Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, the Florida teen slain in 2012 whose death helped spur the Black Lives Matter Movement, says she disagrees with the “defund the police” narrative that has emerged over the last two weeks of police brutality protests.

Fulton qualified last week to run for Miami-Dade county commissioner and she has said if anything, she wants to have better relations between residents and police so defunding them, to her, wouldn’t work best.

“I don’t agree with that,” Fulton told The Guardian. “I think we need more police. We need police with better standards, and police with better ethics and better work habits. 

“I want residents to feel safe,” she continued. “I want to bridge the gap between the law enforcement and the community.” 

She noted the multicultural aspect of the recent protests surrounding the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery.

“I see people of all colors that are there, and that are standing with African Americans,” Fulton said to The Guardian. “They really saw what happened. They’re compassionate, and they feel the pain that we have been feeling for so many years.”

She has been a 20-year employee of the Miami-Dade County Commission and says she wants to continue in that agency. It is there, she believes, that she can make the most difference.

“I’m like everyone else. I’m fed up with what I’ve seen so far in politics, and I think I need to lend my voice to make positive change,” she said in an August 2019 interview with Elle magazine, explaining her decision to run for public office. “I want to start in my own backyard. That’s why I’m running for Miami-Dade County commissioner because it’s right here. A lot of people thought that I should run for a seat that was higher, but I just want to start here and make change.”