KWAM’s fact checker gave Memphis City Council candidate Meggan Kiel a Pinocchio Thursday for claiming she never called to defund the police.
CLAIM:
Kiel told the Commercial Appeal Tuesday:“It’s never been a call for taking away funds [from police].”
FACT CHECK:
During a 2020 BLM press conference, Kiel, who was MICAH’s Interim Executive Director, said:
“We are going to talk about re-appropriating money that has been spent on policing the community to supporting the community. We do not need to police and criminalize the community and continue that pipeline that is from policing to the prison industrial complex that we want to dismantle.”
Don’t take our word for it, watch Meggan say it yourself:
District 5 Race: Meggan Kiel is accusing Philip Spinosa of lying about her public safety record. Kiel claims she has never advocated to defund the police.
Who’s lying? pic.twitter.com/s9xgSJ4DCh
— Ben Deeter (@benpdeeter) September 20, 2023
KWAM host Ben Deeter blasted “radical” Kiel for flip-flopping on her record just because she’s in a tight race against former City Councilman Philip Spinosa.
“Meggan makes AOC look like Marjorie Taylor Green,” Deeter said.
He added: “If she’s elected… you’ll have a voice sitting there that is advocating to defund the police, handcuff our police officers and release violent criminals out onto your street in the name of ‘justice reform.'”
