Cities spend way more on police budgets than they’d ever think of spending on underserved Black communities. Los Angeles was on its way to becoming a police state - but due to activist outcry, things are changing!
The city had a proposed budget of $3.15 billion for policing. That’s more than half the city’s unrestricted revenues for general services.
Mayor Eric Garcetti even wanted to cut services and furlough city workers so he could give police more! But then a crisis happened.
The murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers sent shockwaves around the world. The demand for defunding and dismantling of police departments became a battle cry overnight, and activists took this message straight to city leaders.
A tense police commission hearing on Zoom saw several people curse out and tell LAPD commission exactly what they thought of them, the budget, the mayor, and the chief of police. Now the mayor is already starting to change his tune!
Garcetti is now planning to slash the police budget, because public anger is growing. People all over the country are fed up with police sucking up resources just so they can terrorize us. Protests and riots have leaders scared, and we have to keep up the pressure until every city follows L.A.’s lead!