On the one hand, Stacey Abrams serves on the board of a group that supports efforts to defund the police.
On the other, the Democratic candidate for governor of Georgia spends big on security — her own.
That dissonance was revealed by Fox News, which reported Tuesday that between December 2021 and April 2022, Abrams’ campaign spent more than $450,000 with Executive Protection Agencies, a private security company based in Atlanta.
The payments ranged between $39,335 and $56,760, according to the report.
Abrams has spent big before to ensure that her safety comes first.
The Fair Fight PAC, launched under the auspices of Abrams, last year spent more than $1.2 million with EPA Security, according to campaign filings.
Some on social media pointed to the conflict between what the candidate wants for herself and for everyone else.
Stacey Abrams group paid over $1.2 million to private security firm last year-Democrats and their selfish ways! Safety for Stacey but not for you!https://t.co/CyDsxYCVXm
— Rachel (@GoldnemovesGold) July 5, 2022
Stacey Abrams sits on the board of a defund the police organization, but she spent nearly $500,000 on private security.
She’s yet another Democrat that puts her safety above yours. https://t.co/FonCLviBv1
— Tommy Hicks (@TommyHicksGOP) July 5, 2022
So if you a huge supporter of wanting to defund the police but have private security for your security what are you? #hypocrite #stacey #abrams
— ??Union Street SF / Dean Preston CHEATS (@unionstreetsf) July 5, 2022
Abrams is a board member of the Marguerite Casey Foundation. In 2020, that group steered cash to groups opposing the police, including the Movement for Black Lives, Black Organizing Project and Louisville Community Bail Fund, Fox News reported.
The Democrat told Axios last month that she is not a supporter of reducing police funding but can’t stop what the foundation funds. “She emphasized that as a board member she has no control over the foundation’s grants,” the outlet reported.
But more than 100 Georgia sheriffs see things differently.
They shared a statement on June 27 condemning Abrams and supporting Republican Gov. Brian Kemp.
“Stacey Abrams has repeatedly shown complete disdain for law enforcement and the risk we take every day putting our lives on the line to serve our communities,” they said.
Is Abrams a hypocrite?
“Ms. Abrams actively serves on the governing board of — and has profited from — an anti-police organization which openly advocates for abolishing prisons and stripping local police departments of their funding,” the 102 sheriffs said.
“Stacy Abrams also supports proposals that put criminals back on our streets and clears their criminal record, and she opposed legislation to crack down on human trafficking when she served in the state legislature,” they said.
Abrams has used opaque language in calling for money to be steered away from the police.
“We have to have a transformation of how we view the role of law enforcement, how we view the construct of public safety, and how we invest not only in the work that we need them to do to protect us but the work that we need to do to protect and build our communities,” she said in June 2020, according to Axios.
“And that’s the conversation we’re having: We’ll use different language to describe it, but fundamentally we must have reformation and transformation,” Abrams said.
In an interview with PBS, the Democrat also called for the “redistributive allocation of dollars” from police budgets “so that we are not simply investing in public safety, but we’re building a safer public through education, through health care, through food security, through affordable housing.”
She added that these things “have to be part of a holistic vision of what America should look like, what law enforcement and what society should look like in the 21st century.”
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