What side of history do you want to be on?
Here's a draft message to King County Councilmembers. You can use it as-is or customize it if you want -- for example, by signing it with your name, mentioning the city where you live to make it clear you're a consituent, or adding your own perspectives. If you run into problems, see the troubleshooting section below.
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To: dow.constantine@kingcounty.gov, council@kingcounty.gov
Subject: It's time for King County to DEFUND the police and INVEST in healthy, sustainable, and equitable communities for all people
County Executive Constantine and Councilmembers Balducci, Dembowski, Dunn, Kohl-Welles, Lambert, McDermott, Upthegrove, Von Reichbauer and Zahilay,
With King County facing a major 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.
Instead of defunding education or scaling back on much-needed social services in a recession, as a King County resident I urge you to REDUCE our law enforcement budget *by 50%* to help cover the deficit.
This permanent reduction should lead to increased INVESTMENT in sustainable, equitable, community-based organizations to ensure that COVID-19 does not further exacerbate the racial resource/wealth gap.
Examples of investing in Black communities:
- Full access to affordable housing, community-based anti-violence programs, trauma services and treatment, universal childcare, and free public transit are just a few of the non-police solutions to social problems.
- Accept existing proposals from Black-led, community-based organizations to maximize underutilized public land
- Halt all predatory development in the Central Area and other historic areas of color.
- Establish a $1 billion anti-gentrification, land acquisition fund to help the Black community acquire property in the Central Area and support Black economic development.
- Culturally responsive, community-centric mental health and wellness services.
- Street outreach for social services, informed by de-escalation, to build not only community health but community trust.
- More housing with affordable rents to end the homelessness crisis, along with an end to encampment sweeps
In addition, King County must not prosecute protesters, including those arrested violating curfew, and those living in encampments.
More information is available at
- King County Equity Now Coalition: https://www.kingcountyequitynow.com/demands
- Decriminalize Seattle Coalition: https://tinyurl.com/defundSPD
- Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County: https://blacklivesseattle.org/our-demands/
Thank you for your attention to this important issue. I look forward to hearing more about how King County will respond to the demands from the community.
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