By Catriona Fee
July 13, 2020
On June 26th, we hosted Amber Athey, an alum of the Clare Boothe Luce Center for Conservative Women’s programs, and a growing voice in the conservative news media. Athey is the Washington Editor for Spectator USA and the host of the Daily Caller‘s ‘Unfit to Print’ podcast.
As an attempt to erase police brutality and systematic racism, the Left is pushing the #DefundthePolice movement nationwide. Despite the abundant need for police as cities went up in flames during the riots, not to mention the critical need for police in predominantly colored communities, the Left believes a group of volunteers would do a better job regulating crime in a community than trained officers.
In our webinar, Amber Athey unveils the unintended consequences of the #DefundthePolice movement, the irony of Black Lives Matter’s demands, and how the Movement seemed to grow overnight.
Here are her four key takeaways on this complex topic:
Look for The Evidence
Amber started the webinar by explaining the facts of the case in the tragic killing of George Floyd. She articulated that, although we could all agree he was wrongly killed, there is little evidence that Floyd was killed because of his race.
She pointed out that there is a lot of information we do not know about the case, including past relationships between Officer Chauvin and Floyd. To illuminate this point, she presented a very similar incident that happened back in 2016 in Texas. The major difference between the two was the victim, Tony Tempa, who died after an officer kneeled on his back, was white.
To Athey, the only way we can know if these police-related deaths are racially motivated is through analysis of the statistics.
Statistics Tell a Story
When looking at statistics relating to race-based police violence, it is important to look past cherry-picked data points. Contrary to what BLM says, the number of unarmed black men killed by the police has been declining in the past several years, without any overhauling reform to police departments.
In 2019, the police killed ten unarmed black men, and six of those had attacked the officer prior, justifying the use of force. Four cases of potentially unjustified use of force by police officers resulting in the death of unarmed black men are not enough evidence to prove that all police departments in America are institutionally racist.
Another study in 2019 found no evidence of an anti-black or Hispanic disparity in police use of force across all shootings, and if anything, found anti-white disparity when controlling for race-specific crime.
The point Amber made by pointing out and explaining these statistics and many others is that there is little to no evidence that America’s policing system is systemically racist. Taking drastic steps to defund or re-design policing in America, with no evidence of fundamental racism, is dangerous.
Defunding the Police will hurt us all
Athey predicts that, should radical activists be successful in defunding the police or passing excessive reforms, all citizens will likely be less safe. “If reforms are too stringent…police are going to be hamstrung when they are on the streets responding to crimes and are going to have a harder time keeping communities safe,” she says.
Defunding the police will disproportionately hurt the demographic that BLM chants to protect. The #DefundthePolice movement will have adverse consequences for minorities in particular, seeing spikes in violent crime and becoming victims of crime much more often than in the current way that policing is handled.
Athey clarifies that reform is not all bad, and several proposals for reform could be quite beneficial, but we have to be aware of what each proposal is calling for, and aware of adverse effects they may have.
The BLM movement is rooted in Marxism
Athey points out how BLM encourages the breakdown of the traditional family, which is another sign of the movement’s Marxist foundation. Breaking down parental control, and making children belong not to their parents, but to the community, is a cornerstone of a collective society.
“The BLM movement claims to be working on behalf of minority communities but so many of the things they advocate for will actually make those communities worse off, which shows you it’s not really about ‘Black Lives Matter,’ it is about advancing this Leftist, progressive agenda,” Athey says.
This issue is very controversial and complex, and it is very difficult to get accurate information about this issue. However, Amber Athey did an excellent job of presenting the facts clearly and leading her listeners to the truth.
About the Author
A rising junior at the Catholic University of America, Catriona Fee is receiving a Politics major with a minor in Economics. On campus, she is involved in her school’s Young Americans for Freedom chapter, College Republicans chapter, Cardinals for Life, and NeW. Long-term, Catriona hopes to attend law school and have a career in foreign policy.
Catriona has experience as a Publicity and Marketing Intern for Regnery Publishing, an intern for Putnam County News, and an office assistant and research intern for the Putnam County History Museum.