** important : include CC’ clerks@halifax.ca. They can distribute the letter to all the councillors and have it put on the official record! Drown them in paperwork! **

[Date]

[Councillor/Mayor]

I am writing to you today as a deeply concerned resident of [district]. The past week has again brought the issue of police brutality to the forefront of our collective experience. This is not a new issue. Decades of research has shown that police systematically target Black individuals at a disproportionate rate. This is evidenced in our prison populations, our court systems, and in multiple reports including the Halifax Street Check Report 2019.

The platitudes and empty words of concern demonstrated by politicians and policymakers are not enough. In fact, they are part of a cycle where the preventable tragedies are briefly acknowledged, and then business returns to usual until the next preventable death occurs.

This is not just an American problem. This is a Canadian problem. The recent killings of D’Andre Campbell, Andrew Loku, and Abdirahman Abdi make that clear. This is a Nova Scotian problem. This is a Halifax problem. Right now, there are confederate flags flying in Halifax. I highly recommend reading the Street Check Report if you haven’t already. Listen to the stories of the Black citizens of Halifax.

It is no longer enough to simply express regret. Our communities need, and deserve, tangible support, accountability, and safety.

One of the ways these objectives can be achieved is to reduce the budget allotted to policing and increase funding to social services in communities. Defunding police forces across Canada is a key solution to ending this institution’s harms.

Police forces need to be defunded because of the public money and resources they use to oppress, punish, and attack marginalized populations including: the homeless, LGBTQ+ people, sex workers, Black and Indigenous peoples, and immigrant and newcomers. Public money should not be used to terrorize the public. In HRM, 126.4 million dollars was spent on policing this past year (HRP and RCMP combined). 16.8% of the average taxpayer bill was spent on policing averaging $334 per home, in contrast to 5% of business tax bills averaging $100.

This money needs to be reallocated into Black communities, to support the homeless, and to develop services for women experiencing violence and to create sustainable employment for Black, racialized, poor, and Indigenous people. To create and sustain healthy living environments. To ensure Indigenous people have clean water. We do not need a police state. We need that money to create more sustainable, livable, safe communities.

A report by the Centre for Popular Democracy titled “Freedom to Thrive: Reimagining Safety and Security in Our Communities” found that safety for marginalized communities does not involve being surveilled and monitored by police institutions, but from having access to things like trauma counselling, food security, addiction support, stable housing and living wages. “These invest/divest campaigns, which advocate for investments in supportive services and divestment from punitive institutions, challenge the very roots of mass criminalization and inequity,” reads the report. “They demand elected officials and decision makers acknowledge that the lack of investment in communities of colour and the over-investment in their criminalization is emblematic of governmental disregard for Black and brown life.”

I am calling on you, my elected representative, to advocate for the needs of the marginalized communities in your district, in your city, province and nation. We stand at a pivotal point in history where we have an opportunity to take action to create vibrant communities with positive alternatives to policing. Defunding policing institutions and reallocating taxpayer funds into services that support safe, sustainable communities is a good place to start. If you want to support and stand (or kneel) in solidarity and support society’s push towards justice, prosperity, and peace, then our collective energies must do the work associated with those goals. As author, journalist and activist Desmond Cole said, we must be brave enough to demand it. I hope that you will be brave enough to demand it [councillor/mayor].

In solidarity for racial equity,

Resources for further reading

Freedom to Thrive: Reimagining Safety and Security in Our Communities https://populardemocracy.org/news/publications/freedom-thrive-reimagining-safety-security-our- communities

Halifax Street Check Report https://humanrights.novascotia.ca/sites/default/files/editor-uploads/ halifax_street_checks_report_march_2019_0.pdf

Maynard, R. It’s long-past time to talk about policing of Black women in Canada. Toronto Star. Published May 29, 2020. Online.

Jane Finch Action Against Poverty. JFAAP Statement re: The police raid in our community. Published online, May 29, 2020.

Maynard, R. (2017). Policing Black lives: State violence in Canada from slavery to the present. Fernwood Publishing.

Cole, D. (2020). The Skin We're In: A Year of Black Resistance and Power. Penguin Random House Canada.

Walcott, R and Abdillahi, I. (2019). BlackLife. ARP Books.

“Desmond Cole: 'Disarm and defund police' and give money to communities”. CBC News. Accessible on YouTube. Posted June, 1, 2020.