Occasionally, we like to peruse the virtual pages of Teen Vogue, rummaging for nuggets of pure trash. Teen Vogue has a special section dedicated to politics and this nod to a Defunnd The Police 20-something in Iowa is a doozy.

Her name is Indira Sheumaker and she won a seat on the Des Moines City Council this past Tuesday. Sheumaker is a member of the Black Liberation movement, according to Teen Vogue and white, (woke and liberal AF, we are sure), Lexi McMenamin, wrote up the interview.

Sheumaker was the instigator in a 2020 demonstration, where she was arrested after getting on Des Moines police officer Jeff George’s back and put him in a chokehold, resulting in felony charges of alleged assault on a police officer and interference with official acts causing serious injury. Sheumaker also faced an additional serious misdemeanor charge of alleged assault on a different police officer, according to this from The Des Moines Register.

She sounds nice, doesn’t she? Alas, charges were dropped and Teen Vogue jumps in to tell the story of this “heroic woman” taking a stance against inequality in her city ward, and winning a seat on her city council.

Sheumaker, as Teen Vogue attempts to paint as iconic, staring pensively into the distance in a photo shoot on the snowy streets of Des Moines, is all about “community”:

Strong communities make police obsolete. [It’s not that we’re] leaving people to be worried and scared, but that we want to build up a public safety system that actually addresses the needs of the community, that is built from the community, that focuses on transformative and restorative justice.

That is really what defund means to me. It means not tearing apart communities. It means when harm is caused, we don’t go in and cause more harm and trauma, pulling apart families, removing somebody from their support, and focusing on incarceration and punishment, but we focus on victims. It means we focus on humanity, we focus on the causes of harm and how we can repair those things. That is really the big vision of defund that I think once you have that conversation with people, it becomes a much more aspirational, inspirational thing.”-Indira Shuemaker

And nothing says “community” like jumping on top of a police officer and attempting to put him or her in a chokehold, right, Indira?

Sheumaker goes on to talk about food deserts, the lack of public parking, the housing crisis and how it ties into her “Defund” platform:

Defund is a big one, but it’s not just defunding the police; it’s a larger public safety issue. There’s lots of violence in areas where people have been ignored and don’t have the resources that they need to survive and live completely fulfilling lives. A big issue that’s coming up in Ward 1 specifically, right now, is the development of a community center…. Most of what we heard in response to violence in these areas, if it wasn’t ‘We need more police, we need public safety’ — because the police don’t show up — it was ‘We need something for kids to be doing. We need places for the community to go, we need these fulfilling community spaces and community events to really bring people together.'”-Indira Shuemaker

Police aren’t showing up, Indira? Hmmm. We wonder why…

Chicago: Police leaving the department after Mayor Lori Lightfoot takes police union to court over vaccine mandates. Triggering leaves of absences based on “insubordination”.

Denver: First responders and police officers quit or face possible discipline for not complying with vaccine mandates.

New York City: Vaccine mandates causing firefighters and police officers to call in sick due to vaccine mandates.

And, then there’s this from Seattle:

In two 911 calls, a 13-year-old Seattle teen pleaded for help as his father suffered a medical emergency in their apartment. But what would normally elicit an immediate response was delayed, and the father died. First responders blame the city’s ongoing staffing crisis, which was worsened by the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

When Seattle Fire arrived, they were told to wait for police before entering. The address was flagged as unsafe for Seattle Fire to enter. At the time, the precinct was down two officers, leaning on non-patrol volunteers to meet minimum staffing levels. It took Seattle police 15 minutes to arrive, delaying medics from performing life-saving measures. Despite their best efforts, the father died. And it turns out the address was flagged due to a previous tenant and did not apply to its current residents.”-Jason Rantz, KTTH

Where were the (vaccinated) “community counselors” on-hand to assist with this situation, Indira? (Sigh.) Pigs in a blanket, fry ’em like bacon. Screw the police. They never show up. A teenage boy is now without a father. If only he had a community center. I mean, for real, who needs the parental units anyway when you have a commune to raise you? But this kid needs to be doing something, they say. He was, jackasses. He was calling for HELP for his father. Help he may have otherwise received if it were not for corrupt politicians and city council members who, on every instance, attack first responders and law enforcement and paint them as enemies of our youth.

I honestly think that, combined with providing people the resources they need — like solving food deserts, making sure people have affordable and adequate housing — that building up community and having community spaces that are respected is really going to help with [the public safety] crisis as well.”-Indira Shuemaker

Honestly. Follow me through this maze for a moment. A teenager is now without a parent. A parent who may have worked to provide food and shelter for his child. Let me ask you this…how safe does this child feel right now? No thanks to Mercer Island Jenny Durkan and multi-millionaire “Defund the Police” City Council Member, Kshama Sawant. This teen needed a resource. He needed first responders. He got nothing. So, pardon me if I just say, screw your “honesty” right now.

But white-bread Teen Vogue writer who has probably never spent five minutes in a marginalized neighborhood in her formative teenage years, Lexi McMenamin, who uses she/her and they/them pronouns interchangeably (because that’s what good English/Poli-Sci majors from Fordham University do), wants teenage girls to idolize a 27 year-old Des Moines city council member who put a cop in a chokehold and now promotes “community”?

They and Teen Vogue readers, writers, editors, interviewees, advertisers all better get on it…building those “community centers” and deploying those “counselors”. In the meantime, I say these two fine women of “principle” should pick up the dirty heroin needles and homeless encampments on their city streets and go head-to-head with criminal activity. That’s what “community” is about, isn’t it?

Photo Credit: Taymaz Valley/FlickR/Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)/Cropped