I’m Tired of Barack Obama

Yay — Barack, the first Black president. Yay, the last president before Donald Trump. The last…everything?? I do not care.

Since leaving office in 2017, he’s done nothing but tell the progressive wing of the Democratic Party that what they want is unjustified, “free,” and not worth attaining. You could almost call him a Republican at this point.

In a new speech, Barack Obama said “defund the police” is a statement that “lost Democrats a lot of support,” even going as far to call it a “snappy slogan.”

Defunding the police is not a radical sentiment. Sure, at first glance, it seems like an irrational reaction to police brutality, but is it?

Here are a few “fun” facts, for you, Mr. President.

• Police officers are indicted in fewer than 1% of cases where an officer kills a citizen. The indictment rate for citizens involved in a killing is 90%.
• A citizen is killed by a police officer in the U.S. every seven hours on average.
• According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 52% of officers reported that it’s not unusual for an officer to turn a blind eye to another officer’s misconduct.
• The estimated cost of police brutality incidents in the U.S. is more than $1.8 billion.
• Black people are more than twice as likely to be killed by a police officer while unarmed.
• 90% of American cities with more than 50,000 people have SWAT teams.

Reform will not happen. It cannot happen. As this New York Times article so eloquently explains, when an officer lays his knee on a Black man’s neck, he is doing what he sees as his job. The culture of hatred in the police towards Black Americans has gone too far.

A great start would be by cutting the number of police officers and their budget in half. The less amount of police equals the smaller opportunity they have to kill people.

Remember in 2015 when NYPD officers took a break from “proactive policing” and only responded to calls that were deemed essential to “show us a lesson” and prove we need them? You might not remember because crime actually fell.

The police literally took a day off, only responded to calls that were “absolutely necessary” and went out in cruisers “when they felt like it.” AND CRIME FELL.

Stop saying things like “we’re losing people when we call to defund the police.” Do it. Cut their budget. We do not need to give cops grenade launchers.

This is not the first time that Barack Obama has returned from wherever the hell he goes now to tell us young people that our views are stupid.

Despite praising Medicare-for-All several times in 2003, 2004, his 2006 book, 2007, his opinions and advocacy for it have whimpered. His Vice President Joe Biden, who is now President-elect, has even said that he would veto Medicare-for-All on his desk.

Here’s the thing, Barack.

The criminal justice system is beyond reform. It will not work in its current format. These systems were built for oppression. They were built to oppress people. The only way to be sure that the system will not oppress people of color is to separate the system so much that law enforcement never interacts with its citizens.

The slogan “defund the police” is fine because it’s exactly what needs to be done. No, police departments do not need tanks and military grade weapons. That funding should be zero.

No political movement has ever been an automatic hit. They’ve taken time, they’ve grown. When women first started saying “we want to vote,” do you think people honestly agreed with that movement? Of course not. They resented the idea. Over time, it became much more commonplace for women to vote until the right was finally extended to women in 1920.

For whatever reason, the simple idea that POLICE OFFICERS should be held accountable for their actions is the most radical. Political movements are meant to make people feel uneasy. That’s what helps them gain traction. So if you feel uneasy by “defund the police,” that’s the point.