Democratic Farmer and Labor Party Vice Chair Shivanthi Sathanandan demanded police assistance after a carjacking. Sathanandan is known for her avid 2020 support of defunding the police.
Sathanandan was car jacked in front of her Minneapolis home Tuesday. She was beaten by four juveniles and her SUV was stolen. The SUV was later recovered.
Following the incident, Sathanandan demanded that action be taken to remove guns from juveniles and criminals. This is an admirable goal, with one problem. Sathanandan is an advocate for defunding the very police she wants to remove guns from the streets.
Sathanandan made a statement regarding the incident. “REMEMBER ME when you are thinking about supporting letting juveniles and young people out of custody to roam our streets instead of HOLDING THEM ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR ACTIONS.”
This is a very demanding statement of a police force that she wanted defunded just a few years ago. Her statement in 2020 at a rally was, “We are going to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department. Say it with me.”
In fact, it does not seem that her viewpoints on the subject had changed until this carjacking incident.
Many would call this her reality check. It is also something that Republicans warn Democrats about when the discussion of defunding the police arises. By defunding the police, liberals would be removing the very barrier that can stop violence or bring it to justice.
This is a fact of life that seems to be forgotten until an issue like Sathanandan arises. When an activist for defunding the police has an incident, they want the very police that are not funded to rise to the occasion.
Santhanandan’s neighbor witnessed the event and spoke to the local news network.
Santhanandan is calling for not only guns to be removed from the streets, but stronger laws across the board. The laws she would want put into action would require a higher police presence. This presence means more funding and more funding can only happen if the police are not defunded through political means and agendas.
This puts people like Santhanandan in a tough spot if they are standing by their defund-the-police battlecry, especially when they are looking to lawmakers to pass stronger laws while removing the people who would keep those laws in place.
