Issue 10: Speak Truth to Power
Our mission is to support each other and collaborate towards the abolition of policing and incarceration in our community. Read our organizing principles here. We publish every two weeks, on Tuesday mornings. Submissions welcome.
Guide to Today’s City Council Meeting
City Council could vote on two bills today that impact SPD funding and participatory budgeting. If you are able, please provide public comment at the meeting. Here is a step-by-step guide:
Noon: Register to speak
Even if you haven’t yet figured out what you will say, it is useful to register promptly at noon. City Council is only required to allow 20 minutes of public comment, and they go in order of sign-ups.
1:45 pm: Get ready and call in
The phone number, meeting ID, and passcode will have been emailed to you when you registered, along with your estimated speaker number.
2:00 pm: Listen to others, then say your piece
Suggested script:
Hello my name is _____. Council could vote today on two bills that will affect my safety here in Seattle.
I support CB 120087, which releases $1M of funding for community-led Participatory Budgeting.
I reject CB 119981, which has been changed from its original form to release 10.9 million additional dollars to the Seattle Police Department this year. It takes 8.4 million of those dollars directly from what was promised to community via PB. The original intent of the bill was to hold SPD financially accountable for their violent excess overtime expenditures in 2020. If council passes this bill, you will instead be rewarding SPD for their behavior, which would sabotage any hope of accountability going forward.
Add your own testimony or read one from this ACLU lawsuit: http://www.spdviolence2020.com/incidents. If you know which incident you are going to quote from, put your name down in this spreadsheet.
Depending on how many people are signed up, you may have only 1 minute to speak.
Can’t do public comment? Email!
Public comment is preferred because it becomes part of the public record. But if you are not able to participate in that way, emails and phone calls are also effective. (Do it all!) Suggested content is provided here:
Alt text: On a white background, a graph comparing the money that City Council pledged towards Participatory Budgeting vs. SPD. The X axis indicates time from December 2020 to May 2021. The Y axis indicates dollars in millions, from ($5.4M) and increasing to over $5M in May 2021. A grey text box reads: “12/4/20: CB 119981 was introduced to defund the Seattle Police Department (SPD) by $5.4M and fund community-led participatory budgeting (PB). This action was intended to compensate for SPD’s over-budget, violent overtime spending in 2020. PB was already slated to receive $5M of SPD’s anticipated 2021 salary savings thanks to November’s Council Budget Action SPD-011-B-002.”A second grey text box reads: “3/23/21: CM Herbold amended CB119981 to provide $3.4M more for police use. The amendment also changes CBA SPD-011-B-002 to allow SPD to retain $5M of salary savings instead of providing it to community.” A third grey text box reads: “5/11/21: Another amendment allows SPD to retain an additional $2.5M of salary savings.”
PB Moves Forward
On Tuesday, May 18, at CM Morales’ Community Economic Development Committee meeting, there was an abundance of community support for PB.
Watch the whole recording on the Seattle channel or on this youtube link.
CM Morales introduces the two speakers at 1:31.
Brooklyn Councilmember Carlos Menchaca has been doing participatory budgeting for 7 years in NYC Council District 38. He speaks at 1:33.
Sean Goode is the executive director of Choose 180, which empowers young people to make positive changes in their lives. He speaks in support of community-led, equity-focused PB in Seattle at 1:40.
CM Morales’ Summary comments start at 1:39, and are followed by a Q+A.
Opportunities for Solidarity
Housing Our Neighbors
Housing our Neighbors, a coalition of folks with lived experience of homelessness and advocates, are opposing the Compassion Seattle charter amendment. The charter amendment is problematic for many reasons. It does not add new money for housing and instead requires the City to shift funds from other areas (which we know won't come from the police) and could write encampment sweeps into the city charter. Further, people with lived experience of homelessness were not involved or consulted on the creation of the charter amendment and we know those closest to the problem are closest to the solution. If you have a group that would like to endorse their efforts to defeat the charter amendment, you can do so here. They are also looking for volunteers to help with various tasks.
You can read more on the charter amendment here, here and here.
Black Brilliance Research
BBR has launched a new website and Twitter account, @BBR_Seattle. Give them a follow and promote! If you have capacity, contribute to their crowdfunding campaign for future brilliance.
No New Washington Prisons (NNWP) teach-in
This teach-in (which was recorded) featured panelists Laura Van Tosh, Cindi Fisher, Robert Wardell, and Dorian Taylor. Their conversation focused on ways to increase options to support people with behavioral health issues and ending coercive institutionalization.
Dorian Taylor: “Everything starts with the self. And empathy is the first thing. Extend empathy and start paying attention. It’s easy for people to ignore things that scare them and not be empathetic enough to help.”
“The money’s there and we have the tools. It’s just the funding that isn’t being given to us.”
Cindi Fisher: “If you’re in an organization whose mission is to do good, and you look around--if there are not people there who are from the marginalized communities, then that’s the work. You have to build relationships. If you say you’re open to those relationships but you don’t have any, then you have to call in workshops to figure out where your blind spots are. So that you can have a relationship with people and bring them to the table. Otherwise you won’t be able to generate systemic change.”
Check out Cindi’s website regroundinglove.com and support her go fund me.
Plug in with NNWP here: Ways to Plug In. And get a copy of their zine, “To me, Abolition is…”.
NTK4Justice
Nicole Thomas-Kennedy, an abolitionist, is running for city attorney. She is running on a platform of decriminalizing poverty, taxing the rich, abolishing I-200, and defunding the police. Her campaign needs 400 donations of $10 or more to qualify or democracy vouchers. Donate and support the campaign!
“Incarceration does not make us safer. Punishment is not justice. The system isn’t working. Abolition is the only way forward. Ending the prosecution of misdemeanors is a solid first step, and new leadership at the City Attorney is how we take that first step.” ntk4justice.com
Education
Our next book club will be held on June 16th from 6:30-7:30pm and we will be discussing the first 66 pages of adrienne maree brown's book, Emergent Strategy. Contact renee.lamberjack@gmail.com for zoom details if you’d like to join.
This collection of articles provides reflections on the past year by some amazing organizers and writers.
Travonna Thompson-Wiley of Black Action Coalition is featured in the New York Times: Americans Gathered to Mark Anniversary of George Floyd’s Death.
Monica Trinidad • monicatrinidad.com • IG: @itsmonicatrinidad
Alt text: A light blue background with branches and white petals falling. In the forefront, a Black hand holds a book with pink pages with the following quote written in black letters: "No change for the good ever happens without it being imagined first, even if that change seems hopeless or impossible in the present." -Martin Espada
Collaborator highlights
BJ and Becca did some excellent work researching more ways to get cops out of our community.
A protestor’s description of an Indigenous-led march on May 29, 2021, Occidental Square:
“SPD officers were out in force, even as we were just gathering. Their numbers were about the same as ours from what I could tell. At times they flanked us on three sides (bikes on both sidewalks next to us and behind). Then they made a few violent arrests because we were walking the wrong way on a one-way street. People among us who had children took them home. For the remainder of the march, SPD followed us and drowned us out with their megaphone, saying that they were given no choice but to intervene because of the "criminal activity" happening. From my perspective, the SPD is this city's biggest threat to public safety and threat to our first amendment rights.”
Like this newsletter and want to get more involved? Join our google group! There tend to be just a few messages each week. You can find more ways to connect with people and get support for your own abolitionist ideas. Just look over our organizing principles here and click through to the “request to join” link.