Thread by @sahrasulaiman

Let the live tweeting begin.

right now i'm imagining what councilmembers dancing to this hold music might look like.

like, Herb just chilling on a flamingo in the river

oops here we go.

Curren Price: This is a moment that is going to call on all of us to do all that we can do and must do...it's a process we're ready for, how we get there is another story.

Dr. Melina Abdullah (@DocMellyMel): Acknowledging that although there are five of them at the table, the #PeoplesBudgetLA is the product of powerful community of volunteers and those that have lifted them up.

.@DocMellyMel says that their budget work has been years in the making - they've been pushing back against the amount allocated to the police and calling for defunding for at least 5 years.

She calls upon the council to be courageous & take the necessary steps to support them.

.@DocMellyMel: checking Krekorian's claim that the budget had passed unanimously among councilmembers with a discussion of what a more participatory process/budget-making entails.

The plan for discussion today #PeoplesBudgetLA

Baba Akili says that in April, Black L.A. divestment/investment demands were sent to council by a coalition of more than 50 Black-led organizations tied to the impact of COVID-19. But only Herb Wesson acknowledged receiving them. Read them here:
blmla.org/newsfeed/2020/…

The divestment/investment strategy was about moving funds from LAPD to uplifting the Black community and filling in the gaps that have left the community vulnerable.

Rev. Rae Huang: highlighting the coalition that came together to call for a #peoplesbudgetla. See @libdenk's story on that process here. laist.com/2020/05/28/los…

David Turner: Highlights the extent to which people from the community have been calling for investment in jobs, health, youth, etc. for many years.

How many people is it going to take for this message to be heard?

Well, says Turner, have a slide with some data about how many people want to be heard:

Turner: we wanted to make sure we got critical segments of the population in the survey.

We first distributed this survey before George Floyd was killed. So people had already put policing low on their priority list. But his murder allowed for a broader conversation around what community and public safety entailed.

And these were responses from across the city... all council districts were represented

What does it look like to empower our neighborhoods? to invest in mental health and wellness? to talk about restorative justice? public services that keep a community whole and functioning?

No one wants to take money away from things that keep us well, but these are the things that get cut first. "How is it that our budgets do not match the will of the people?" - David Turner

We're inviting city council to imagine what a safer community looks like with us. Speaking to his own family struggles growing up along Crenshaw, he says the police never made things better.

What would it have looked like, instead of his family being criminalized for generational traumas as he was growing up, for them to have been supported and the children to have been centered and uplifted?

David Turner to council: "Now is your opportunity to do the right thing and be on the side of justice." #peoplesbudgetla

Kendrick Sampson introduces the idea of Reimagining Public Safety by reminding council that this is a city of creatives and if they need help with the reimagining process, there's a whole bunch of people equipped to do that.

Sampson says he was shot seven times with rubber bullets, beaten & left with permanent scars as were his assistant and friend who were left with broken bones and trauma.

And then coming to council today, LAPD is the entity tasked w/ letting folks into council. #PeoplesBudgetLA

Somebody imagined shackles on Black people; somebody imagined colonizing this land. We can imagine better worlds. - Sampson

Elected officials choosing to invest in oppression and more trauma for our communities instead of what they need is actually violence - Sampson #PeoplesBudgetLA

.@kendrick38 turns to the question of policing in schools - a long standing complaint of youth in LAUSD.

In 2013, youth said as much at the mayor's youth-led town hall... which he only spent a total of about five minutes at before running off to meet President Obama at the airport.
la.streetsblog.org/2013/08/07/inv…

One of the things youth highlighted at the time, was that they were being punished for trying to keep themselves safe because police didn't actually understand what they went through just trying to get back & forth to school.

We can't go back to the world we lived in before COVID-19. What are we going to birth out of this situation? Policing is a bad seed producing bad fruit...it hasn't ever represented healing or accountability in our community - only trauma. -@kendrick38

What folks saw on TV was what we've seen law enforcement doing our communities all this time. It's been exposed now.

There are so many children that are going to remember this crisis and what our elected officials chose to do. So what are you going to do? - @kendrick38

What Angelenos are demanding is that we be courageous in this moment - @DocMellyMel

We've heard the name of George Floyd spoken again and again. Have you spoken the names of the hundreds LAPD has killed over the years? -@DocMellyMel

This shouldn't be about your political calculations. This should be about the world you want to make. You have an opportunity to say *whose* you are - do you belong to the police unions and other interests or do you belong to the people? - @DocMellyMel

As we're saying defund the police, we're saying reimagine safety. We're asking you to step into your highest selves. Hear the voices of those that walked before you. Be courageous. Let's let L.A. lead this charge. - @DocMellyMel

I don't think that the People's Budget is that complicated, says @CD6Nury, getting emotional about her own experience growing up in a neighborhood not unlike the one presenters described and about being a mom.

But the issue is getting other entities to step up to support that vision. How do we reimagine L.A. if services (at county level) aren't there? How do we ensure these partnerships are functioning? Do we need to keep getting sued to make these things happen? - @CD6Nury

"It's not complicated. It's not rocket science. This is how you reimagine neighborhoods," says @CD6Nury, holding up the printout of the @BLMLA presentation

Now here comes councilmember do-no-harm-to-landlords Krekorian to say, sure, it looks like we could probably do more. 🙄

Krekorian: the single biggest piece is our country's failure to invest in mental health care. we need to do "one heckuva lot more there."

We need this to be a discussion about not just the budget but where we're going to invest it & how we're going to spend it. But thanks, guys!

Baba Akili asks them to make a commitment to action not words - "because you're good at [words]"...

I appreciate your words but I am looking for your commitment. If you believe this, let's resolve this. Let's put things on the table and talk about it.

Wesson: my pledge to you is to help L.A. to do its part. So I'm tingly. I'm excited about the future. I'm always available and I will be chatting with leadership about several of the proposals seen today.

"I'm not going to miss this moment."

"Let's rock 'em and sock 'em" - Wesson

Curren Price: I'm excited.

Curren Price asks about what constitutes a participatory budget process.

@DocMellyMel speaks to the literature on it but also importance of making sure it translates to policy and practice.

Mitch O'Farrell: You are making me reflect on my Native American heritage and how I took serious issue with our celebration of Columbus in 2015.

Mitch O'Farrell: You're holding our feet to the fire, as you should, but it's important to note the county is our partner in this effort and that they're still working on their budget this month.

Mitch O'Farrell: Also I did this summit on poverty and I'll give you that report. [I mean, yes, I also voted against an eviction moratorium that would have assisted all those poor folks talked about in that report, but maybe someone can make use of that info since I didn't.]

.@DocMellyMel kindly reminds the council she is aware the county exists.

.@kendrick38: what headlines do you want in your name? the movement is going to move, with or without you.

I can't emphasize enough how historic this is.

Five, seven years ago, no one would speak to Black Lives Matter. No one would have dreamed of sitting down with them & giving them any kind of validation. Garcetti would run out his back door to avoid having to cross paths w/ them.

And yet they're asking for the same things youth were asking for in 2013. la.streetsblog.org/2013/08/07/inv…

Investment not just in education but the potential to dream

Voice, representation, uplifting outlets that nurtured their potential

And an end to the kind of policing that further traumatized them and left them less safe - as both David Turner and @kendrick38 spoke to

As all the speakers emphasized, Baba Akili in particular, these asks were not new. These demands were made long before the youth cited above spoke up in 2013...

It's a testament to the work @BLMLA has done over the years that they have met this moment with such power and grace.

But for what they've accomplished to be sustainable, this city also has to ask itself why it took so long for Black voices to be heard.

- end thread

*also, please note I'm not good at exact quotes on the fly. everything above is paraphrased (though as close to the language/an accurate summary as I could get) unless explicitly put in quotes. TY