Re: This Far-Left Activist Was Too Woke for Minneapolis - But Not Obama's Foundation

[Kenyan born Obama]

In article <t2ml1q$3ntdq$1...@news.freedyn.de>
loretta.fud...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> Liberals are mentally ill.

Former president Barack Obama has a new top staffer at his
foundation—a far-left activist who was ousted from the
Minneapolis City Council for supporting an initiative to defund
police.

On Monday, former Minneapolis council member Phillipe Cunningham
thanked Obama after starting a "new role at the Obama Foundation
as the deputy director – U.S. lead of global leadership
programs." The move comes just months after voters ousted
Cunningham, who backed a failed measure to defund city police,
from the Minneapolis City Council in November. Cunningham in
June 2020 also spoke at a defund-the-police rally, where the
activist and nine other council members pledged to "end policing
as we know it." Cunningham's opponent, LaTrisha Vetaw, said that
pledge made her feel "silenced" and called public safety "the
only issue" in the race.

Obama's decision to ignore voters in deep-blue Minneapolis and
hire Cunningham for a top position contradicts the former
president's rhetoric on the defund-the-police movement. Obama in
November 2020 said he would not defund police and criticized
activists who use the phrase. But Obama appeared alongside
Cunningham at a virtual town hall when the activist was openly
calling to defund police—during that June 2020 event, Cunningham
stressed the need to "completely transform our public safety
system."

President Joe Biden, Obama's vice president, claimed last year
that those who say Democrats want to defund police are "lying."

As part of the Obama Foundation, Cunningham will head the U.S.
branch of the group's global leadership programs, which aims to
provide "emerging leaders" with "values-based leadership
development frameworks to help build their skills and scale
their work across public, private, and nonprofit sectors." It's
unclear how Cunningham's values align with the program—the Obama
Foundation did not return a request for comment on the hire and
whether the group agrees with Cunningham's position on defunding
police.

Republican National Committee spokesman Nathan Brand said
Obama's new hire shows "there is no daylight between the looney
left and the Democratic Party establishment."

"With radical defund-the-police leaders like this in charge, it
is no wonder Democrats are alienating more and more Americans
and are set to lose in November," Brand told the Washington Free
Beacon. "From that perspective, Dems couldn't have picked a
better person to lead these efforts."

Cunningham, a biological woman who transitioned as a college
junior, became the first transgender man of color to be elected
to public office in the United States in 2017. Roughly three
years later, following George Floyd's death in the summer of
2020, the then-councilmember stood behind a giant "DEFUND
POLICE" sign at a Minneapolis rally and argued that the city's
residents could "keep our own community safe" without police.
Cunningham also praised those who "threw the first bricks at
police officers" during the Stonewall Riots in New York City.

One year later, as the defund police movement lost popularity,
Cunningham did not back down. In 2021, Cunningham backed an
unprecedented amendment to dismantle the city's police
department. The measure, which Minneapolis voters rejected by
double digits, would have replaced the city's police department
with a "Department of Public Safety" and called to abolish the
city's minimum funding requirements for police.

Cunningham's decision to back that amendment came as Minneapolis
experienced a surge in violence. In the last week of 2021, the
city notched its 96th homicide, just one murder shy of its
record level seen in 1995. That trend has continued into this
year—in late April, Minneapolis had 9 murders in 10 days,
putting the city on track to surpass its 1995 numbers.

Obama has worked with far-left activists beyond Cunningham.
Defund-the-police organizer and MSNBC contributor Brittany
Packnett Cunningham served on the former president's policing
task force. She later argued that rising crime rates are the
police's fault.

"This rise in crime is not the fault of the movement, it's
actually the fault of the police," Packnett Cunningham said
during a June 2021 MSNBC appearance. "This has been our point
all along—why should we keep funding systems and institutions
that keep rendering themselves ineffective?"

Published under: Barack Obama, Defund the Police, Joe Biden,
Minneapolis

https://freebeacon.com/democrats/this-far-left-activist-was-too-
woke-for-minneapolis-but-not-obamas-foundation/