Safety comes from investments in housing & land ownership that builds wealth, opportunity, and economic security/stability.
Safety comes from investments in equitable education for our children & youth—in interventions that cultivate their brilliance & honor their identities.
The Seattle Police Department has failed to keep us safe. They have not, will not, and do not prevent violence from occurring in our communities.
We know this because we are not safe from violence today. Seattle's Black community faces tremendous violence and loss RIGHT NOW.
Police over-patrol our neighborhoods and respond to violence by using violence. They do not prevent it. Police create and exacerbate violence.
Now, Seattle City Council reps have the opportunity to be on the right side of history.
On Mon, Aug. 3rd Council will vote on our & @DecrimSeattle's proposal to reinvest 50% of SPD funds in solutions that will lift up our communities, honor those who have fallen & keep us safe.
Because of your voice, your marching, your calls, your actions, we are making progress! Together, we can win this historic vote to bring true safety and justice to our communities.
Now, we must not only keep up the momentum but accelerate it.
Indeed, the last few months of unrest have made abundantly clear that the pace & scale of change has long been inadequate to achieve equity for Black peoples – in Seattle-King County and beyond. It’s time for bold, sustained action by each of us and our elected representatives.
This is a movement, not a moment. And this vote is not the end. It’s just the beginnings—a small, long-overdue step towards true public safety for all of us.
Call, email, tag your Council Reps and urge them to reinvest in true public safety. #EquityNow
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2/ Despite the current Mayor's cultish refusal to cut from the police dept., her current budget plan slashes the $30M Equity Fund created last year to "combat displacement & advance community equity."
3/ The Equity Fund was funded by the City's massive $143.5M sale of the "Mercer Mega Block" in South Lake Union.
ATTN: Sign up to tell the Liquor & Cannabis Board that it’s time to #PayTheFee and release 20 cannabis retail licenses for Black ownership in Seattle now. Details in thread below.
In Seattle, & across Washington, Black people have been excluded from ownership in an industry that was built on their backs – cannabis.
Of the 48 cannabis retail stores in a rapidly gentrifying Seattle, ZERO are Black owned.
Those with money & power want to keep things exactly the way they are. They want the illusion of inclusion with wall murals & Black security personnel, but they have no interest in real equity.
Communities most affected by policing brainstorm new ideas on how best/equitably to spend some of our taxpayer dollars. City residents put forward project proposals & EVERYONE in Seattle votes on them. Winning proposals get funded!
/3 The task-force is hand-picked by a wealthy white mayor to represent the entirety of Black interests in Seattle, against our explicit overwhelmingly supported demands.
The "task force" is, as @WhyICHOOSE180 puts it, just a Bootleg Rolex:
"The role...was not to bake the cake [or] identify the ingredients the community would like to be included but to merely put the icing on so it would be palatable to my people."
2/ "FIRST, any investment that does not align with a corresponding divestment in policing does not actually create the change we need.
Imagine Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center funding both cancer research and the spread of the disease. Sounds ridiculous, right?" #Right
3/ "Yet @MayorJenny plans to spend $100 million to resource BIPOC communities while continuing to spend several times as much on [policing systems] the very thing that perpetuates inequity throughout BIPOC communities."
50 protestors who participated in BLM demonstrations—incl. family members of Summer Taylor—filed a major lawsuit against the City of Seattle & State of WA wrongful death, personal injuries, & civil rights violations by Seattle police.
"Protesters suffered...injuries from chemical agents, blast balls, flash bangs, batons, and rubber and plastic bullets. These weapons caused deep bruising and scarring, permanent hearing loss, bleeding, brain injuries and burns from chemical agents."
Police used "militarized tactics" against protesters during arrest and in custody, causing multiple neck, wrist, & "knee injuries, bone contusions, muscle injuries, damaged fingers, damaged hearing, bleeding in the ears, amputation of a thumb, and cardiac arrest."
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.
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.