We need your solidarity again on Thursday 6/24 at 10:30am to tell the Oakland City Council to reject Libby’s pro-cop budget! Mayor Schaaf's proposed Oakland city budget for 2021-2023 ignores the demands of thousands of Oaklanders by increasing the police budget yet again — and doubling their overtime.
Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas released her budget proposal on Monday, June 14. We believe a much larger divestment from law enforcement is necessary, but it's promising to see that the Council President’s budget includes an investment in alternatives to policing, and a comprehensive audit of the Oakland Police Department — something we've been seeking for 6 years.
Libby Schaaf and her allies are fighting tooth and nail against the council president’s proposal in order to give MORE money to cops. We need to keep putting pressure on the City Council & continue to demand that they defund OPD and refund the people!
Please join us at the meeting and give public comment.
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Public comment will be taken at the beginning of the meeting, under Item 1. Here are suggested talking points:
REJECT CM TAYLOR'S AMENDMENT
The People of Oakland are in desperate need of investment in the wake of a pandemic that has left Oaklanders without homes or a source of income.
Oakland will receive funding from the American Rescue Plan Act in 2022 - funding that is supposed to provide much needed resources to Oaklanders to help keep them housed and connect them to income.
Instead, Councilmember Taylor’s amendment spends $4 million of this funding to train new cops by investing in a FIFTH police academy this legislative cycle.
We need to use COVID-19 relief dollars to give Oaklanders relief, not train new cops!!!
LIFT UP THE WORK OF OAKLAND RISING & URBAN PEACE MOVEMENT
We are calling on the council to lift up the data presented to the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force by Urban Peace Movement and Oakland Rising. These polls are important and reflect the views of many Black and Brown Oaklanders who aren’t present with us here today.
Urban Peace Movement engaged Black men from Oakland — nearly 75% of who were from East Oakland:
87% of participants said they feel less safe when they see OPD in their community.
Their top 4 ideas for increasing safety in Oakland were good-paying jobs, violence prevention programs, affordable & stable housing, and addressing the root causes of poverty and violence.
A large majority of the participants also said they prefer less police or non-police violence intervention over more police.
Oakland Rising conducted a poll of over 1100 Oaklanders, the majority of them from the flatlands, and the majority of them identifying as BIPOC:
65% of poll respondents wanted to defund OPD by 50% and use those funds to invest in community
78% of BIPOC respondents from the flatlands feel less safe when they see OPD, including 40% who feel very unsafe.
Respondents wanted more investment in housing, violence prevention, mental health, social programs, and less investment in the Oakland Police Department.
CANCEL THE PLAN FOR NEW OPD HEADQUARTERS
The mayor's budget includes a $500,000 study to plan for a new $500 MILLION DOLLAR new police headquarters.
It is offensive to the People of Oakland to even CONSIDER a new police headquarters at this time — thousands of people are sleeping on the streets, and thousands and thousands more are struggling to make ends meet.
It is not in the spirit of reimagining public safety to continue to sink hundreds of millions of dollars into policing at the same time we claim there is not enough money to house
We are calling on our councilmembers to CANCEL the $500k study and invest in structures that truly keep us safe!
REJECTING LIBBY'S BUDGET
By 2023, according to Libby’s plan, the police budget will swell to $351 million, an 11% increase from FY2020-21 — ten times more than the Department of Housing and Community Development will receive.
We wholeheartedly reject these five decisions: (1) the decision to increase the police budget (2) the decision to invest in cop academies (3) the decision to formalize and legitimize OPD’s overtime abuses (4) the decision to invest $19m on police buildings and (5) the decision to spend $500K to plan for a new $500 million dollar OPD headquarters.
The Reimagining Public Safety Task Force recommended that the City cap police overtime. Instead of addressing and reining in the overtime overspending and overtime policy abuses, the Mayor has chosen to DOUBLE the overtime budget. For FY2019-21, the City budgeted $31 million. In her proposed budget for FY2021-23, Schaaf is budgeting $61 million. That is nearly a ~100% rate of increase.
In the next two years, Schaaf wants 6 cop academies with 32 trainees per academy. That’s 192 potential new cops. The total cost for these academies is $22,884,728 — almost $4 million each. And according to the stats, the graduation rate for Oakland’s 172nd to 179th cop academies was 58.8%. What a waste of our mone
Nearly 50 community organizations representing thousands of Oaklanders — including Sunrise Bay Area, Jewish Voices for Peace Bay Area, East Oakland Collective, UniteHERE Local 2850, Young Women’s Freedom Center, and Mujeres Unidas y Activas —have joined the Defund Police Coalition in sending a letter to City Council rejecting any increase in police spending and calling on you to defund OPD by 50% and reinvest and reimagine our communities.
SUPPORTING THE COUNCIL PRESIDENT'S BUDGET
While we believe a much larger divestment from law enforcement is necessary, it's promising to see that the Council President’s budget amendments includes a comprehensive audit of the Oakland Police Department to see exactly where our money is being — and to thoroughly examine which positions could be civilianized, moved out of OPD, or a combination of the two.
The Council President’s budget amendments are a step in the right direction — and a marked departure from the mindless, unrestricted, and unaccountable police spending allowed by Mayor Schaaf year after year. But we need you to do more to refund, restore and reimagine public safety in Oakland. We’re counting on your leadership.
By removing at least two of the unprecedented four police academies Libby has proposed for this coming year, the Council President's Budget saves at least $8 million dollars that the city desperately needs to spend on vital services and investments in violence prevention to get us on the path to Reimagining Public Safety.
These millions are being used directly to fund gender-based violence prevention and survivor support services, violence interrupters, crossing guards, housing initiatives, waste disposal crews, crisis response through the MACRO program, and other Reimagining priorities listed in the Council President's Budget.
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