The north may not remember, but 9 August this year marked the 12th anniversary of the police killing of Michael Brown Jr in Ferguson, Missouri. That day, the US representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez reassured an ABC news anchor that she, like other progressive politicians and Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) candidates, had “moved away” from statements they made during the pandemic, particularly on police and prison abolition. Questioned further, she explained:

“I have a local city councilman that has this saying: ‘Woke 1 was crazy’… especially during Covid, I think that the doors were really open in trying to entertain any and every policy that was going to get us to a better place. And I actually think that the discussions that were had in that time were quite fruitful. I think that when we talk about crime today, it’s fundamentally different than the way that we talked about crime in bringing crime down. And I think that we all share in the goals of having as low a crime rate as possible. I think that, you know, during lockdown, of course, rhetoric in that time is not rhetoric that we would use today. And I’m grateful that these candidates have the opportunity to present who they are to their electorate and what they’re campaigning on in this moment.”

A few days later, on Wednesday, Zohran Mamdani, the progressive New York mayor, who has previously stated that his pandemic-era tweets supporting the defund movement were “out of step” with where he is now, chimed in on Ocasio-Cortez’s comments, saying: “Sometimes what you believe in can change. I know there are some for whom they still believe in that. I’ve made very clear that I do not believe in defunding the police and that to me, delivering critical public safety also looks like working with our police department alongside many other partners.”

The New York City councilman to whom Ocasio-Cortez was referring, Chi Ossé, was actually inspired by the abolition movement to run for office. But earlier this week, he was quick to proudly claim coinage of the term “woke 1”, which has been used by people who seek to minimize statements they made in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder by police in May 2020.

In one sense, these politicians are absolutely correct. If “woke 1” represents a political baptism in shallow waters, then I have met many who were swept up in an emotional online conversion toward........

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