Cville City Council listening session on policing is about to start. Chief Brackney will be there, but the CRB members won't for some reason

Molly's thread is here: https://twitter.com/socialistdogmom/status/1290736129617076225?s=19

Vice Mayor Magill asks all the councilors what they'll to do if one of them looses power. They say they want the meeting to continue if one drops. If two drop, they'll no longer have a quorum, and will adjourn. Snook says he doesn't think it'll rain. Magill says it's raining now

Out of 127 people watching on Zoom, 18 express a desire to speak. Magill says they'll do the standard 3 minute limit on speaking, so that city staff doesn't have to work two late nights in a row

City Manager Dr. Richardson says the city has received many emails on the subject of policing since George Floyd's "untimely death"

He says the purpose of tonight is to answer the question: "defunding the police; what does that mean to you [the public]?"

He also wants to improve the relationship between the public and the city government

Public comment is starting now. John Faults is up first. They say they've been robbed, and are questioning whether the police should be defunded. They also suggest having Region Ten handle domestic violence cases

They're now talking about unruly students forcing teachers to quit

Re: policing changes: "The situation now, everyone can live with. Are you sure if you make any changes, that everyone can tolerate it?"

(I don't think everyone can live with the situation now. That's kinda the point of this movement)

. @DonGathers1 is up now. He says we can't wait on the General Assembly; we need a CRB. He says we need checks and balances for the police *before* something horrible happens

He says council should respect the work of the CRB members and get behind them

Elizabeth Stark (of @CvilleDSA I believe) is on. They say that defunding the police really means reallocating resources to support the community and eliminate the need for policing

The say we need organizations that the community trusts, unlike Region Ten and Social Services

Elizabeth says we'll still have policing in the short term, so we need oversight like the CRB

Anna Mendez is next. They say that police reform would allow for mental health care for all city residents, largely eliminating the need for police

Attorney Jeff Fogel is on now. He talks about constitutional violations by cops that he's seen over his career

He says a change in attitude is needed, and it can't be a top down change. He says we need an entirely new police department, w/ guardians not warriors

Kristen Audrey (?) is up next. They ask Brackney if defunding would lead to current officers being fired. They then ask council if they're also looking at other budgets that could also be reallocated

The next speaker (Robin? Idk ) says that defunding is a bad term; it's about reallocating. They say a year and a half ago they saw a cop assault a small child, and was pressured by IA to not push a complaint

The owner of a downtown business is now speaking, praising the cops for their relationship with the community, including business owners and the houseless population

This speaker talks about having had to call the police (including for things that really don't need cops)

(I missed this speaker's name. Was it Karen?)

Next speaker is Brenda Brown-Grooms, a pastor. They say that Brackney is the first police chief they've liked. They say we need a police force, but we also need mental health professionals as first responders

"It's 2020, but this city is still very Jeffersonian. It's a landed gentry, and everyone's got their fiefdom"

Ellen Whose Last Name I Missed is next. They say that cops shouldn't always be the first responder. They also call for more funding for mental health and crisis support services, housing, and education. They also call for a strong CRB

Ellen says they assume that council is working with other cities to find out what works (I don't know if that's true or not)

Rory van Dorne is next. They say we have "behavioural problems with people who are daytime residents of the Mall"

. @Rosiaparker7 is on now, and calls for defunding the CVille Police Foundation. She also brings up the issue of white supremacists and mental health issues in CPD

"No more abuse please. We set the precedent for the rest of the world"

Rosia says that CPD needs to address the harms they've caused historically and institutionally, and not take things personally

. @sarahjaneva is next. She reiterates what others have said about reallocating funds to unarmed first responders

She gives a shout-out to community care orgs, and says the city government should talk to them

(per @FreeThinker365 earlier today, no one with @defundcpd was consulted before this session tonight)

Another Sarah is on now. The other day, their partner was told by a CPD officer: "I hate dealing with animals and people with mental health problems"

Sarah says that the culture of policing is sick, and CPD needs to be defunded

"This is a moment in history. Other cities are leading the way. And we're listening to pathetic excuses from council about not having enough money"

"We should be imagining a new and better world, where people are safe and cared for"

Tanisha Hudson is up now, saying they feel like the city doesn't want real change. Tanisha says that the city (and Brackney in particular) doesn't want to hear from those who are most effected by police. They say that they've filed numerous complaints against CPD, with no change

. @FreeThinker365 is on now. She says city council doesn't seem to understand @defundcpd's plan of cutting CPD's budget by 60%. She says we know police don't keep us safe. The conversation shouldn't be about whether to defund CPD; it should be about transforming public safety

She reiterates what Tanisha said, that the right people aren't on this call. Ang says she'll send an email to council after this call, explaining what defunding and devesting means

. @StuartCville is speaking now, in his personal capacity, not as a member of the CRB. He says he appreciates how hard council works. Then he asks what the point of this session is. He says these issues are older than this country; it's long past time for action

He says he'd be laughed out of the room if he presented a budget as lacking as CPD's when applying for a loan

He says whenever a nonprofit wants money from the city they have to jump through hoops; CPD should have to do the same

Another speaker is on now, saying they're disappointed with the removal of SROs from city schools. They say their son is autistic, and tends to run away from school. When he does, an SRO follows him to make sure he's safe

(I'm not sure why that requires a gun)

They're also disappointed by the lack of public participation in the decision

Another caller is in a similar situation, and has friends who are also moms with special needs kids. They're all very grateful for SRO help with their kids.
They used to be involved with the Jefferson Area Tea Party ()

They say they think many people are basing their negative opinions of the police are due to bad experiences during the Occupy Charlottesville movement. They also don't like the term "defund"

The next speaker says they're a Black, gay student. They address the previous speaker who called the cops on people who looked mentally ill, and say that not everyone gets the cops called on them equally

They say they shouldn't have to live in fear

Nancy Carpenter, a CRB member, is on. She says that the white speakers (herself included) need to remember that they're speaking from a point of white privilege

She says police shouldn't handle nonviolent crimes

She brings up the recent assault on a houseless man on the Mall by a CPD officer, and says we need housing, not policing

The next speaker, whose name I missed, says he's a Black man who's had very negative experiences with cops. He give the examples of a cop threatening to "blow his head off" in the back of a paddy wagon

He says we need to rethink the idea that police can solve any problem

Karen Waters-Wicks is next. They're on the @CvillePoliceFnd board. They say this isn't a zero sum game. They say they want unbiased community policing, and also affordable housing, and mental health resources

Defunding the police and bringing in mental health professionals won't make us safer, Karen says. They're very concerned about cops losing their livelihoods (fun fact: other jobs exist!)

(also, "it's not a zero sum game"?! It's a budget; it's literally a zero sum game, unless you raise taxes)

We're taking a short break now

We're back, with @justbhoeing pointing out that the idea of emergency paramedics is only 50 years old. They say that we can reimagine medical intervention as social intervention in the next 50 years

The next speaker is from New York, and was shocked by the gun culture of the South. They ask why we can't restrict guns like we do tobacco. They ask if it's possible for council to take away people's guns, and if they're willing to

The next speaker talks about the many anecdotes they've heard about cops commiting crimes, manufacturing evidence, etc. They say we need a strong CRB

Lily McVeigh is next. They say it makes no sense to train or reform the police. They say those programs have never worked in the past, so why would we continue with them?

They also point out that many comments about the police center on the Mall

Lily says protecting the Mall is about protecting property and making sure wealthy people who want to drink don't have to see poor people

The next speaker says police are needed to bring about a sense of law and order, but a reformation is needed. They're in favor of the CRB, more transparency, and demilitarization

Myra Anderson gives their perspective as a person who's needed mental health support. They say police funding shouldn't shift to racist orgs like Region Ten. They say we need new solutions, like the Marcus Alert

(I got up at 4, so I'm starting to lose steam )

(I may have to tap out. I'm losing focus, and some other stuff has come up that I need to take care of)

This speaker says that if you see someone on the Mall and you don't know if they're alive or dead, you have no choice but to call 911

(This is, in fact, not true! You can talk to and help people without calling the cops )

(yes, I'm still listening )

. @RoryStolzenberg is on, saying he's going to say some numbers at council. First though, he says that as a Jew he finds it kinda weird that we never really addressed the lack of police action to protect the community from Nazis

Rory says that CPD has spent over $120,000 on overtime related to protests. The @defundcpd Block Party also cost upwards of $70k between all departments involved, not including VSP

In contrast, Chief Brackney made a huge issue out of $20k (supposedly) in vandalism, but seems to have not informed council of how much CPD has spent

https://twitter.com/RoryStolzenberg/status/1290776517434322944?s=20

This last speaker wants to increase the police budget, to pay for more training (training that doesn't work)

Magill tells folks to email council if they have more thoughts. She says that they do read all the (original) emails

(like a previous speaker, I've emailed council before and gotten a direct response from Snook)

The final (?) speaker talks about an incident of police abuse he witnessed, but assures Brackney that it wasn't in Cville. Brackney looks incredibly smug ()

Payne's power goes out mid-sentence, Snook seems to be gone, so the meeting is officially over, though there are some unofficial final thoughts

(I just realized that I've been referring to the City Manager as Dr. Richardson, but to the Chief of Police as Brackney, even though they both have doctorates. My bad )

(I'm vaguely annoyed that Rory and Ang, who've put a lot of time, effort, and thought into this issue, got cut off while making really important points, but council is now going overtime)

"The more the government gets involved, the less likely there is to be a positive outcome [with regards to public saftey]" - Dr. Brackney, part of the government

And now it's actually over