Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) was carjacked at gunpoint Monday night. Cuellar is well-known for backing the “defund the police” movement.
Monday evening, Rep. Cuellar was the victim of a carjacking at gunpoint near his Washington, D.C., home. Cuellar reported three males committed the carjacking.
Cuellar sustained no injuries during the carjacking. Cuellar’s office released a statement regarding the carjacking.
“As Congressman Cuellar was parking his car this evening, three armed assailants approached the Congressman and stole his vehicle. Luckily, he was not harmed and is working with local law enforcement. Thank you to Metro PD and Capitol Police for their swift action and for recovering the Congressman’s vehicle.”
This incident is the second time a carjacking has occurred in recent months with a “defund the police” supporter as the victim. Shivanthi Sathanandan was the victim of a carjacking outside her home in early September.
Sathanandan is the 2nd Vice Chairwoman for the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. She also strongly supported the defund the police movement in 2020.
To many people, these carjackings do appear targeted. However, there is no police report or investigation linking the two other than a coincidence.
Both Cuellar and Sathanandan called for better law enforcement and more laws over criminals committing violent acts with guns, such as their carjackings. This viewpoint is ironic when the laws they backed lead to easier defunding of the police.
In 2021, Cuellar was a key backer of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. This act proposed limiting police department access to surplus military tools and banning no-knock warrants in drug cases. This act would have made it easy to move for a full defunding of the police department.
The bill was also said to promote racial profiling by taking steps to “consider protected characteristics, such as race or gender, of an individual when engaging in most law enforcement interactions.”
The bill did not pass, but the support by Cuellar was not forgotten. Some have said that what is happening to Cuellar and what happened to Sathanandan is a dose of reality and a reason the police desperately need funding.
