Democrats Discover That 'Defund the Police' Is Political Poison

As New York headed into the home stretch of last week’s mayoral primary campaign, progressive New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg considered the prospect of a victory by Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president running as the most unabashedly pro-police, anti-crime candidate in the race.

“For New York Democrats to choose a law-and-order mayor now,” Goldberg wrote in the New York Times, “would be seen as a rebuke to progressives all over the country.”

Four days later, it appeared that Adams had come in first in the June 22 primary. The final tally hasn’t been released, but it seems more likely than not that the next mayor will be an outspoken Black former cop who for months has rained contempt on progressive demands to “slash the Police Department budget and shrink the police force.” Such asinine proposals, he says, threaten the lives of “Black and brown babies” and are promoted primarily by “a lot of young, white, affluent people.”