Defund the Police in the City of Berkeley

Dear Mayor Arreguín and City Council members,

We are devastated by the recent murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and so many others at the hands of the police across our country and the state violence against Black people generally.

Cities such as Los Angeles and Minneapolis have called to scale back the police department budget and reinvest those funds in health, educational and social services that serve Berkeley's Black communities.

I urge you to do the same. The time to make large scale institutional changes like this is now. Reform is not enough. Studies cited in this article demonstrate that anti-bias training and other similar reforms will not make a significant impact on police brutality: https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/defund-police-protest/?fbclid=IwAR2NxSXsJsb535bnW5c3yAryGeZTzcKrQz1tgyz8RsXS9fCzwSS03jBYQ1g

Berkeley is well-known for its leadership on progressive issues. We urge you to take a proactive stance on police brutality by cutting funding to the police department and reinvesting it in Black communities.