When asked if the men were for defunding the police, both men said that they were not. Freeman said that he was against defunding the police because the police are necessary.
“I’m not in the least bit for defunding the police,” said Freeman. “Police work is, aside from all the negativity around it, it is very necessary for us to have them, and most of them are guys that are doing their job. They’re going about their day-to-day jobs. There are some police that never pull their guns except on the range, that sort of thing. I don’t know.”
Freeman is not alone in this thinking. Other people have questioned the term “defund the police” as the answer to stop the police killings of Black people. Former president Barack Obama also spoke on the matter.
“….That if we describe that to not just white folks but, let’s say, Michelle [Obama’s] mom, that makes sense to them,” he continued. “But if we say ‘defund the police,’ not just white folks but Michelle’s mom might say, ‘If I’m getting robbed, who am I gonna call, and is somebody gonna show up?’”
He continued. “The issue, to me, is not making them comfortable. It is, can we be precise with our language enough that people who might be persuaded around that particular issue to make a particular change that gets a particular result that we want. … What’s the best way for us to describe that?”
“The Killing Of Kenneth Chamberlain” is available in select theaters and streaming services Amazon Prime, AppleTV, YouTube and Google Play.
To read more stories like this, visit AtlantaBlackStar.com