1/10 Here's what I took away from the incredibly informative #DefundSPD Teach In hosted by @DecrimSeattle earlier today (a thread).

2/10 Important dates for 2020 budget:
Week of 7/20 the City Council will introduce amendments
Week of 8/3 the City Council will vote

We have 3 weeks to email, call, tweet our council members to ensure they uphold support and vote to #DefundSPD by 50% @CMTammyMorales

3/10 Contrary to what @MayorJenny and @carmenbest want you to believe, the proposal isn’t calling for an immediate 50% cut of the entire SPD budget. If passed in August, the reduction for SPD's 2020 budget will be 50% of whatever’s left from then until December 31.

4/10 Furthermore, the 50% won’t be an immediate, one-time reduction. They will scale down month-over-month by about 12% to get to the 50% reduction total. Scaling down the police funding will allow them to scale up the community services in tandem.

5/10 The 4-point proposal put forth by @DecrimSeattle and @KCEquityNow is calling for immediate investments into: civilianizing the 911 system, scaling up community-based organizations, housing, and a youth-led research process for creating a roadmap to community safety.

6/10 The most common 911 calls are related to traffic, suspicious circumstances (person, car, etc.) and premise checks.

7/10 40% of the non-traffic related 911 calls are things that do not require an armed response and the community should be responsible for– things like wellness checks, people/behavioral distress, houseless community checks, noise disturbances, and requests for witnesses.

8/10 Important dates for 2021 budget:
Mid-September Mayor releases budget plan

End of November budget for 2021 passed, including amount given to community for participatory budgeting

Start of 2021 participatory budgeting begins

9/10 From there, the community will design the process > brainstorm ideas > develop proposals > vote on proposals > and then fund the winning projects.

10/10 Favorite soundbites:
"Our budget is a moral statement." @NikkitaOliver
"Those closest to the issues are closest to the solutions." @DecrimSeattle