DECRIMINALIZE SEATTLE AND KING COUNTY EQUITY NOW STATEMENT RE: MAYOR'S VETO OF CRITICAL INITIAL INVESTMENTS TOWARDS TRUE PUBLIC SAFETY FOR ALL COMMUNITIES

August 21, 2020 |  Seattle, WA —  Today, Mayor Jenny Durkan announced that she will veto budget proposals recently passed by the Seattle City Council to begin divesting from the police department and investing in communities.

We are deeply disappointed and concerned with Mayor Durkan’s rash and ill-considered veto of Black lives and against necessary investments towards true community health and safety for all Seattle residents.

With their votes on the 2020 budget rebalancing, City Council put forth modest changes to the police budget in response to the uprising in defense of Black lives and the economic shortfall created by COVID-19. While publicly touting support and care for Black people, the Mayor vetoed and blocked a Black-led community response plan to gun violence—while providing no immediate alternative or justification.  

Meaningful, racially equitable change is under way despite Mayor Durkan’s attempt to stall it. In collaboration with many stakeholders, City Council passed a series of budget bills that include—among other things—allocating resources to scale up long-standing, community-led violence intervention programs that prevent harm, not merely respond to it. Accountable, Black-led organizations like Community Passageways, Creative Justice, Choose 180, and others currently carry the tremendous burden of serving Seattle-King County’s BIPOC communities. Despite being inadequately funded to meet our community’s substantial needs, such organizations enjoy incredibly successful prevention rates.

Our community has recently lost nearly thirty people to police and gun violence. Against this harrowing and unacceptable backdrop, City Council’s budget votes were a starting point towards generating true public safety. The bills passed reflect the first steps toward changes necessary to help save, honor, and protect Black lives.

The City’s failure to adequately fund community-led and community-driven public safety programs is literally a life or death issue for Black people and communities. Faced with this sobering reality, Mayor Durkan highlighted the “recent increase in gun violence” while vetoing the exact investment needed to prevent it—all in the same breath.

In fact, $4 million that the Mayor vetoed would go directly to Black-led organizations leading effective community responses to gun violence—i.e., the very same organizations that the Mayor frequently touts as valuable partners.

The Mayor also vetoed $3 million approved by Council towards a community-led research program to conduct a rigorous analysis of what creates true public safety for all of Seattle’s residents. More specifically, this investment would fund an equity-centered research program to source ideas, data, and policies directly from the communities most affected by police brutality, policing harms, and gun violence. In vetoing this program without explanation, the Mayor contradicted her calls for diligence and thoughtful measures to inform future policy decisions.  

We are gravely concerned with Mayor Durkan’s decision to halt this prudent and necessary research program designed to create and implement new public safety solutions.

Notably, despite public calls for “collaboration” and meaningful “engagement,” Mayor Durkan has shown nothing of the sort. Seattle’s BIPOC communities have offered Mayor Durkan ample opportunities to learn, discuss, engage, and lead the City towards a new normal rooted in equity. However, Mayor Durkan actively avoided meeting with both of our coalitions—though over 420 Seattle organizations and over 45,000 people have signed on to our solutions. Today,  Mayor Durkan not only ignored these overwhelmingly-supported budget changes, but outright blocked them.

Without as much as a phone call or an email to try and understand these safety proposals or fill in the gaps in her woefully inadequate racial equity lens, Mayor Durkan chose to veto critical budget items without any real consideration for Black lives.

Equitable progress is under way. We've experienced far too many decades of failed promises and policies that perpetuate racist outcomes. We encourage the Mayor to join other City leaders in supporting the ongoing overwhelmingly-supported process to divest from policing and invest in true community safety.