Black Lives Matter founder Patrisse Cullors said that President Joe Biden, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and other officials were cowards for bending to political pressure and refusing to defund the police in a recent interview with The Guardian.
It was a "failure of leadership" and "deep cowardice" that explained why officials, all the way from local government to the President himself, were allowing money to continue to go to law enforcement, Cullors argued.
"[T]he people who hold the power have chosen not to wield it on behalf of Black life," she claimed.
"They’ve chosen to side with violent police forces," Cullors said.
Cullors argued that the recent death of Tyre Nichols and of her cousin, Keenan Anderson, were indicative of "a failure of leadership at the highest level, all the way up to our president," and especially disappointing because it was Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement helped Biden become president.
The activist, who calls abolition of the police "her religion" on Instagram, co-founded the BLM movement in 2013 along with Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi.
"This movement was able to help get Joe Biden into office," Cullors said, "and yet in his first State of the Union address, he yelled: ‘Fund the police.’"
Biden received applause from both parties after he endorsed the police in his State of the Union address last year.
"We should all agree: The answer is not to defund the police. It’s to fund the police," Biden said to a standing ovation from members of Congress in 2022.
"Fund them. Fund them," Biden repeated.
"Fund them with resources and training."
But Cullors said that Biden’s words were a "direct affront to the movement that called for resources out of policing and into social services. Our elected officials have decided to abandon a movement that could have saved the lives of the people who have died."
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Cullors also targeted Buttigieg, who she said called her to apologize for news of her cousin’s death in an incident with a police officer in Los Angeles, California.
"I couldn’t really think about it then, but I’ve been thinking now about how he’s the secretary of transportation, and this is a powerful opportunity where he could be helping lead a conversation about what federal dollars could fund programs to remove law enforcement from traffic stops."
The activist said that ending routine traffic stops by police was an important step towards safety.
"We have to get cops out of traffic stops."
"It’s one, very reasonable demand," she added.
Cullors is a self-described Marxist who has also faced criticism for reportedly buying up several multimillion dollar homes across the country. She stepped down from her position as executive director of BLM amid controversy around her finances in 2021.
