Thread by @DivestSPD

Decrim Seattle Virtual Teach-in w/ @NikkitaOliver is about to start.

Live link here:
facebook.com/decrimseattle/…

Will tweet notes for those who can't watch

Beginning now.

Nikkita is on first

Nikkita wants to ground the teach-in in the sentiment expressed by Ella Baker: "Until the killing of Black men, Black mothers' sons, becomes as important to the rest of the country as the killing of a White mother's son—we who believe in freedom cannot rest until this happens"

Introduction of @DecrimSeattle

Nikkita speaks to the importance of political education b/c not all have had equal access to institutions, so this is about strengthening communities and building their capacity to organize.

Nikkita: Decrim is about continuing and building upon past movements (No New Youth Jail, Block the Bunker)

Jackie, the facilitator is back on.

Jackie: Starting point is that police don't prevent crime. They are merely an armed response rooted in slavery and white supremacy

Jackie: "The police budget is, in nice words, bloated" and least likely to see cuts.

Jackie: The police are an institution that is 1.) not working 2.) causing harm.

Other approaches are much better routes to community safety.

Jackie: Participatory budget, a democratic process where the community can create proposals and vote on them.

Jackie: We're talking about cutting what has been budgeted for the remainder of the year by 50 percent.

Jackie: Not going to be an overnight process. Scale-down of the budget at 12% each month and scale-up of community resources.

Jackie now talking about 4-point proposal starting with the 911 system.

Jackie: We want to take the 911 system out of the police's hands to change the gatekeeping of certain calls, i.e. crisis and distress, as a way to make it community controlled and focus on harm reduction, diversion

Scale up Community-Based Organizations (CBOs)

Invest in housing and launch a youth-lead research process, i.e. to pay youth to work on and participate in budgetary process.

Youth programs cut over summer. Way to engage youth.

Jackie: money should come from the over-funded police budget and not budgets parks, childcare, and other important services.

Other cities have a tried-and-true 5-step participatory budget process:

Timeline

- Budget rebalance in August.

- Mobilize to advocate for the participatory process for the 2021 budget in Sept.

-2021 budget will be passed around the end of November

Jackie: Back to the 4-point proposal, turning it over to Shaun Glaze, to talk about the 911 system.

Shaun: Most common calls are things like suspicious person, suspicious vehicles. Violent calls are very small percentage.

Lot of noise complaints, check on homeless encampments, etc.

Shaun: Analyzed the data and about 40% are things that community would be much better equipped, i.e. wellness checks, people sleeping on buses, requests for an officer to just observe a suspicious circumstance.

Shaun: Once we take the time to look at the data, it just doesn't support the level of funding.

Jackie: Other things we can do to reduce the level of police is to respond differently to low-level misdemeanors, such as drug, bus misconduct, park violations, etc.

If we put those in the hands of CBOs, we reduce the need for police

Jackie: What does it meant to scale up CBOs and have them respond to 911 calls?

Now speaking: Sherae Lascelles

Sharae is now talking about the Green Light Project. More info can be found here

pocswop.swopusa.org/greenlight-pro…

Sherae is talking about building up the necessary infrastructure by taking the existing data bout where calls are happening and communicate with the organizations based in those areas, build their resources, tools and capacity to respond.

Sherae: Issues stem from their needs not being met. We need to address these before they even escalate to the point where they become 911 calls.

@SheraeLascelles start with CBOs that have rapport and trust in their communities. Many of these exist already but they don't have the resources.

Jackie: We've been getting a lot of questions from CBOs about what this means as well.

Jerrell, representative of a CBO, is now speaking.

Jerrell: A lot of what we're doing is capacity-building. What does it mean to get an influx of $$? But we also need to talk about autonomy so we're not dependent on the non-profit industrial complex.

Jerrell: What happens when a CBO has a track record of trauma-centered response but not a specific capacity?

Jerrell: Sustainability and data support? Deliverables, outcomes, how do we measure success?

Jerrell: Police have not answered these questions of how to keep us safe. They have "community service officers," spending hundreds of thousands on them, but they do not have any tie to communities.

Jackie: How to integrate organizations that haven't existed in this formal non-profit structure? We need a paradigm shift to come up w/ our own metrics and standards. That will be part of the collaborative research process.

Aretha Basu to talk about Jump Start tax

Aretha: Immediate need to address getting ppl off streets during COVID-19 crisis, but then moving on to address the long-term crisis of homelessness.

Aretha: A set aside for capacity building for CBOs that served BIPOC housing needs.

Aretha: @CMTMosqueda has proposed bill aimed at addressing historical racial disparities in home ownership that prevent black Seattlites from building wealth.

Jackie: There's a synergy between a surge of money from defunding and new pot of money for housing from the Jump Start tax.

Jackie: Before we go to Q&A, should introduce tools for action and talk about next steps to follow up.

Turning over to Jerrell

Jerrell: First off fill out the @DecrimSeattle survey to give feedback. Will have more teach-ins. Located on the FB page

facebook.com/decrimseattle/

Save these upcoming dates:

Q&A beginning. 25 minutes remaining in the teach-in

Kaileah: Are we expecting any specific amendments to the 2020 rebalancing from City Council?

Jackie: Haven't heard any? CC is working off the community proposal, no objections so far. Will update if there are.

Q: How to scale up but what about affiliates that aren't even organizers? What about those who don't have time to organizers but hold that space? Also, language is an issue in some immigrant communities

Sherae: The way we do it in our own organization: If people have skills and things they want to do as individuals, we compensate them for that so that they can build those skills on their own.

Q: How can we create policies and procedures autonomously outside of the city govt process and non-profit industrial complex?

Sherae: Don't think having a 501c3 is what empowers you to serve your community. Give people the tools to address community needs w/o having to formally incorporate themselves into any org structure.

Jerrell: A lot of work has to be done simultaneously. Important question at every step of the process. Are we trying to systematize and institutionalize everything?

Becoming an org, being incorporated, doesn't have to be the only path.

Nyasha: About Seattle ISD. Lot of students come to school hungry and stay hungry. How can we hold schools accountable?

They talk a lot about equity but do very little to addressing material needs.

Jackie: We haven't started talking about schools but it's definitely something that needs to be addressed. The participatory budget will be more than just community safety alternatives. Expect proposals about what to do w/ large pot freed up by Defund to include schools, as well.

Serena: Do police get to decide who's going to get let go? How do we make sure SPD isn't picking who they want to protect?

Jackie: A lot of it has to do with the contracts, but we do have power to put pressure on the Council, which will negotiate to contract when it expires in December.

Q: How can we evaluate defund proposals and make sure they aren't just moving money around?

Jackie: We are really holding the line that this money needs to go to CBOs. The Part. Budget process is the key. It's not a one-time thing. Need to change how the city does business.

Clarify that guild contract negotiation starts in Dec 2020 and could go six months or so.

Last Q: How are reparations factoring in?

Jackie: Make sure communities that have been historically over-policed and experienced police violence get priority in the the research/participatory process and funding allotment.

@NikkitaOliver: partnership between @DecrimSeattle and @KCEquityNow is a recognition that Defund is part of a holistic strategy to address historical injustice and to make sure that there is an alignment w/ those broader goals.

Teach-in is over. Reminder to fill out the survey. Visit decriminalizeseattle.com