Report: Ohio Swing District Democrat Candidate Wrote Proposal to Defund Police During Homicide Spike

Democrat Greg Landsman, a Democrat Party recruit attempting to unseat Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH), reportedly wrote a proposal to defund the Cincinnati police, as a Cincinnati city councilman, while the city saw a spike in homicides during the summer of 2020.

Landsman, who so far is the only Democrat to announce a bid against Chabot formally, was one of the many recruits of the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) this year to run against Republicans across the country. A report from the Washington Free Beacon further explained the Democrat recruit’s proposal, while the city saw high levels of homicides:

As a Cincinnati city councilman in the summer of 2020, Democrat Greg Landsman penned a motion to pull $200,000 from the city’s police budget to help fund the Citizen Complaint Authority, an independent group that investigates law enforcement officers. The proposal came as Cincinnati experienced an unprecedented number of homicides—the city saw an all-time record high of 94 killings in 2020, six more than its previous high of 88 in 2006. One fatal shooting occurred just two days before Landsman unveiled his motion. Just weeks later, the city suffered its fourth double homicide of the year.

Landsman’s proposal to defund police did not deter the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) from recruiting the councilman to challenge Ohio Republican congressman Steve Chabot this November. Landsman confirmed to the Cincinnati Enquirer in December that national Democrats asked him to run against Chabot in the state’s First Congressional District—a swing seat that the DCCC has identified as a top target—and announced his campaign weeks later. Committee chairman Sean Patrick Maloney asserted last year that Democrats do not support defunding the police, an accusation that he dismissed as a “Republican talking point.”

During a June 2020 interview with the WLWT, a local NBC affiliate, the councilman tried to defend his position by saying, “The question that I think we’re all going to have to wrestle with is, ‘What does public safety look like now, and what does it need to look like?'”

“I believe the changes that are absolutely public safety-related—which these are—should come from the public safety budget, should come from the police budget,” Landsman added.

The local NBC affiliate indicated that the proposal made by Landsman to take money from the police budget and fund the independent group to investigate law enforcement was “basically the definition of defunding.”

While Landsman penned the proposal, a nationwide poll from June 2020 revealed that 82 percent of Ohio voters supported the “way police in their community are doing their job.”

“Instead of prioritizing law and order, Democrat elites like Greg Landsman advocate for defunding Cincinnati’s police,” McLaughlin added. “Landsman and his liberal buddies are not the ones hurt from these disturbing policies, it’s the poor and disadvantaged who will suffer.”

Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter.