Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Charles Barkley Goes Viral For His 'Ghostbusters' Comment Criticizing The Defunding Of The Police

Charles Barkley Goes Viral For His 'Ghostbusters' Comment Criticizing The Defunding Of The Police
TNT

Charles Barkley has drawn criticism on the internet after he jokingly referenced the film Ghostbusters while criticizing the concept of defunding the police during a TV appearance.

Barkley's comments came during an appearance on Inside the NBA, an NBA post-game talk show on the TNT network.


Barkley did not mince words in his criticism of the movement to defund police forces, which has arisen in the wake of the latest wave of often deadly police violence against unarmed Black citizens.

"I hear these fools on TV talking about 'defund the police' and things like that. We need police reform and prison reform and things like that. Because you know who ain't gonna defund the cops? White neighborhoods and rich neighborhoods."

Barkley went on to reference the classic film Ghostbusters by way of explaining his advocating reform over the defunding or abolition of police forces.

"Who are Black people supposed to call, Ghostbusters, when we have crime in our neighborhoods? ... White people, especially rich White people, they're always gonna have cops. So we need to stop that defund or abolish the cops crap."

Barkley's joke, of course, is a reference to the classic Ray Parker Jr. theme song to the Ghostbusters film.

Ghostbusters jokes aside, recent polling shows that just over half of Americans in general, but less than a third of Black Americans, agree with Barkley.

A July Gallup poll revealed that 47% of Americans at large and 70% of Black Americans specifically are in favor of reducing police department budgets and reallocating such funds to social programs, which can better manage the myriad non-crime issues that often fall to police departments, like mental health interventions, among many others.

Several cities, including Seattle, New York and Los Angeles, have introduced measures to substantively reduce the budgets of their police departments this year.

And the city of Minneapolis, where the police murder of George Floyd touched off waves of protest nationwide that have yet to abate, introduced a measure to disband its police department altogether. That move has run up against resistance, however, and the city council has tabled the resolution for further review until November.

On Twitter, some people agreed with Barkley's views.



But far more saw Barkley's comments as indicative of a common misunderstanding of what "defund the police" means, and they found his views reductive and off-base.








While Barkley may be out of step with the majority of Black people on the issue of defunding police, his views on police abolition are for more mainstream. Just 15% of Americans in general and 22% of Black Americans support the idea of abolishing the police according to Gallup's July poll.

More from Trending

Alex Cooper singing 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame'
@MBDChicago/Twitter (X)

'Call Her Daddy' Host Alex Cooper Gets Brutally Booed At Wrigley Field After Painfully Off-Key Singing

If there's one thing that all baseball fans can come together about, it's the importance of their traditions—and songs.

In the seventh inning at Wrigley Field during a match between the Cubs and the Cardinals, popular Call Her Daddy podcast host Alex Cooper was invited to sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and brought two backup dancers with her.

Keep ReadingShow less
Linda Yaccarino
Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

X CEO Resigns Day After AI Chatbot Grok Praised Hitler In Alarming Series Of Antisemitic Tweets

Linda Yaccarino—the former NBC Universal executive who later took the reins at X—stepped down as CEO of billionaire Elon Musk's platform after two years on the job just a day after Grok, the platform's AI chatbot, went on antisemitic rants and openly praised Adolf Hitler.

Grok issued deeply antisemitic responses on Tuesday following a reported software update that encouraged the bot to embrace what developers described as the “politically incorrect.” Taking that directive to heart, Grok responded with a series of disturbing posts that included praise for Hitler and even a statement expressing its aspiration to become a “digital version” of the Nazi leader.

Keep ReadingShow less
Black and white photo of a falling spider.
Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash

People Divulge Their 'Rare' Phobias That People Refuse To Believe

I am a SEVERE claustrophobic.

I have struggled with this issue for decades.

Keep ReadingShow less
Ted Cruz
Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

'The Onion' Rips Ted Cruz With Brutal Headline After Yet Another Vacation During Texas Disaster

The satirical news site The Onion had social media users cackling with its brutal headline mocking Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz for once again being out of the country when Texas was hit by another deadly natural disaster.

Cruz faced considerable national backlash after he flew to Cancún while millions of people went without food and water as a result of the February 2021 Texas power disaster. At least 246 people were killed directly or indirectly; some estimates suggested as many as 702 people were killed as a result of the crisis.

Keep ReadingShow less
Elon Musk and Grimes
Kevin Tachman/Getty Images for Vogue

Elon Musk's Ex Grimes Calls X Platform A 'Poison' And 'Theatre' After Social Media Hiatus

Claire Boucher—who performs and creates under her stage name Grimes, but prefers her birth name or just "C" offstage—recently returned to her musical persona's social media accounts after taking a hiatus for her own well-being.

Once extremely active, she noted on X in April:

Keep ReadingShow less