Tell your elected officials: DEFUND the police and INVEST in healthy, sustainable, and equitable communities for all people
“If you live in this system of white supremacy, you are either fighting the system or you are complicit. There is no neutrality to be had towards systems of injustice, it is not something you can just opt out of.”
— Ijeoma Oluo, in So You Want to Talk About Race
What side of history do you want to be on? If you’ve ever wondered what you would have done during the civil rights struggles in the US in the 60s — or in Nazi Germany in the 30s — look at your actions in today’s world. There is no neutrality. What do you want your legacy to be?
“This uprising against excessive, brutal, and militarized policing has called for decision makers in city, state, and federal government to defund the police after decades of inaction and failed reforms, consent decrees, investigations, and oversight.”
— Movement for Black Lives’ Defund the Police page.
Between community pressure from the uprising and budget shortfalls due to the Covid-19 crisis, we have a unique opportunity to reallocate resources. We can cut the spending of police forces that consume ever larger shares of city budgets — and reinvest the billions in savings in a shared vision of community safety, infrastructure, and recovery that does not rely on the police.
To understand why the approach of reallocating resources is so important to community health, have a look at Decriminalize Seattle’s Why Divest page, Amna A. Akbar’s How Defund and Disband Became the Demands, and Rinku Sen’s Why #DefundthePolice is Genius Strategy. Defund Seattle’s Defund SPD Teach In is a detailed look at one approach to 50% defunding, starting with civilianizing 911, and scaling up community-based organizations.
So it’s time to roll up our sleeves and get to work. Contact your local elected officials, and tell them to DEFUND the police and INVEST in healthy, sustainable, and equitable communities for all people.
Here’s three ways to get started.
- Contact your county commission and county executive. Law enforcement expenses are a very significant part of most counties’ budget. If you’re in Washington State, here’s a web page Indivisible Plus Washington has set up that makes it easy to email your county commissioners. You can use it as a starting point and then customize it; or if you prefer, use it as a script for a phone call. Or, visit your county’s website to get their contact info.
- If you live in a city, contact your city council and mayor as well. Law enforcement expenses are a very significant part of most cities’ budget. Indivisible has a page that connects you by phone to your local city councilmember; or check their website.
- Sign on to petitions and open letters from local community organizations, both individually and as a part of any organizations you belong to. Petitions can have a much bigger impact at the local level than nationally — the 300+ organizations and 43,000+ individuals who signed on to King County Equity Now and Decriminalize Seattle’s demands helped demonstrate the breadth of support for their approach.
What message to send
“We need to see a shift from massive spending on police that don’t keep us safe to a massive investment in a shared vision of community safety that actually works.”
— Movement for Black Lives’ Defund the Police page.
When you’re contacting your electeds, you want to make sure they hear the two-sided message: DEFUND the police, INVEST in healthy, sustainable, and equitable communities for all people. Cities and counties across the country are looking at their budgets as a result of Covid-19. Whose budget will get cut, law enforcement’s or social services? Law enforcement is such a large chunk of the overall budget that in many places a significant cut will free up enough money to be able to increase other spending.
Movement for Black Lives’ Defund the Police page has some great resources for messaging, including talking points targeted at city and state policymakers. Here’s one that should resonate in any city or county that’s facing a budget shortfall due to Covid-19.
“We have a unique opportunity to cut our spending on police forces that consume ever larger shares of our budget, and reinvest in a shared vision of community safety, infrastructure, and recovery that does not rely on the police.”
It’s also good to give specific examples of ways to defund the place or opportunities to invest if you know of some that have community support. One good approach here is to look to see what local Black-led and Indigenous-led community groups are asking for and amplifying their demands. Seattle is a great example of this: the detailed roadmap set out by Decriminalize Seattle and King County Equity Now is persuasive enough that a majority of City Council members now support cutting the police budget by 50%.
If you don’t know of any specific demands from local Black- and Indigenous-led groups, one thing to do is highlight programs that have been shown to work elsewhere. A good example from Oregon: Eugene’s CAHOOTS program, a collaboration between local police and the White Bird Clinic where social workers respond (instead of police) to many calls. In most cities and counties, responding to mental health issues requires a lot of police resources. Could a similar program work in your city or county?
Inaction is a choice
If you believe in freedom, you know now is the time for action.
Contacted your elected officials by phone or email is only the first step. Making a public comment at a city council or county commission meeting or committee hearing is a very powerful way to make your voice heard. These days, many sessions allow phone or online access; you usually need to sign up in advance, and typically get a minute or two to speak. Many people find it helpful to write down what you’re thinking of saying, and run it through in advance.
And there are lots of other valuable was to take action as well. A few examples: donating your time or money to Black-led organizations, helping change friends’ or relatives’ opinions about defunding the police, going to protests, helping to get the word out. If you haven’t been doing these things yet, now’s a good time to start.
Image credits:
- Defund the police and invest in our community: original photo by Alex Milan Tracy/Sipa USA) at the “Defund the Portland Police Bureau” rally in in Portland, Ore., on June 10, 2020, originally from Defunding the police means replacing social control with social investment in the Baltimore Sun
