Francesca Hong provides her vision for public safety in Wisconsin after ‘abolish’ police remarks drew ire of Republicans, Democrats and CNN

Democratic candidate for Wisconsin governor Francesca Hong has taken some heat in recent days for old remarks and prior tweets about crime and public safety. 

Most of those remarks happened in wake of George Floyd’s murder and the “Black Lives Matter” movement that followed. 

CNN published an article last week critical of Hong’s statements calling for defunding and abolishing police departments. “Police exist to uphold white supremacy. Defund then abolish. Reform can’t be an option,” she said.

In 2022, CNN also attempted to tie Mandela Barnes to the “defund the police” slogan, but admitted in their article they couldn’t. Barnes said in a statement that he does not support defunding the police. 

In a statement to CNN, Hong stood by her comments, but added it was part of a “wider conversation around police abolition” rooted in a belief that “the current system is not working.”

On Thursday, she took to social media to provide a more serious vision for public safety in Wisconsin. 

In Milwaukee, nearly all crime stats are trending downward, according to the police. But the city is still on pace to have far more than 100 homicides this year. 

The vast majority of the city’s crime happens in Milwaukee’s most underserved communities. While young Black boys are too often shot or killed, Wisconsin’s Black men are incarcerated at nearly the highest level in the U.S. 

Hong addressed that and more in her video statement. Here is what she said:

“Folks, let’s talk about public safety. Everyone in Wisconsin deserves to be safe. Safe from crime. Safe in their communities, in their homes. Safe from abuses of power. 

“And safe from the conditions that make communities unsafe in the first place – poverty, a lack of good jobs with good benefits, a lack of affordable housing, underfunded schools, and underfunded out of school programs for our kids. Right now, Wisconsin isn’t delivering that. 

“Our crime rates are falling, but our prison population is heading towards record highs. We keep sending people back to prison for minor rule violations while on probation often tied to substance abuse disorders not new crimes. We are sending people who need treatment into prison beds at an enormous public cost. 

“And Wisconsin incarcerates Black residents at the highest rate in the nation.

“For more than a decade, the Republican Legislature has starved local governments of funding. Didn’t give them their fair share of revenue. So our tax dollars, that should have gone to cities and counties, to the people who actually build the things and fund the programs that prevent the crime, they don’t have adequate resources.  

“So if we’re going to talk about who defunded public safety in Wisconsin, let’s start the conversation there.

“Now some cities in our state spend more than half their budgets on police, on tanks, drones, as if military equipment and flock cameras can solve the problems that close schools. The problems that created the affordability housing crises. Well they can’t.

“I don’t like crime. I don’t like unsafe streets. I don’t like when someone in law enforcement abuses their power. 

“And there’s no way I’m going to cut public safety. I want to deliver it. That means investing in what the evidence shows prevents crime — affordable housing for everyone, mental health care, addiction treatment resources, good jobs with good benefits and fully funded public schools. 

“That’s not soft on crime. That’s serious about safety.”