in response to Minneapolis PD's public execution of George Floyd in Minneapolis, all across the world, cities full of grieving, enraged citizens have taken to the streets to demand #justiceforGeorge, as well as for Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and the countless other Black people who have been murdered by white supremacy in the United States of America — whether by police, vigilante or carceral violence.
day after day, night after night, Black people and allies nationwide have tirelessly protested, chanting "Black lives matter!" and have been met with tear gas, rubber and live bullets, pepper spray, horse trampling, vehicular hit-and-runs, baton beatings, vigilante violence and all forms of brutality from their local police, state police... and, in cities like Minneapolis and Los Angeles, the National Guard. Associated Press reports that over 10,000 Americans have been arrested for protesting since demonstrations began in Minneapolis. one of the main calls protesters are demanding across the United States is "defund the police."
what does defunding the LAPD mean?
addressing the mass protests and acts of civil disobedience throughout LA County, last week Mayor Garcetti announced he would consider cutting around $250 million from the LAPD budget, and invest the money instead into"jobs, education and healing." this is not only not enough, it's barely even a gesture in the right direction!
looking at the preliminary budget for FY 2020-2021,
Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti proposed:
$1.86 billion to the Police Department
compared to
$732 million proposed for the Fire Department,
$180 million for the Transportation Department,
and $81 million for the Housing & Community Investment Department.
Mayor Garcetti's 2020-2021 proposal provides the city a total of $10.5 billion.
this means that LAPD is set to receive 17% of the city's overall funding!
(it is worth noting that this is not the only source of funding for LA police.)
a more accurate total budget for LAPD is $3.14 billion...
that would make LAPD's budget closer to 30% of the city's total funding. according to journalist Jenna Chandler, that $3.14 billion "includes pensions, healthcare costs, and other expenses that are fixed... from their discretionary pool of money, they will allocate $1.86 billion to policing."
so, if Garcetti and the City of Los Angeles do cut $250 million from the LAPD, the police would still have access to
$1.6 billion of discretionary funding —
or $2.89 billion overall...
either way, it's a sum still SIGNIFICANTLY higher than all of LA's other departmental allowances.
LAPD's stance on budget cuts 🙄
Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michael Moore went on "AirTalk" radio show June 5, 2020 and denounced Mayor Garcetti's proposed police budget cuts. Chief Moore argued that too many jobs would be slashed, claiming the LAPD's budget is 96% personnel expenses.
according to the Office of the Chief of Police, LAPD "is an organization of approximately 14,000 women and men." the Office also claims that Moore "has over 10,354 sworn officers under his jurisdiction."
here's a question: where are the itemized spending lists for LAPD?
here's another question: how do LAPD's multi-million dollar contracts with private weapons manufacturers factor into the city's budget? like how about LAPD's 5-year, $31-million contract with Taser International, approved in 2015?
according to Kate Mather (LA Times), "documents presented to the Police Commission... showed that in all, the body camera program is projected to cost the city more than $57 million in the first five years." and, "in addition to the $31-million Taser contract, the LAPD said it would need nearly $26.5 million to cover other expenses incurred during the full deployment of the cameras."
we demand full budget transparency from LAPD and all police departments.
that is, in order to effectively defund, we need to know exactly how money is spent inside police departments, correctional facilities and all private companies contracted to help law enforcement surveil, police, and imprison American citizens.
about the proposed budget cuts to LAPD
on Wednesday June 5, 2020, Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez officially introduced a legal motion to cut LAPD funding.
cutting $150 million from LAPD will not significantly address anything — it certainly won't touch the racism that is so deeply rooted in the city's police department, established in 1869 to displace and murder Indigenous peoples, police Black folks, and immigrants.
so really, cutting $150 million from LAPD is a reformist strategy.
no, it isn't adding to the police budget like all the other reform efforts (body cameras, sensitivity training, non-lethal weapons training). and that's good, since implementing other reformist strategies has not decreased the rate of police violence and killings, nor are they actually addressing any of the embedded social biases in law enforcement culture.
but why is taking $150 million from LAPD and putting it into social programs for "minorities" not enough?
it's not enough because the people of Los Angeles deserve a minimum of $1.86 billion invested into these programs for "jobs, education and healing" that Mayor Garcetti was talking about. "minorities" have made LA the mecca for industry, celebrity, and wealth that it is. agribusiness, the entertainment industry, tech — none of these pillars of Southern California's economic power would be possible without "minorities": Black folks, Indigenous peoples, immigrant and undocumented families, women, blue-collar workers, and so on.
the people who have been disempowered, targeted, displaced, and mass incarcerated by Los Angeles deserve more!
LAPD losing $150 million is a joke. they could easily fundraise/make that back in donations... receiving support from any number of their powerful friends, like the Church of Scientology for instance, confirmed to have donated to LAPD since at least 1995.
$150 million in cuts is not enough.
the goal is ABOLITION.
that means ENTIRELY replacing the policing system that exists today. no more stop-and-frisk, no militarized police squads with everything from BEARCAT vehicles to non-lethal weapons that still kill citizens.
that means deconstructing the prison industrial complex and doing away with laws that criminalize poverty, Blackness, drug possession, homelessness, immigrants, disabled folks, and people working in the informal economy like day laborers, domestic and sex workers.
it means doing away with the school to prison pipeline that puts police "resource officers" on school campuses and targets Black, brown, immigrant, disabled, and poor children, unfairly punishing them to fill juvenile detention facilities.
it means addressing the root causes of crime like theft, domestic abuse, public intoxication. it means addressing poverty, homelessness, mental and physical health, and everything, with a preventative model, no more model where our government officials fail to treat symptoms of social inequality.
it means taking anti-blackness out of every aspect of society, from housing to healthcare to education and beyond.
it means eradicating the policing and judicial system that punishes American citizens for being survivors of the rampant wealth inequality that exists in our country.
anything less than that, could never be enough.
additional resources:
Ferguson, MO and Police Militarization: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) on YouTube
Police Accountability: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) on YouTube
Police: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) on YouTube on YouTube * mentions #defundthepolice
LAPD CAPTAIN CORY PALKA AND HOLLYWOOD WHITE SUPREMACISTS HAVE A GOOD LAUGH
In a Dramatic Reversal, the L.A. City Budget Will Contain No New Funds for Police
LAPD Research/Reports Page (WebArchive bc current site is down)
Two Black Activists Sniff at Proposed Reductions in LAPD Budget
How Much Do U.S. Cities Spend Every Year On Policing? [Infographic]
Freedom to Thrive: Reimagining Safety & Security in Our Communities
visit this Twitter thread for a look into the idea of "crime" from a person who went to law school