Thread by @CDRosa

Chicago Police Superintendent Brown is before the City Council Budget Committee today to testify on CPD's 2021 budget. Under Mayor Lightfoot's #Chi2021budget proposal, CPD takes a greater percentage of the corporate fund, increasing from 37% in 2020 to 39% in 2021. #DefundCPD

From 2014 (the year Laquan McDonald was killed) to 2019, CPD's budget increased by $300 million. During that same time period, mental health services only saw a $3 million increase. #DefundCPD

From 2010 to 2017, Chicago borrowed $709.3 million to cover police misconduct settlements, $1 billion in interest to investors, costing Chicagoans a total of $1.71 billion. #DefundCPD

A 2016 investigation found that Black and Latinx drivers were searched approximately 4x as often as white drivers, despite the police department's own data showing that contraband was found on white drivers twice as often as Black and Latinx drivers. #DefundCPD

Racist policing has taken a major toll on Chicagoans. And study after study shows that investing in jobs, education, housing, youth programs, and mental health and social services are far more successful in reducing crime than police or prisons. #DefundCPD

That's why I stand with the 87% of Chicagoans - 32,000 people - who responded to Mayor Lightfoot's 2021 budget survey and said Chicago should balance it's 2021 budget by reallocating money from policing. #DefundCPD

At today's #Chi2021Budget hearing, I asked Superintendent Brown targeted questions about the ways in which we can #DefundCPD in the 2021 budget, including questions on overtime, police misconduct, and military grade equipment.

Racist policing is destroying our budget, harming our communities, and most importantly - is not making us safer. Chicago needs a true public safety policy, rooted in research - not racism. #DefundCPD

Mayor Lightfoot's #Chi2021budget proposal fails to follow the research on proven public safety strategies, and fails to respond to the desire of a super-majority of Chicagoans who want balance the budget by reallocating funds away from racist policing. #DefundCPD

Chicagoans can have thriving and safe neighborhoods in every part of our city if we follow the science and invest less in policing and more in proven strategies and programs that uplift our communities and make them safe. #DefundCPD