Defund OPD Human Billboard

Saturday, June 19, 2021 • 11AM-12PM

Bay Area SURJ has supported APTP's Defund OPD campaign for many years. We are urging all to join in a Human Billboard on Saturday, 6/19, from 11-12, by the Grand Lake Theater, to show up in alliance with our Black and POC partners. They are leading a key campaign to press the Oakland City Council to set a budget that funds human needs & opportunities—not one that robs communities in order to allow continued state violence against people of color.

The Council passed a resolution last summer after the George Floyd protests proposing to reduce spending from the general fund on police by 50%. Yet Libby's current budget proposes to increase police spending by about 8% by defunding even more community resources! Police would get 41%of the general budget next year, and 45% the year after, about the same amount they’ve been getting.
Join us before the budget gets finalized June 24 as we publicly demand a radically new Oakland budget, one that is based on reimagining public safety, and restoring and refunding community resources. [Police are not mental health workers, substance abuse counselors or homeless outreach workers. We can redirect that money from the OPD and to people who are trained in those areas - to people who look to solutions other than violence. These are just some of the issues at stake in the new budget.] Let’s show up in force to oppose Libby’s hypocrisy and to offer support to the council members voting to refund communities and reimagine public safety.  
Please wear masks and practice social distancing. Feel free to make signs around the theme of ending police violence, restoring community resources plundered to overfund the OPD, opposing Libby and her budget, and supporting the Fife/Bas resolution affirming the Task Force recommendations for funding true public safety. We'll also have plenty of signs and banners for people to hold.