Here’s what Betsy Price should have said when Tim O’Hare tied her to Black Lives Matter
Did Betsy Price, the former Fort Worth mayor now running for county judge, support Black Lives Matter protests after the murder of George Floyd by a Minnesota police officer?
The answer is complicated. So, naturally, the back and forth between her campaign and Republican primary rival Tim O’Hare isn’t shedding a ton of light on the matter.
O’Hare’s campaign says that Price encouraged protesters. Price says she fought “BLM” extremists who wanted to defund police.
Both points are kind of true. Price acknowledged the issue of police violence against Black people. She said in May 2020 that she was “committed to continuing the work we have started to root out racism, inequities and disparities at a systemic and policy level.”
It was the responsible, proper thing for the mayor of a majority-minority city to do, especially in light of the egregious Atatiana Jefferson shooting.
Two months later, when the city’s half-cent tax for police and crime prevention was on the ballot, she campaigned on its behalf. There wasn’t huge opposition for her to work against, though, and voters handily approved a 10-year extension.
Price accused O’Hare, without naming him, of lying. There was a better way to respond.
Immediately after Floyd was killed, there was largely a national consensus about addressing racism, particularly in policing.
When the discussion moved from barring certain police restraints and lifting qualified immunity to renaming the Dixie Chicks and segregating college dorms, disagreement was inevitable.
When “black lives matter,” the unassailably true idea, yielded to Black Lives Matter, the controversial political group, consensus was no longer possible.
When it became clear that the goals included teaching kids the need for “the disruption of Western nuclear family dynamics,” conservatives had to say no.
Had Price said that, a lot of Republican primary voters would have nodded in agreement.
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This story was originally published February 3, 2022 at 10:52 AM.
