Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced that he would redirect $250 million from the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) to other city programs and services that support black and brown communities.
This would entail using public money that would be spent on the police department, for gear or raised salary, on resources for the community such as housing, education, and mental health services.
Led by Black Lives Matter LA, People’s Budget LA calls for the police department to be defunded and “more low-income housing and more services for unhoused Angelenos; more mental health services; rent suspension and cancellation during this pandemic; more funding for public schools and resources to ensure all students can continue learning during these uncertain times; and investments directly benefiting Black communities.”
In Minneapolis, where Floyd was murdered, a veto-proof majority of the city council pledged to disband its police department and begin anew with a different approach.
A report from 2017 focused on a few weeks in 2014 through 2015 in which “proactive policing” from the New York Police Department was lessened.
