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Rep. Cori Bush, a Democrat of Missouri, spent thousands of dollars on private security during the first quarter of 2022. According to expenses obtained by Fox News, the bills reported by Bush’s team, during the campaign, came to more than $300,000. All this as Bush continues her calls to defund the police.
“Bush’s newest security checks come after the $233,663 her committee spent on the services in 2021, FEC records show. She has now paid $304,152 for security this election cycle,” detailed the media outlet.
Cori Bush has insisted on using the slogan of defunding the police during her campaign. In addition, she has criticized the Democrats for not having a policy in favor of her proposal. “I always tell (fellow Democrats), ‘If you all had fixed this before I got here, I wouldn’t have to say these things,'” Bush told Axios.
Cori Bush is not the only one
But Bush isn’t the only Democrat pushing to defund police while increasing private security. Such is the case of Maya Wiley, a Democratic candidate for Mayor of New York (NY), who in her campaign proposal pushed to defund the NYPD while using private security to protect her home. Wiley’s home is located in Brooklyn.
According to an article published by El American, Wiley had stated months earlier that she thought private security was “ridiculous and we shouldn’t have it.”
Despite Wiley proposing to defund the police, El American details that official NYPD statistics show that the neighborhood where the Democrat lives with her two daughters — in a home valued at $2.7 million — has seen major crimes decrease in six of seven categories this year, compared to the same period in 2020. This is thanks to the police officers’ work.
Democrats have pushed to defund the police in a number of ways. For example, in July 2021, the Oakland City Council approved striping $17.4 million in funding from the Oakland Police Department. Likewise, the money would be directed toward other social programs.
The move comes at a moment when Oakland is seeing an alarming spike in street violence and deadly shootings. Meanwhile, the measure was criticized by some council members.
