1/ @CMLGonzalez pledging to divest from police & invest in community

“I think it’s important for me as an elected official, as an elected official who is a non-Black Mexican American in this country, to say that I take personal responsibility for every vote that I have taken...”

2/ “...vote that I have taken that has contributed to the expansion of law enforcement and those legal systems at the expense of community based investments.

And I owe it to all of you to say that I am sorry for those votes.”

3/ “I now have an opportunity, and so do my colleagues, to reverse and correct those past votes. Those past choices. Because we know that the current public safety model does not produce safety for Black, Indigenous and Brown people.”

4/ “As somebody who was a Civil Rights attorney for 10 years before coming to City Council, I spent most of my time suing police departments— including the Seattle Police Department.

I’ve also spent more than 15 years thinking this was something we could reform.”

5/ “But I am now convinced that that is not the course of action that we need to take. Now is the time to divest from the police department. Now is the time to zero out these budgets and to reimagine, rebuild.”

6/ “Build something from a community led, community driven perspective that will actually build community safety for the people that have been harmed the most by overpolicing and criminalization by mere virtue of existing as a Black, Brown or Indiginous person in our community.”

7/ “The status quo is no longer acceptable and we have to take away the things that no longer and should have never belonged to law enforcement in the first place.” — @CMLGonzalez

#DivestToInvest #EquityNow #FreeTheLand #TapInDontTapOut #BuildAfricatown #SeattleProtests