Black Lives Matter co-founder rips Obama for dismissing ‘defund the police’ as 'snappy slogan'

Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza is ripping former President Obama for deriding the “defund the police” movement as nothing more than a “snappy slogan."

"What I want to hear from former President Barack Obama if he’s going to use his vast platform for these conversations, what I want to hear from President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, is: What are you going to do?" Garza asked in an interview this week for Politico’s Women Rule Capstone event. "And that’s what we haven’t heard amid all this hoopla about 'defund the police.' "

Obama ignited a progressive firestorm when he recently said the "defund the police" movement was just a "snappy slogan."

In an interview on Snapchat's "Good Luck America" TV show, Obama was asked: "If you're a young activist today and you believe really passionately in a slogan, like 'Defund the Police,' what is your advice to that activist?"

"If you believe, as I do, that we should be able to reform the criminal justice system so that it's not biased and treats everybody fairly, I guess you can use a snappy slogan, like 'defund the police.' But you lost a big audience the minute you say it, which makes it a lot less likely that you're actually going to get the changes you want done," Obama responded.

"But if you instead say, 'Hey, you know what? Let's reform the police department so that everybody's being treated fairly.' And not just in policing, but in sentencing, how can we divert young people from getting into crime? And if there was a homeless guy, can maybe we send a mental health worker there instead of an armed unit that could end up resulting in a tragedy?" the former president continued.

"You know, suddenly a whole bunch of folks who might not otherwise listen to you are listening to you," he added. "So the key is deciding, do you want to actually get something done, or do you want to feel good among the people you already agree with? And if you want to get something done in a democracy, in a country as big and diverse as ours, then you've got to be able to meet people where they are."

The Black Lives Matter movement came into prominence in the 2016 presidential election, following the deaths of several black male dying during encounters with police. The "defund" movement, which has been supported at least in part by the BLM movement, followed the May 25 death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody.

Biden has distanced himself from defunding the police, but has pledged to increase police oversight and create a national police oversight commission in the first 100 days of his presidency. 

But Garza said the movement is owed more.

“This movement, which really helped to push [Biden’s] campaign over the finish line, was used as a political football all throughout this election cycle and that was true in 2016 as well,” Garza said. “There’s a lot of valuable airspace that was used to be condescending to the very people who have opened the imagination of what this country can be – and how we can get closer to the promise that this country has offered to so many.”

After Obama's dismissive remarks, Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, one the House Democratic Caucus' most progressive members, also criticized him.

“We lose people in the hands of police,” she tweeted. “It’s not a slogan but a policy demand. And centering the demand for equitable investments and budgets for communities across the country gets us progress and safety.”

Michigan Democrat Rep. Rashida Tlaib, another member of the House progressive caucus, also disagreed.

"Rosa Parks was vilified & attacked for her civil disobedience," she tweeted. "She was targeted. It's hard seeing the same people who uplift her courage, attack the movement for Black lives that want us to prioritize health, funding of schools & ending poverty, rather than racist police systems."

Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley also weighed in, saying she's "out of patience" with criticism of the language activists used. 

"The murders of generations of unarmed Black folks by police have been horrific," Pressley tweeted. "Lives are at stake daily so I’m out of patience with critiques of the language of activists. Whatever a grieving family says is their truth. And I’ll never stop fighting for their justice & healing."

But Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), the House majority whip and highest-ranking black lawmaker in Congress, also said the slogan could make support for Black Lives Matter and other movements fall.

“I came out very publicly and very forcibly against sloganeering,” Clyburn said during an interview on CNN.