Melina Abdullah, the vice-presidential candidate of independent presidential nominee Cornel West, attempted to justify her past remarks drawing parallels between law enforcement and the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) during a new interview with CNN on Thursday.
CNN NewsNight, host Abby Phillip addressed the issue, saying to Abdullah: “You have tweeted in the past about supporting Defund the Police, which is something that I think perhaps some people in the Black Lives Matter movement support, but also this tweet from back in 2015: ‘The KKK, the police, and government officials are one in the same.’”
"The KKK, the police, and government officials are one in the same." #BLMFreedomRide @BLMLA
— Melina Abdullah (@DocMellyMel) July 27, 2015
“Absolutely,” Abdullah said in response.
“I want us to understand the history of policing in this country, and so Twitter doesn’t allow you to give a whole history of policing in this country, but in a few sentences, we can just confirm that there is no historian that I’ve ever come in contact with who disputes the fact that policing in this country hails from slave catching.” she continued
“And so when we say that policing is the new millennial slave catching, we’re not saying that we don’t want public safety. We’re saying we want real public safety where community is really centered, where Black safety is centered, and we know that when Black people are safe, we also create safety for everyone else.” she added.
West’s comments on the subject were less specific, as the presidential contender voiced endorsement for the eradication of “police brutality” rather than advocating for the complete elimination of the police force.
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