HomeMy WebLinkAbout6/1/2021 Item 6a, Balmana
Delgado, Adriana
From:Marisa B <balmanam@gmail.com>
Sent:Tuesday,
To:E-mail Council Website; Harmon, Heidi; Stewart, Erica A; Marx, Jan; Christianson,
Carlyn; Pease, Andy
Subject:Opposition to City's Current Budget Plans
This message is from an External Source. Use caution when deciding to open attachments, click links, or respond.
Hello City Council Members,
First and foremost, I want to thank you for all that you do for our community. I know this job is difficult and there are
many factors to balance. My goal here is to share my experience and perspective as a city resident.
After reviewing the current city budget plans, I am writing to express my concern with raising the budget for SLO PD. Our
wonderful city and residents would benefit far more from using those dollars in other places to enhance residents'
ability to thrive. Policing is a reactive approach to crime, not preventative. Spending more money to invest in
communities (initiatives to promote education, affordable housing, health etc.) does more for public safety than
policing. The safest neighborhoods do not have the most law enforcement, they have the most resources and
community connections.
The SLO PD budget should reduce law enforcement spending from previous years, not increase. Not only do I feel this is
a bad long term investment in our community, but I also feel it sends a frightening message to our communities of color.
The criminal justice system is far from perfect, and our offices are not perfect either--they are human. Unconscious bias
is insidious because by definition, we do not recognize when it is happening. While bias training has been shown
effective at opening minds, they have done little to affect behavior on the job for law enforcement.
Furthermore, by increasing the budget and ignoring the stories and demands of our communities of color, we are
devaluing their voices: signalling that their concerns for safety and justice are unimportant. It is actions and decisions
such as this that keeps our city unnervingly homogenous when it comes to race. We cannot expect to see changes in
diversity if we consistently and willfully ignore the experiences of the POC who are already here. Advocates for abolition
and devisment in police only ask that we attempt to invest in people rather than punishment in attempt to make SLO
city the best it can be.
Please do not approve the budget as is until police spending is decreased by at least several million dollars and
reallocated to community programs and resources that provide to our community members directly.
Thank you so much for your time.
-Marisa Balmana
1