Metro East Sun

Former Republican House candidate Mike Babcock worries the growing "Defund the Police" movement is just a ploy by Democrats in an attempt to score points with voters.

“Peaceful protests are fine, but I’m not sure what they’re trying to accomplish with the whole justice reform line because the majority of police officers in this country are good, honest people,” Babcock told the Metro East Sun. “Disbanding police departments is not going to work for anybody.”

The movement has gained traction among progressives after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on Memorial Day, leading to protests and violence across the country. Minneapolis City Council members were among the first to broach the possibility of permanently doing away with their city's Police Department, with the notion gaining the support of U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) and more recently the leaders of the Chicago Public Schools.

This week, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said he thinks what frustrated residents want is real change.

“They want fundamental change in the way that police operate,” he told the Chicago Tribune. “You have to think about, what are the methods by which people can be disciplined if they’re not going to get disciplined by their own police departments, if the investigations are taking place by a police department that may not want to hold some of their officers accountable for the kind of behavior that I think we would all find reprehensible.”

Meanwhile, Babcock, a Bethalto resident, argues there are other factors involved.

“At the end of the day, I think they’re trying to use it as a ploy against President (Donald) Trump, trying to draw him to some reason for rejecting their proposals so they can then say he doesn’t care about the people protesting,” he said. “I don’t understand how you took millions of people off the working roils and put them in the poverty line with this pandemic and now say it's not important anymore, all that matters are the protests. There’s something fundamentally wrong with that.”