Police violence is a systemic problem — solving it will require us to transform how we approach public safety. That’s why Seattle Indivisible supports Black Lives Matter in their call to Defund the Police, and why yesterday we sent a letter to Mayor Durkan and the City Council in response to the Mayor’s proposed 5% cut to SPD. This business-as-usual proposal is thoroughly tone deaf in the midst of a national movement against racially motivated police violence, and is hardly a good-faith offer when Black Lives Matter and other Seattle-area activists are calling for 25-50% cuts to SPD’s budget.
Read the letter here: https://www.seattleindivisible.com/daily-actions/2020/6/24/mayor-durkans-proposed-spd-budget-does-not-reflect-needed-change
Yesterday we asked you to contact Mayor Durkan – today we ask you to keep the pressure on by repeating that contact through a different medium (phone,email, or Twitter), and to contact your city council members as well to tell them that a 5% cut to SPD won’t cut it.
ACTION 1: Tell City Council – 5% Won’t Cut It. Defund the Police!
Mayor Durkan
Phone: 206-684-4000
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @MayorJenny
City Council
Use the link below to find your city council members by entering your address. Once you do so you will be able to email all three at once by clicking the link provided, or call each individually: https://www.seattle.gov/council/meet-the-council/find-your-district-and-councilmembers
Script:
“Hi, my name is [NAME] and I live in [neighborhood]. I’m [calling/emailing] to say that Mayor Durkan’s proposed 5% cut to the SPD budget is tone deaf and dismissive of the systemic problem of racially motivated police violence that plagues Seattle. I demand a 25-50% cut to the SPD budget, and a reinvestment of at least half that money into black and minority communities. Rescind the 5% offer and bring about real change in Seattle by defunding the police and rethinking our approach to public safety.”
ACTION 2: Sign up for our July 1 monthly meeting (Topic: Defund the Police)
At our monthly meeting on July 1, we are continuing our discussion of racial equity and police accountability by taking a deep dive into defunding the police with featured speaker, former NFL player and current political consultant Riall Johnson.
Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1141010939588843/
SI Website Event: https://www.seattleindivisible.com/events-calendar/2020/7/1/seattle-indivisible-monthly-meeting
SIGNUP HERE: https://bit.ly/3hLqOBc
Background:
https://blacklivesseattle.org/our-demands/
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/04/the-myth-of-police-reform/390057/
