Mounting Pressure on Oakland City Council to Cut OPD Budget by $150 Million or Face Electoral Challenges in November
In Early Victory for Community, Police Commission Recommends Defunding OPD, Disbanding Internal Affairs, and Replacing Police with Civilian First-Responders
Oakland: Over the past two weeks, thousands of Oakland residents have marched in the streets and flooded City Hall with calls and emails demanding that City Council #DefundOPD by $150 million during the current mid-cycle budget review and invest in Oakland’s Black and Brown communities.
Along with a 50% cut to OPD’s budget this year, community leaders are calling for a transition plan over the next six to nine months to ensure sustainability heading into next year’s biennial budget process.
“The time has passed for vague promises or empty rhetoric, we want concrete actions now. Put the People’s Money where your mouths are, ” said Cat Brooks, co-founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project.
The groundswell of public support for defunding OPD has been impossible for City Council to ignore. On Thursday, hundreds of community members attended the Oakland Police Commission meeting, demanding that the City Council defund OPD dramatically and redirect those funds to healthcare, housing, and social services.
The community scored an initial victory when the Police Commission passed a motion formally advising the City Council to redistribute funds from OPD to communities of color, and to replace police with social workers and civilian first-responders in nonviolent, noncriminal deployments.
The Commission also formally recommended City Council dismantle the Internal Affairs division and reallocate those funds to the Citizen Police Review Agency (CPRA), Oakland's independent citizen oversight body that reports to the Police Commission. The Anti Police-Terror Project has been demanding for years that the CPRA receive at least 5% of the police budget.
“City Council is feeling the heat, and we are closer to victory than we’ve ever been. The People will continue to keep the pressure on,” said James Burch, Policy Director of the Anti Police-Terror Project.
Councilmember Nikki Fortunato Bas has introduced a proposal to reduce OPD’s budget by $25 million, which activists applauded as a good first step but insufficient. Other council members have acknowledged the need for steep cuts to OPD’s bloated budget but stopped short of firm commitments.
OPD sucks up almost half of Oakland’s general fund every year, crippling The Town’s ability to meet its residents’ most basic needs, like housing, healthcare, jobs, and youth programs. Politicians argue they cannot cut OPD until an alternative is set up but effective community-based programs cannot be set up without substantial funding.
The Interim Police Chief admitted at Thursday’s Police Commission meeting that close to half of 911 calls in Oakland are related to social services. Her statement suggests that much of the department’s current workload could be transferred to other departments with better outcomes for community safety — and fits with the community’s call to defund OPD by 50%.
Five years ago, the Defund OPD campaign was launched because the Black community had had enough death at the hands of OPD. Oakland doesn’t have time for City Council to roll out a long-term plan for cuts; Oakland needs relief from police terror now.
Led by the Anti Police-Terror Project, the Black Organizing Project, Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice, and Oakland Rising, a broad coalition of community organizations has put forward a detailed platform of demands to local elected officials.
The coalition’s demands to the Oakland City Council to #DefundOPD and reinvest in community include:
Defunding the Oakland Police Department by at least 50% this year, including a transition plan for the next 6-9 months
Investing the money from defunding OPD into passing the full Black New Deal
Stopping the use of violence of any kind against protestors
Removing California Highway Patrol from Oakland streets
Find detailed information on the demands to Oakland City Council here.
#DefundOPD #DefendBlackLives #DefundThePolice #FundBlackFutures
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