San Francisco, CA – Mayor London N. Breed and Supervisor Shamann Walton announced Today (Thursday) a plan to prioritize the redirection of resources from the San Francisco Police Department to support the African-American community in the upcoming budget. They will lead a collaborative process with the community in partnership with the Human Rights Commission to help identify and prioritize funding needs.
Decades of disinvestment in the African-American community and racially disparate policies in San Francisco have exacerbated disproportionate harm in Black communities, affecting outcomes from health and wellness to housing insecurity and economic outcomes. In San Francisco, the average income for a Black household is $31,000, as compared with $110,000 for white families. As many as 19% of African-American children in San Francisco live in poverty. Black and African-American individuals comprise 35% of the City’s unhoused population, despite making up only 5% of the population as a whole.
This inequality perpetuates the systemic social determinants of health. Black communities in San Francisco have higher rates of diabetes, higher rates of maternal mortality, and are more likely to be hospitalized for heart disease than other races.
“While the events of the last week have been painful and traumatic for so many of us, they have brought forward the devastating impacts of police violence against African-Americans in this country,” said Mayor London Breed. “San Francisco has made substantial progress on police reform in recent years, especially around our use-of-force policies, but we know there are structural inequities in our city that continue to impact our African-American community each and every day. Since this pandemic began, we have seen how the type of work, schools, neighborhoods, homes, and support systems in our communities combine to put these groups at the greatest risk of suffering both disease and economic damage. Reforms to any single system, such as the criminal justice system or the police department, must go in hand-in-hand with closing the gaps and ending the disparities that we know exist. By bringing the community into the process of making these decisions, we can ensure that those who have been voiceless in the past now have a seat at the table as we make decisions that will impact their community.”
“We have been pushing for reparations for Black people here in San Francisco for decades. We have continued to see our organizations inequitably disregarded and disproportionately left out of receipt of vital resources,” said Supervisor Shamann Walton. “In these times of continued systemic and systematic oppression of Black people, we have to be innovative and strong with our solutions. In order to change this dynamic and provide real opportunity for equity, we need to repurpose resources and give them to Black-led organizations and communities in order to level the playing field and achieve successful outcomes. This is a concrete, bold and immediate step towards true reparations for Black people. I’m excited to lead on this with Mayor Breed.”
Mayor Breed will be submitting a two-year budget proposal by August 1st, 2020, which will then be taken up by the Board of Supervisors. Individuals who wish to participate in open meetings on reinvestment in the African-American community through the Human Rights Commission should email [email protected] for an invitation.
17 comments
“This is a concrete, bold and immediate step towards true reparations for Black people.” – Shamann Walton Years of “true reparations” hasn’t worked yet. What makes this any different? Just another Democrat hanging a carrot in front of the masses to keep Blacks in line.
What this “plan” lacks is any intelligent thought on just what specific outcomes it is supposed to produce and how those outcomes will be measured. One unintended outcome is likely to be a hollowing out of San Francisco’s police department and the departure of many officers.
Robert, when you consider the current chaos in relation to how many militarized police we have on our tax payroll, the correlation is obvious. Defunding the clearly overfunded police and reallocating those taxes to health, education, the youth, etc, creates a better society where people don’t have to commit crimes just to get their basic necessities, thus, less cops. Defunding the police doesn’t mean getting rid of the entire precinct, it means defunding the judge-jury-tactics of our current tyrannical regime. And no, I don’t support looters; I support all the peaceful protestors around the world who are being met with internationally banned tactics by the hands of those who are supposed to serve & protect.
Your recent comments have been induced by your emotional state. You need to re-think your entire direction or change your name, can’t have both. To de-fund the police will destroy our inner cities and SF will eventually look like Chicago. Been to Antioch, Baypoint or Pittsburg recently? Take cops away? Just about to dumbest thing I’ve heard in years. My kids wouldn’t even say something so emotionally charged….
NOBODY can make a good conscious business decision based on their emotional state and your no exception.
I support reform, accountability for officer’s action to even include murder charges. I’m 42 years old, never had a good or bad experience with Police because I don’t put myself in a position of needing to.
C’mon “Pastor” you have to be able to relate with struggling to turn people towards the good. Could just be helping someone with drug addiction, turning a life around etc and being let down? De-fund cops? Just plain stupid….
You got trolled by the MayTard…
Don’t feed the troll.
Very well put. Thank you
Pastor Maynard,
My criticism is directed at how public policy is made by local politicians. You reply with unhinged ranting about “tyrannical regimes.” Your postings on this website read like the written equivalent of a broken record. Take a deep breath, relax and seek counseling.
Pastor Maynard, if you think putting these resources into black communities is going to lower crime reducing the need for the number in officers, you are mistaken. It will not shut off like a faucet. Also, your logic suggests that black people are committing the majority of the crimes.
What about the loss of training that has been fought for the past decade to make sure officers are trained to use force appropriately in difficult situations. That would undoubtedly be cut back, thus causing more harm than good. I’m not against putting money into certain low income areas, but there’s no reason to take all of the funds from police departments. It will result in chaos and the public will suffer greatly.
The article speaks only about the black community, there are so many other races in the city and one mask ask do they not matter or are they doing fine, then you have to look at the family structure minority groups who are doing well and thriving have a strong family structure unfortunately black youth is often Left to a struggling mother doing her best
No more trips to San Francisco, I will go to other city’s where it will be safer…This does not shock me, there is no long term though process and once the thugs rule the streets and there is no going back…. Businesses will pull out relatively fast once they realize they will be the target….
Your point is well taken. This “defund the police” concept is purely an emotional response now being co-opted by opportunistic politicians. There is indeed no long-term though process being applied.
Mayor half ,the next governor of California
To start off with, those Officers pushing down 80 year old men, going outside of their training and doing what happened in Minneapolis, putting personal opinions on their work, are a disgrace and criminals!! The hope is they are prosecuted as they should be and barred from ever seeing the light of day or having anything to do with Law Enforcement again. For a fact, I am sure that the ones who cherish wearing a badge, upholding their oaths, and having the integrity it takes do do the job, would like to have a few minutes in a dark room with these individuals. They have done more harm with their actions than anything else could. All Cops are NOT Bastards!!! As some seem to think. Every profession has bad apples and even worse seeds in them. To pass judgement is complete bullshit. There is more done by those wearing the badge than any of those carrying a sign and marching even know!! When was the last time any of them had to miss a birthday, a holiday, special event, hold a dying victim, be assaulted or criticized for nothing more than doing their job? Racism goes both ways and it is never more evident than now. All those groups making stereotype comments about ALL Law Enforcement is the same as all Law Enforcement making similar comments in return. But Law Enforcement is not out there calling all activists, protesters, or those marching anything but people. Those Officers on the front lines are there to protect those marching and expressing their 1st Amendment rights From those assholes who want to trample them. These are the same assholes who exploit these marches to reek havoc and destruction. The organized gangs of looters, criminal minded elements of society who pray on these times to get what they want.
Okay, now defunding Law Enforcement is the most absurd idea ever. Look at what a great success these idiots are having with $0 bail. Same idiots who gave us the propositions decriminalizing certain felonies. These individuals that were let out, and the ones being arrested over and over again still being let out, are causing the biggest spikes in crime ever. Even before the $0 bail, theft, burglary, and other now called “non-violent” crimes are in the rise at an unbelievable rate.
So now on top of that, you want to defund the Police departments around the country when many are still under staffed and just starting to recover from the last recession. Some departments will now never recover.
So with that in mind, money being diverted, all types of individuals being let out, get ready for the storm!!! Crime is going to spike out of control and all these same idiot politicians are going to start pointing the finger at the Police asking what are they going to do about it. The Chiefs are going throw their arms in the air and just say, “Can’t do anything without the resources and staffing to do it!”
This all when many police departments nationwide were just starting to get back in a Proactive style of community based policing and now they are going to be sent back to the dark ages of Reactive… not to mention the training is going to be cut, equipment will be cut, and anything else they can cut will be as well.
It’s hard enough to recruit Officers in these times, now it will be impossible!! Departments are going to go back to the days of recruiting anyone they can get and not be as selective as they are now. This creating the possibilities of more bad seeds getting through the cracks and doing what you see those disgraceful Officers did.
Here’s a thought, how about all the Officers in this country just stop enforcing anything like many of these protesters are asking. A comment was quoted by a recent organizer, “defund the police and disband the officers, we can police ourselves!” Let’s see how that goes? How long will it be before they cry wolf!! What would it be like to dial 911 and get nothing but a ringing phone?
Again this is the opinion of one person. I am sure their will be a backlash of those that know everything and are simple minded or follow the heard. People need to wake up, get involved, and not point the finger to others to fix their problems. Be part of your community, come to the meetings, get educated about what is going on around you, don’t blame others for the problems you create and for god sake, step up and raise your children to have respect for others and understand nothing is for free!!!
Knee jerk reactions only cause more problems for others to solve. Come together and solve these things as a community, as a state, and most of all, as a country!!! Biggest thing, do not expect others to do it for you!!
Defunding Law Enforcement to fund low income areas is insane and plain wasteful. You can change law enforcement policy and you can educate and provide opportunities for low income areas. Just plain giving money to people is not helping anyone achieve a better place in society. Our schools are failing low income areas. Fix the schools too. Giving free money to people will only increase drug use and crime. The government should continue or increase opportunity zones but free money will not help. You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make em drink. I do think the past moves of police to add military style tactics and equipment should be scaled back. Also, the amount of deadly force Used by police on a regular basis has increased over the years., that needs to be relooked at. Today, you see a cop pull their gun before their mace or club. That in itself needs policy change. Finally, people need to stop putting themselves in a deadly situation with police. There is enough blame for all involved. Lastly, I think this protest riot and pillage is more about the presidential election than anything else.
There’s a video on Youtube made by Chris Black called, “How not to have your ass kicked by the police” and it’s hilarious and very timely. Everyone should watch it and heed the warning.
I listened to Mayor Breed on the news when she stated that she would be de-funding SFPD and siphoning funds to the African American community. Sadly, Los Angeles mayor is planning the same. What was not stated by Mayor Breed, is a plan of action. Where exactly is the money that she wants pilfer from SFPD going?How are the citizens of SF going to benefit from her unilateral decision to reduce the police force? This is another knee-jerk reaction from the Dems that they hope will sent votes their way in November. There is no plan! Just more political BS.
I toured many areas of San Francisco for years and know it well and haven’t seen many black communities there at all because the cost of living there is so stupendous. Most blacks have moved out of SF. This woman is “mayor” in name only. The city is run by a cartel of extremely wealthy people to whom she bows. The same things happened when Ed Lee was mayor. He too didn’t have any power.
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