DefundSFPDnow Responds to Mayor’s Outrageous Budget Proposal
Mayor Breed Broke Her Promise to Transform Policing: A 2.6% Budget Adjustment is Not Enough, San Francisco Demands We Defund Policing Now
Mayor Breed promised to “fundamentally change the nature of policing in San Francisco.” The Mayor’s proposed budget fails to deliver on that promise. Instead of delivering real cuts and forcing structural change, the Mayor’s budget is an exercise in bookkeeping: it “eliminates” paper positions kept vacant for just such a purpose without reducing the size of our police forces by a single officer. It preserves the breathtaking scope of these forces. The Mayor sold the press a story that she was cutting $120 million from policing, but her budget proposal only cuts $18 million from SFPD and $11 million from the SF Sheriff’s Department. Her budget proposal actually INCREASES the SFPD budget the following year. San Franciscans took to the streets risking arrest and injury to demand structural change. The Mayor’s budget leaves the racist and violent structures of policing in place.
Departments across the city are facing drastic cuts due to the budget shortfall. Twenty-one agencies are facing deeper cuts than the SFPD; Public Works is facing a 31% cut and Muni is facing a 14% cut. Meanwhile the Mayor pairs a paltry 2.6% cut to SFPD this year with a budget INCREASE next year. City workers are being threatened with furloughs and layoffs while officers who murdered Mario Woods, Alex Nieto and Jessica Williams remain on the public payroll. The Mayor proposes to cut more money from the San Francisco Public Library, $19 million, than from SFPD. But it's SFPD, not the library, that has killed 14 of our neighbors in the last five years. This proposed budget does not demonstrate a commitment to justice. The Mayor is proposing to cut entire childcare programs, cut money to mental health and housing services, and cut other services that keep the city healthy and safe, all while preserving a system of policing that actively makes us less safe. This budget does not reflect San Francisco values.
San Francisco’s Black community deserves a $120 million investment, and much more, but Mayor Breed’s numbers don’t add up. We demand much bolder immediate action to defund, disarm, and disband SFPD, SF Sheriff’s Department and the entire prison industrial complex in San Francisco. San Franciscans made their voices heard this Summer: we demand the City make a commitment to pair sustained reinvestment in the Black community with a tear down of the systems that continue to oppress Black people.