If you’ve been paying attention to the news or been involved in protests in the wake of the brutal killing of George Floyd, you probably have heard the message from people asking to “defund the police.” Unfortunately, depending on where you get your news from, you may not fully grasp what that movement is about. And this is something that Spike Lee thinks can be detrimental to the changes that people are hoping will happen.
READ MORE: ‘Da 5 Bloods’: Spike Lee Finally Makes A Worthy, If Bloated, War Epic [Review]
Lee spoke with Al Roker on SiriusXM’s “Off the Rails” (via THR) to talk about the current protests and the messaging that he feels might be delivered in the wrong way.
“[Activists] have to be careful with the words because already this guy is running with that. You know the guy I’m talking about. Agent Orange [Donald Trump],” Lee said”And again, he’s trying to twist the narrative like he did with [Colin] Kaepernick and the kneeling — trying to say that was about disrespecting the flag, but that wasn’t it at all.”
READ MORE: Spike Lee Talks George Floyd Killing & Says 2020 Is “One Of The Worst Years Ever”
He continued, “We’ve got to be careful what we say because one or two wrong words, they’ll twist that thing around and the narratives change. I don’t think people are saying we don’t need police at all, but ‘defund the police’ – I think there [could] be better terminology.”
For those not aware of the “defund the police” movement that is happening now, the term does elicit some knee-jerk reactions if taken wrongly. Many people see that term and think that protesters are calling for the complete dissolution of the police (that’s the “abolish the police” movement, to clarify). Instead, when protesters as to “defund the police,” they’re asking just that—give the police less funding and put that money in communities that need it. And by doing so, the communities will be better served by organizations that deal with people on a day-to-day basis, and thus, people will require less of the police force.
Lee explained, “We need a police system that is just. And it’s so hard with the police unions. I mean they protect their guys, they protect that blue no matter what. And so that has to be dealt with.”
The filmmaker is obviously worried that the immediate, negative reaction to the chant of “defund the police” will lead to people being scared of an anarchist state and will vote for Trump. And obviously, we’ve already seen people on the President’s side of the aisle using the “defund” message as a sign that people want riots and looting and no one will be there to protect the innocent, which obviously is false and ridiculous.
That being said, Lee is happy with the protests that he’s seeing and thinks this is an important time in history.
“I think that the young people, especially our young generation of white sisters and brothers, they’re joining us, and I haven’t seen that since I was growing up in the ’60s in Brooklyn,” he said. :So I don’t think this is a fad. I don’t think that this is something people think is hip and cool to be doing. People are out here in the streets and they mean business. … People want changes.”
Lee’s latest film, “Da 5 Bloods,” is now available to stream on Netflix.
