ICYMI: Takeaways from the 7/15 @DecrimSeattle & @KCEquityNow budget meeting with @SeattleCouncil (a thread)
For the full detail, check out the 13-page blueprint here: documentcloud.org/documents/6989… #DefundSPD
For the full detail, check out the 13-page blueprint here: documentcloud.org/documents/6989… #DefundSPD
"This is about broadening the number of tools that we offer to community and investing upstream…to protect our community as well as investing in their health.” @CMTMosqueda
Calling for cuts to the 2020 SPD budget beyond the $20M already identified. 50% cut will be taken from the remaining Summer/Fall SPD budget and will be phased in over time. Redistributing 2020 budget now will empower the community to fully re-envision 2021 budget.
“Black and brown communities for years have been holding down the analysis, the research, the skills, and the lived experience to know that policing and imprisonment fail us.” Angélica Cházaro, @DecrimSeattle
Point #1: Invest in community-led research process to generate true public safety informed by community needs
Adequately funding research is critical to this process and we need to quickly scale our research infrastructure to serve the community– including staffing, training, admin/tech support, COVID-related precautions, community support, and data analysis and reporting.
Research processes have to be community-designed and controlled to establish and maintain trust as the city has a long track record of supporting harmful policies and collecting data/recommendations without following through or compensating the community for their participation.
“Without community voice and leadership, any proposed solutions are likely to be short-sighted, incomplete, and actively harmful.” Shaun Glaze, @KCEquityNow
Point #2: Invest in scaling up community-led organizations with technical support and capacity building to increase public safety
“Community-led and community-based safety initiatives ensure that people’s struggles are not criminalized.” @NikkitaOliver
The city can start immediately moving in the direction of scaling up by investing 2020 dollars defunded from SPD in groups that are already implementing and developing community-led alternatives to policing and criminalization.
We need to ensure that the grant criteria and budgeting processes do not create unnecessary roadblocks for the organizations to do their work and scale their expertise. Like the SPD, they should have access to their budget up front to build their capacity.
“We want it to be acknowledged that we know we would like a quick transition into community-led, community-based public safety. However, community organizations should not in one funding cycle be expected to end all violence in Seattle.” @NikkitaOliver
Point #3: Replace current 911 operations with civilian-led dispatch to increase public safety
Combining civilian control with investments in scaling up community-led services and housing will ensure the crisis teams responding to calls can actually give the community appropriate referrals and solutions in the moment.
Furthermore, the city needs to work to decriminalize the subjective and biased misdemeanor charges that criminalize poverty and disproportionately harm BIPOC communities.
Point #4: Support immediate survival needs by investing in housing
It's critical that we shift the public safety debate back to the necessary investments that will have the most impact for our communities – and that’s housing.
While this rebalancing process won’t resolve all housing related goals, there are some immediate steps that we can take to address these critical needs– such as ending sweeps and transferring underutilized public land to BIPOC-led organizations that provide housing services.
"Regardless of sensationalist media narratives, Seattle doesn't face a crisis of rising crime rates. It faces a housing crisis. Housing is an essential human need and this city has failed to provide all its residents with access to this basic human need.” Isaac Joy, @KCEquityNow
If you tuned in to the discussion, let us know which parts resonated with you. #DefundSPD #PayTheFee #FreeTheLand #EquityNow
