Over the summer the streets of our nation were overwhelmed by the deafening call to “defund the police.” It was the mantra of protesters marching against perceived police brutality. As protesters engulfed communities across the country in a well-organized manner, we at the Freedom Foundation looked behind the curtain to see who was really pulling the levers.
After extensive research, we discovered these calls to defund the police were being amplified by those in positions of power including big government unions.
We highlighted union involvement last month in a blog that showed AFSCME Council 13 was knowingly sending hundreds of thousands of its members’ hard-earned dues dollars to groups calling directly for the defunding and disbanding of police departments across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
AFSCME 13 sent $25,000 to an activist group called “Demos,” which is calling for the “dismantling and defunding of state infrastructures like police and prisons.” AFSCME 13 also sent another $465,000 to Planned Parenthood and the Planned Parenthood PAC, which are calling for the defunding of police in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
After uncovering this radical partisan spending, we launched an outreach campaign to AFSCME 13 members across the Commonwealth. We presented these union members with the facts and just the facts.
Consequently, AFSCME 13 decided to double down with its lack of transparency.
In fact, the union’s leaders decided to lie to its members while trying to justify its position. Unfortunately for AFSCME 13, the facts are the facts and they’re not subject to interpretation.
Try as they might to explain that the union does, in fact, support the calls to defund the police, money speaks louder than words. Their donations to radical groups speak louder than their attempts to quell the outrage by its members.
AFSCME 13’s efforts to dodge these facts are simple, and it’s become political suicide to support such a radical agenda. And we’ve seen the disastrous outcomes for those who’ve held the position of wanting to defund the police.
Nov. 3, election day, spelled doom for politicians all over the country who ran on calls of “defunding the police.”
We at the Freedom Foundation will continue to speak truth to power as we highlight the radical use of our tax dollars in any capacity especially when they are used in a way that put citizens at risk.
