“Be careful what you wish for.”
Radical Democrat Hillary Ronen strongly supported defunding police in 2020, as did pretty much every Democrat politician in the nation. It was the easiest way to stay hip, cool, and woke back then. Now that those who got their way are seeing first-hand what defunding police actually does to their districts, they’re changing tunes.
I discussed Ronen’s hypocrisy on the latest episode of The JD Rucker Show.
According to Fox News:
Hillary Ronen, a Democrat, represents District 9 on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. During a Budget and Appropriations Committee meeting on Wednesday, she made an impassioned plea to add more officers to the Mission District, which she represents.
Ronen was attacking San Francisco’s police chief for spending a large amount of overtime on an anti-retail theft program instead of prioritizing police presence in her district.
“I’ve been begging this department to give the Mission what it deserves in terms of police presence all year long,” Ronen said. “And I have been told time and time and time and time again there are no officers that we can send to Mission.”
“It hurts. And I feel betrayed by the department. I feel betrayed by the mayor. I feel betrayed by the priorities of the city,” the Democratic politician added.
The speech contradicts her stance on policing in 2020. After the George Floyd protests, Ronen tweeted that she believed “strongly” that San Francisco’s police force needed to be reduced.
Here’s what she said less than three years ago…
I want to make it clear that I believe strongly in defunding the police and reducing the number of officers on our force. For decades we’ve had an imbalance in our city’s budget, with hundreds of millions of dollars going to SFPD to have them do work they are not qualified to do.
After fighting to create Mental Health SF which redirects funds to mental health care crisis teams instead of police, I believe without a shadow of a doubt that SFPD is not where we should be putting our money. But we have a big fight on our hands to make these cuts happen.
The Mayor has submitted her proposed budget to the Board already, and unfortunately, this level of cuts has not been included. In my role on the Budget & Appropriations Committee, I want you to know I will be fighting for three things.
1. Significant cuts to SFPD’s budget that will meaningfully start off a multi-year process to defund and reimagine policing in San Francisco. 2. A reduction in the number of officers and command staff.
3. Fully funding the departments that are actually doing the work of keeping our streets safe, iIncluding full funding for street crisis response through Mental Health SF.
But I can’t do this alone. I only have one vote. If you agree with me that we need to defund the police and instead fund services, I need your support now. I’m asking everyone to join me to get these cuts passed in the Budget Committee.
There is a hearing on the SFPD budget on August 20, and the Budget Committee will vote on August 26. We need three votes at this Committee and 6 votes at the full Board to implement these cuts.
If I’ve learned anything from my years in City Hall, it is that our best wins come through collaboration. We need unprecedented unity between those who wish to defund the police if we are to get passed this finish line together.
Some may want to feel badly for her now that her district is being overridden by crime, but that was what she wanted. Others may want to feel badly for the people in her district, but most of them voted for her.
Wokesters are learning the hard way, I suppose.
The wokesters in San Francisco are learning the hard way that #DefundThePolice is a bad idea.
Hillary Ronen just made an impassioned plea for more police presence in her district. She claims she feels "betrayed."
Perhaps she should look in a mirror sometime… https://t.co/ngyxjjdqua
— JD Rucker (@JDRucker) March 20, 2023
Image by Pax Ahimsa Gethen, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Alternative Video Sources:
Radical San Francisco District Supervisor Who Pushed #DefundThePolice Is Now Begging for More Police https://t.co/oOyCi78qRJ
— JD Rucker (@JDRucker) March 20, 2023
