OUR FIGHT TO DEFUND LAPD DIDN'T STOP IN JUNE. LAPD will be proposing their 2021-22 budget at the 11/24 LA Police Commission meeting. Email/make public comment & demand the Police Commission #DefundSurveillance & NOT approve LAPD’s budget! What can you put in public comment? ->

Our demands:

1) We demand a freeze on approval of any funding requests from the LAPD until they can account for the $1.7 B of their base budget.

2) The police commission must NOT vote on the budget this week.

3) The police commission must give at least 2 weeks for public comment on the budget & make this budget a participatory process.

4) There must be an immediate end to “pretextual stops”, which are how LAPD use unrelated excuses to racially profile and target Black & Brown people.

Every year, LAPD rolls over the ENTIRE previous year’s budget to become the new year’s base budget, and then ADDS new proposed spending. This base budget is a black hole of spending they’ve proven that they can’t account for - we know because we’ve asked.

Despite the Mayor’s claims, LA City did NOT defund $150 M OR reinvest in communities of color. It’s time for the Mayor and City Council to make good on their process to defund LAPD and its racist violence and fund the health and wellbeing of our communities.

While the city has been making drastic cuts to city department budgets, they’ve exempted LAPD. The Mayor wants to give a blank check to LAPD and austerity to everyone else.

LAPD spends $65 M on technology -- more than the size of some whole city departments.

This surveillance tech is used to target, harass, and control our communities. We demand all surveillance tech be defunded and abolished.

Mass surveillance creates the conditions that endanger Black, Brown, and unhoused peoples. We need to Defund Surveillance BEFORE the Bullet Hits the Body.

So what can you do right now?

1) Give public comment at the LA Police Commission meeting on Tuesday, 11/24. Check out our #DefundSurveillance Toolkit at http://defundsurveillance.com  for talking points and instructions!

2) Share this info! This Tuesday is just one step in the journey to #DefundSurveillance, but it’s a vital one for letting the city know WE STILL CARE ABOUT DEFUNDING THE POLICE! Share broadly, help us make some noise. Follow @stoplapdspying and @freeradsorg to stay updated.

Here are some instructions on how to give public comment (this is also at http://defundsurveillance.com )

We need to stop giving the most murderous police department in the US a blank check. We need to defund the police and invest in life-affirming, not life-threatening, services!

#DefundSurveillance