We have heard loud & clear, for years, that Seattle residents don't feel safe in their own city. Today, I'm going to use my privilege to change this. As budget chair, I am announcing I will be launching an inquest into SPD's budget.
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I will not pass the Mayor's 2020 revised budget until we get through a simultaneous transparent deep dive into SPD's funding. I expect the full cooperation of city departments, who often can only share what the Executive allows them to share.
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I'm committed to defunding the police & using most of that money to invest back into communities we've failed—creating anti-racist, low barrier housing, equitable transit, permanent supportive housing, housing options for survivors of violence and more.
I'm committed to conducting this inquest in SPD's budget by July 17th of this year and to working with Seattle residents to ensuring the 2021-2022 budget truly reflects our city needs.
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I also call on my Council colleagues to launch a simultaneous transparent deep dive into SPD policies and procedures, conducted through June with policy change in July.
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I call on the Mayor abd SPD to immediately cease use of weapons against our residents or anyone who chooses to protest peacefully in this city.
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If this seems drastic to you—let me tell you why it's needed. Our police department is using weapons of war on our residents. And all of this has been sanctioned by our Executive. Just one day after we commit to not tear gassing protesters, we pepper spray them.
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Across the country, people are looking for change. And here in Seattle, with the opportunity for true progressive leadership, we have headed in the opposite direction.
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Instead of working on the systems that create inequities - including municipal government - we instead turn our backs on our own residents. The responsibility of being an elected official is protecting our residents, not tear gassing them, not pepper spraying them.
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I was out in Capitol Hill on Saturday with CMs Herbold and Strauss and a number of other elected officials. I left my infant at night because as a human being, as an elected called on to serve my community, I knew I needed to exercise my privilege.
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I heard from folks out that night that they were happy we were there because it stopped the situation from escalating. Why is it that a city councilmember needs to be at a protest so that their elected government doesn't hurt them?
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We can't wait for others to lead. When tax payers have their taxes used against them in fits of violence, when residents are told they can't be on streets they voted for and paid for, we are disconnected from Seattle.
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There's a vacuum in true leadership - in doing hard things - I call on my Council colleagues to fill that void. Let's be the leaders this moment calls for.
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But as Black- & community of color-led organizations and leaders have said to me throughout the last 24 hours, a change in office without radical change in the institution that is policing is not transformational. That’s what I’m going to be focusing on over the next six weeks.
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What Minneapolis has done is transformational.
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The demands made by the community have gone unmet--& I’m talking simple short term demands in addition to the longer-term changes. The common sense, short-term request to deescalate over the last week has only been met with greater escalation night after night. Promises broken.
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It is *common sense* not to use respiratory irritants on the general population during a global deadly pandemic. The short-term demands that were listed last Weds include: no teargas no pepper spray no flash bangs no rubber bullets no arrests of people during the time of COVID!
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And for goodness sake’s, no hunting down people days afterwards, dragging residents out of their cars in front of their child for participating in a protest.
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The longer-term demands—that again come directly from black-led Community organizations—call for: Defunding the Seattle police, reinvesting in health and safety of our communities, and not prosecuting the protesters.
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The demands say “to stop police violence, the police must be reduced in size, budget & scope. The police are rooted in violence against Black people. In order to protect Black lives, this movement calls for investing in & expanding our safety net & well-being beyond policing.“
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We sent the Mayor a letter signed by nearly every person who governs in this area—telling her to deesclate. And SPD gassed people last night. How many more people need to write in about the tear gas in their houses? How many more people have to be sprayed in the street?
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How many people have to call for the police to be defunded before the Mayor embraces radical change? The problem is–the weapons aren’t illegal, the tactics aren’t illegal, the riot gear isn’t illegal. We have allowed them, we have funded them, and that is why WE need to change.
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So we cannot wait. We're going to take bold action now-rooted in community of color demands and Black-led organizations, we will follow their directive to reinvest in the health and stability of residents and changes to material conditions in our city.
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Seattle: If you watched babies being separated from their parents at the border and were thankful that we were in "progressive Seattle"... if you wept at deportation hearings for children—this is your moment.
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In our own city in the youth jail, children being held in cages. Now, babies being tear gassed, parents pouring milk into their children's eyes for the violation of exercising their right to call for change. We heard reports of a 3- month old baby's mouth foaming from the gas.
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It's time for all of us to step outside our comfort zone. It's time for us to take our cues from Black-led organizations who've been calling for years—decades—for this change.
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