Kamala Cop / Kamala Is A Cop

Submission 3,044

Part of a series on Kamala Harris. [View Related Entries]

About

Kamala Cop, also known as Kamala Is A Cop or Kamala Harris Police Parodies, refers to a series of jokes and memes related to Vice President Kamala Harris' record as an Alameda County prosecutor and San Francisco district attorney from 2004 to 2010. Jokes about Harris' record as a prosecutor started in November 2019 amid her Presidential campaign for the 2020 United States Presidential Election, continuing into the following years. The meme notably resurfaced in July 2024 after President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 Presidential Election and endorsed Harris to be the Democratic nominee.

Origin

The "Kamala is a cop" debate and discourse started on May 25th, 2016, after Kamala Harris gave an interview for The New York Times Magazine^[1] in an article titled "Kamala Harris, a ‘Top Cop’ in the Era of Black Lives Matter," which delved into Harris' campaign strategy to be elected to the U.S. Senate. According to an article posted by The Washington Post^[2] on January 10th, 2019, Kamala "constantly referred to herself as California's 'top cop.'"

On July 3rd, 2019, the Facebook^[3] meme page @memeindustrial posted one of the earliest examples of memetic "Kamala cop" content, photoshopping Harris in a police uniform alongside an edit of her arresting a young Black girl (seen below). The post amassed more than 540 likes and 1,200 shares in five years.

Spread

Various memes about Kamala Harris' history with law enforcement continued to spread in the following years, especially in the early 2020s. For example, on November 10th, 2020, Redditor ChimpanzeeClownCar posted a meme referencing two articles from the Independent about her controversial history to the /r/PoliticalCompassMemes^[6] subreddit, receiving over 2,600 upvotes and 90 comments in roughly three years (shown below).

On January 21st, 2021, Twitter / X^[7] user @kikosdreamworld posted a We Did It, Joe meme referencing the Kamala Cop discourse, which garnered over 9,300 likes, 1,400 reposts and 10 replies in roughly three years (seen below).

2024 Presidential Election Resurgence

In late July 2024 after President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 Presidential Election and announced his support for Kamala Harris' candidacy, "Kamala cop" memes and jokes became a viral trend on X / Twitter once again.

For instance, on July 21st, 2024, X^[4] user @jdcmedlock posted the Kamala cop Photoshop image in a tweet about using the meme to help convince right-wing voters by loudly saying, "She’s a cop who will lock up all the criminals. It’s time to win this election." The post (seen below) amassed more than 19,000 likes and 1,600 reposts in a day.

On July 22nd, X^[5] user @What46HasDone replied to a tweet about the "Kamala is a cop" meme, writing that the jokes are "a good thing, particularly when your opponent is a rapist, convicted felon, and con man." The post (seen below) amassed more than 630 likes and 130 reposts in a few hours.