Democrat’s anti-police record resurfaces ahead of key special election

FIRST ON FOX: The Democratic Party’s candidate trying to win a House seat in the upcoming Tennessee special election has a long history of anti-police rhetoric, having espoused it repeatedly in interviews and on a now-deleted social media account before becoming a state legislator in 2023.

Aftyn Behn, who is running against Republican Matt Van Epps in Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District special election, also worked as a regional organizing director for the nonprofit activist group Indivisible before becoming a state legislator. The radical left also frequently advocated defunding police departments during the height of the defunding movement, calling it “critical.”

In response to a separate social media post by a Nashville City Council member stating that local officials had submitted a “replacement budget proposal” aimed at defunding the Nashville police by $2.6 million, Behn wrote on an old social media account that has since been deleted: “Where is the proposal to defund @MNPDNashville?” he asked. “If it’s been hard for all of you to imagine a world without police…we can do it and there is a world,” Behn later said in an interview with a local Nashville advocacy group.

Behn’s comments largely came at the height of the “defund the police” movement in 2020 and 2021 following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Amid violent protests following Floyd’s death that often turned into dangerous rioting and looting, Behn also downplayed the violence that occurred and mocked white people who criticized the looting, stating that this was the only way minority communities expressed their grief over Floyd’s death.

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“It looks like Aftyn is getting a visit from the Phantom Past Awakening,” Republican strategist Matt Gorman said. “Democrats are haunted by past positions they thought they could hide from. Ask Kamala Harris how she defended taxpayer-funded gender reassignment surgeries for illegal immigrant prisoners.”

Behn did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. But Democratic strategist Eric Koch argued that attacks on Behn have increased because “Republicans are starting to worry in a district where Trump won by more than 20 points,” adding that Democrats making this race competitive shows they are in good shape to take back the House in next year’s midterm elections. Behn’s special election is scheduled for December 2.

While popular in the immediate aftermath of Floyd’s death, the push to “defund the police” has become a political liability for many Democrats running in recent elections. New York City’s mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani, faced criticism for his past anti-police rhetoric en route to victory, and Mamdani ultimately went on to apologize to Fox News. Earlier this month, a progressive candidate for the U.S. Senate in Michigan reportedly quietly deleted old social media posts he made in support of defunding the police.

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“I’m attending a transformative justice seminar right now, and it’s about how to imagine a world without police, what that would look like, and what community mechanisms would look like. How can people not police themselves?” Behn said during an interview: in conjunction with Nashville Musicians for Change in July 2020. “If it’s been hard for all of you to imagine a world without police, please watch the next episode, not this one. Because I’m going to talk about the things I’ve learned and grown as an organizer. Because I think we can do that and there is a world, especially for those of us who are young and talk to our parents about what abolishing the police looks like.”

Behn’s comments come amid his work with left-wing nonprofit Indivisible, which itself has a track record of defunding the police, calling the effort “critical” in a 2020 Facebook post to “keep everyone safe.” That same year, the group urged people to call local, state and federal lawmakers to demand policies and budgets that would divert money away from police departments and redirect it to “Black communities.”

Before joining the Tennessee state legislature in 2023, Aftyn Behn served as regional organizing director for the left-wing nonprofit Indivisible. (Photos: Aftyn and Jason Davis for Congress/Getty Images)

“Good morning, especially to the 54 percent of Americans who believe burning down the police station was justified,” Behn said. another post He did this in response to a poll about who was right to demolish the Minneapolis police station and who wasn’t. The area was ultimately razed to the ground and police were forced to leave the burning area.

Amid the chaos caused by Floyd’s death, which resulted in billions of dollars in damage and scores of casualties, Behn was also hosting a podcast. In one of the segments titled “Black Lives Matter,” Behn argued that “it is not our place as privileged white people to decide how marginalized communities express their pain, suffering, and grief,” referring to the looting and riots that occurred. Behn called it a “metaphor” for white people to say looting is bad.

Behn added of the riot: “I really challenge all of you when you see these stories of looting and you go back to this law and order style response. I challenge you to step back from that and think about what caused this.” “You shouldn’t condemn it because you don’t know the first thing about where they come from and what the generational trauma that the police, institutional racism has put them through.”

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In the same podcast episode, Behn argued that police do not actually serve to protect and protect Americans.

“You think calling the police will save you?” behn he asked his audience. “Black men get killed when white women call the police.”

Behn also came under fire this week for other comments on her podcast; Meanwhile, he said he hated his hometown, Nashville, and all the southern elements that came with it, like country music.

Metro Nashville Police Department cruiser parked in downtown Nashville. (Metro Nashville Police Department)

Meanwhile, in addition to Behn’s remarks in interviews and podcasts, House Democrats have repeatedly embraced defunding the police rhetoric from a now-deleted account X on what was then Twitter.

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Behn, for example, responded to a post claiming that the “Los Angeles teachers union” had demanded a commitment to “defund the police” before committing to a return to in-person learning for students, urging teachers in her state to do the same. The post to which Behn responded called for more similar requests across the country.

“Let’s go Tennessee teachers! We’ve got your back!!!!” behn wrote in response to the post.

“Your individual positive experiences with cops do not outweigh the fact that the entire criminal justice system is built on institutionalized racism,” another post Behn shared on her now-deleted Twitter account read. The statement was included.