried out defunding police departments, and results were predictable and predicted.

In 2021, major cities around the country saw a 5% increase in homicides since 2020, and a 44% increase compared to 2019. According to CBS News, “Experts believe pandemic pressures and changes in policing tactics have contributed to the uptick in homicides. “

Retail and car thefts also surged around the country last year.

The situation got so bad in San Francisco, California, that Mayor London Breed (D), who slashed the police department’s budget in 2020, railed against the “reign of criminals” and “bullsh*t that has destroyed our city,” and announced a plan to crack down on crime.

Several other cities have also changed course after cutting police budgets. And White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki in part blamed the surge in crime on the “underfunding of some police departments and their need for additional resources.”

If members of the “Squad” could take their rose-colored partisan lenses off, they would see that the very policies they are advocating are hurting the millions of Americans they claim to fight for who probably can’t spend $3,000, much less $200,000 on private security.

Are there some reforms that can be made to policing tactics? Yes. But the results show that slashing departments’ budgets is not working out as well as promised.