Democrats Put Adviser with Gang Violence History in Charge of Protecting Pelosi‘s Majority: Backs Defunding Police, Releasing Criminals

Dyjuan Tatro in College Behind Bars
PBS Broadcasting
Sean Moran

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) senior adviser Dyjuan Tatro has frequently supported defunding America’s law enforcement, called police racist, espoused anti-capitalist views, called to end cash bail, and urged officials to let criminals out of prison, which could have significant implications for the Democrats’ 2022 midterm election strategy.

DCCC chairman Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY) hired Tatro, a former New York gang member, to serve as a senior adviser for “diversity and inclusion.” Tatro served time for “shooting two rival gang members in 2006” and was convicted in 2011 for racketeering. Tatro was also the former “triggerman” for Albany’s Original Gansta Killer (OGK).

Tatro referred to police officers as “white supremacists” after the January 6 riots and even appeared to condone looting after George Floyd’s death.

In addition, Tatro approves of defunding law enforcement, which could have significant implications for his new position as senior adviser for strategy and outreach at the DCCC’s diversity and inclusion department.

Tatro noted in the DCCC’s release that he is “honored to be joining the DCCC on a number of issues at the nexus politics, diversity, equity and inclusion.”

Tatro appears to have deleted many of his tweets; however, Breitbart News saved screenshots of his controversial tweets.

Tatro tweeted on July 22, 2020, “You can’t reform this type of behavior. The police are violent people who kill hundreds of civilians every year, working in a violent culture for a racist institution.”

“It’s pretty simple, #DefundThePolie,” Tatro tweeted on June 9, 2020. “If it has to be explained to you at length you are probably against real systemic change and refuse to hear anything that doesn’t fit your narrow world view. Learn to think outside the status quo and stop talking down to people.”

The DCCC’s hiring of Tatro could pressure the Democrat campaign organization to use rhetoric more approving of defunding law enforcement. This could have devastating consequences for House Democrats’ razor-thin majority in the 2022 midterm elections.

For instance, Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), who narrowly won reelection in Virginia’s seventh congressional district in November, said then that Democrats should never say “‘defund the police’ ever again.”

She warned that if they repeat these leftist tactics, “We will get f—— torn apart.”

House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC) said in November, if “we are going to run on Medicare for All, defund the police, socialized medicine, we’re not going to win.”

Nevertheless, Tatro believes defunding the police is not a mere slogan to win over left-leaning voters; he believes that it is a “policy position.”

Tatro wrote on November 11, 2020, “#DefundThePolice is a policy position, not a slogan.”

He also called to “#AbolishICE.”

Tatro also responded “truth” to the claim that “saying ‘Defund the Police’ did not almost cost the Dems the election. The slogan ‘Make America Great Again’ almost did.”

Tatro wrote in January 2021 that a “tenet of white supremacy” is the “right to comfortability.”

He wrote, “It’s goes something like this; ‘would you mind not saying defund the police bc that makes me uncomfortable.’ Don’t fall for it. #DefundThePolice.”

Further, the DCCC senior adviser seems to believe that law enforcement officers are inherently racist.

Tatro wrote in June 2020, “Incarceration rates are not a function of crime, but policy. In my community, the police functioned to fuel mass incarceration. My neighbors were criminalized for things, like marijuana, that communities illegally engage in with impunity. Policing = racism #SystemFailedUs.”

Tatro has also espoused anti-capitalist views as recently as last year.

“The narrative that protesters are destroying their own communities is a false one. By and large, protesters have targeted symbols of capitalism and racism. And in America, capitalism and racism go hand in hand.”

Tatro’s views on defunding the police appear to be out-of-step with most House Democrats. He charged that law enforcement “can’t be reformed.”

“The police always talk about how essential & dedicated they are to public safety, but as soon as one of them is held accountable by the very laws they are sworn to enforce, they go on strike. The police think themselves above the law. That can’t be reformed,” Tatro wrote on June 18, 2020.

Democrats such as Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA) sponsored the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which would have reformed law enforcement by limiting police units’ qualified immunity.

In fact, Tatro said that he finds himself at odds with those who might want to reform law enforcement.

Tatro tweeted in June 2020, “Over the past few days, as I have found myself at odds with the reformist, I realized that not only do I differ with them in opinion, but also in morality. Reform is a politically expedient way to maintain the status quo & gives policy makers an easy way out. #DefundThePolice.”

Tatro also supported letting criminals out of jail and ending cash bail.

He wrote on June 4, 2020, “They are murdering us in the street. They are murdering us in jails. And, by and large, they are getting away with it. We need to defund the entire criminal justice system. #FreeThemAll.”

He said in January 2021, “I wouldn’t take this job for all the money in the world. Prisons are fundamentally inhumane. I’m here to end mass incarceration, not manage it.”

“Closing prisons doesn’t free people, but freeing people does close prisons. #priorities,” he wrote in January 2021.

Tatro wrote in November 2020, “It’s called the snowball effect and it’s all downhill from here unless #BailReform is fully reimplemented.”

Tatro even appeared to criticize then-candidate Joe Biden, writing in May 2019 that Biden “fueled and exacerbated #massincarceration in every way it could and Joe Biden supported it. Period.”

Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.

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