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Barack Obama slammed for calling 'defund the police' a ‘snappy’ slogan: ‘Yes we can promises nothing’

'Defund the police' was a rallying cry during protests against police violence and systemic racism after the May death of George Floyd

Former president Barack Obama was cornered for his recent remarks on slogans like ‘defund the police’. The 59-year-old said that political candidates lose support when using “snappy” slogans like “defund the police." He mentioned this in an interview with Peter Hamby who hosts a Snapchat political show ‘Good Luck America’.
 
The Democrat leader stated that those politicians who use such slogans could be harming their goals of bringing pivotal reforms for police."You lost a big audience the minute you say it, which makes it a lot less likely that you're actually going to get the changes you want done," the former president said in the interview scheduled to go live on December 2. He added, "The key is deciding, do you want to actually get something done, or do you want to feel good among the people you already agree with? And if you want to get something done in a democracy, in a country as big and diverse as ours, then you've got to be able to meet people where they are."

'Defund the police' became a rallying cry during the racial justice protests that were sparked after the death of Black man George Floyd in May where Floyd was killed after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for eight minutes. In May, the advocacy group Black Lives Matter called for police defunding on a nationwide level. Their slogan stresses on reallocating funding for police departments to instead do more social service for minorities so they do not feel alienated. However, despite public rage, Donald Trump criticized the slogan and said in July this year, "We will never, ever defund our police. That I can tell you. We are not defunding police."
 
As soon as Obama’s comments dropped many on the Internet disagreed with him. Representative-elect Cori Bush referred to the phrase as a “mandate” and wrote against Obama. "With all due respect, Mr. President—let's talk about losing people. We lost Michael Brown Jr. We lost Breonna Taylor. We're losing our loved ones to police violence. It's not a slogan. It's a mandate for keeping our people alive. Defund the police”, she said in a tweet. Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar tweeted  Obama, "We lose people in the hands of police. It’s not a slogan but a policy demand. And centering the demand for equitable investments and budgets for communities across the country gets us progress and safety." 

As some of Obama’s comments have been released ahead of the full interview, people have taken to social media to voice their rage. A user wrote, “Come up with a better phrase that unambiguously means ‘reduce police funding and redistribute it to more important social services that are actually helpful’ because every time we use the word ‘reform’ it just ends up meaning ‘give the cops even more money".One said: "Snappy slogans like "Yes we can," of course, are awesome because they are vague and promise nothing. "Defund the Police" implies specific policies that politicians will then be accountable for." Another said the leader could have been more clear in his messaging. “Obama could have taken five minutes to explain it and millions of people would have listened to what he said.” However, a user supported Obama, “Obama is getting dragged for speaking out against ‘Defund the Police.’ Democrats have moved so far to the left that even Obama doesn’t support them anymore.”