Congressman Mo Brooks, R-Huntsville, on Monday, shared polling showing that most Americans oppose the “defund the police” movement. Brooks defended law enforcement officers and added that 100 percent of “Americans should support law enforcement.”
“Nearly 2 in 3 Americans oppose the dangerous ‘Defund the Police’ movement, according to an ABC News poll,” Brooks wrote on social media. “That’s good, but it is concerning to me that 1 in 3 Americans support higher crime rates that accompany fewer police. 100 percent of Americans should support law enforcement officers in their daily struggle to hold the thin blue line between law & order and anarchy. More police means less crime and more justice for crime victims.”
The ABC News/Ipsos poll found 64 percent of Americans oppose the Defund the Police movement while only 34 percent answered that they support the movement. There is a racial divide in the polling with 57 percent of Black poll respondents replying that they do support the movement. Fifty-eight percent of respondents oppose doing away with police departments, while 39 percent support the idea.
The poll respondents were not opposed to police reforms. Seventy-six percent of poll respondents do support moving some money away from police budgets and reinvesting in officer training along with funding local programs for homelessness, mental health assistance, and domestic violence. Seventy-eight percent support community oversight in policing.
“Defunding the police is a terribly bad idea, which would endanger all of us and make problems worse,” said Congressman Bradley Byrne, R-Montrose, on social media. “These radical proposals cloud the debate over potential realistic reforms in law enforcement. The vast majority of law enforcement play by the rules and respect people.”
“99.99 percent of the thousands of law enforcement professionals in this country are good, honorable people who put their life on the line every day to protect and serve complete strangers like you and me,” said former State Rep. Perry O/ Hooper Jr., R-Montgomery. “It is just plain wrong to define the thousands of police officers in this country by one or two bad actors.”
Hooper is a member of President Trump’s national victory committee and is a member of the Alabama Republican Executive Committee.
Policing has become a national issue in the wake of the death of George Floyd who died while being restrained by officers with the Minneapolis Police Department. The killing, which was widely reported by the press sparked protests in all fifty states, including in Alabama.
Congressman Mo Brooks is in his fifth term representing Alabama’s Fifth Congressional District. Brooks has prior service as a county commissioner, state representative, and prosecutor.
