#FreeTheFunds Thread:
On Tues, City Council—after tremendous pressure from 10s of thousands of community members—resisted Mayor Durkan’s anti-Black obstructionism & upheld their decision to divest from the SPD by less than 1% & invest modestly in Black communities.
Huge shout out to everyone who tapped in to make this organizing happen. To all who showed up, hit the streets, volunteered, donated, emailed/called & used your voice to defend Black lives: we see & appreciate y'all deeply.
All power to the people.
It should not take such prolonged, sustained community efforts for this minimal change. But we acknowledge that the Council’s move to override the Mayor’s anti-Black veto marks an urgent break from decades of votes to expand racist policing.
Already experiencing COVID’s economic fallout, conditions for Seattle’s Black community are on a trajectory to worsen. Against that backdrop, Black communities mobilized to demand investments in public safety solutions that work for us & at minimum don’t kill us w/ our own money.
Unfortunately, despite Council overruling her veto, the Mayor's past behavior suggests strongly that she'll attempt to delay/block critical investments into the Black community including, e.g., funds earmarked for Black community-led research program:
And funds earmarked for incredibly effective Black-community led gun violence prevention programming and scaling up public safety services.
The Mayor has impeded Black community organizing efforts for divestment @ nearly every turn. She employed a misinformation, fear-mongering PR campaign in tandem w/ SPD to mislead Seattle residents about our efforts, aims, & the tremendous amount of free Black labor behind it.
The work of reshaping this City into one that values all Black lives—that moves away from funding racist policing & towards resourcing true public safety for all—is long overdue & not for white folks or gatekeepers to dictate. No delays. No unilaterally decided "task forces."
We call on Mayor Durkan to release the funds as quickly as possible so that the urgent work of responding to gun violence & scaling up Black community-led public safety services can continue and grow.
ACTION: Use your voice to #FreeTheFunds here: kingcountyequitynow.quorum.us/campaign/28854/
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