Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) National Political Committee member Frances Gill declined to say Sunday which agency would find and jail a rapist if police and prisons were abolished, dodging the question during a televised interview.
Gill made the remarks in an interview with NBC 4 Los Angeles anchor Conan Nolan, who pressed her on the group’s platform after she affirmed its calls to defund police and eliminate jails.
Nolan first confirmed the DSA’s stated goals, noting the party’s website backs defunding police and asking whether it also wants to get rid of prisons and jails. Gill answered that it does. He then posed a direct scenario.
“So if my daughter is assaulted and raped, is there any agency that would seek to find her assailant and bring him to justice?” Nolan asked.
“Of course, yeah, of course—” Gill began, before the anchor followed up.
“What would it be if not police, and where would he be if not a jail?” he asked.
Gill did not name one. She said she wanted to avoid the question.
“So I guess I really want to avoid getting caught into these hypotheticals and talk about the reality that we’re actually facing right now,” Gill said, according to Fox News.
That reality, she argued, is that the city is spending large sums on police instead of addressing what she described as the roots of crime. She pointed to a lack of streetlights, substance abuse treatment, and mental health care.
The pair later clashed over the Michigan Senate primary won by DSA-adjacent candidate Abdul El-Sayed. Nolan noted El-Sayed’s support came heavily from college-educated voters and that he lost counties where most voters lacked a degree. Gill, who said she carries $500,000 in student debt, claimed graduates like her were promised prosperity but found themselves downwardly mobile because society’s “scales are tipped in one direction to benefit the rich.”
Gill’s dodge tracks the platform other DSA figures have defended on camera. Co-chair Megan Romer told Fox News Sunday the group backs abolishing prisons, ICE, and borders as a long-term plan. Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow pressed the same point days earlier, asking, “Where do the rapists go, lady?”
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