Indivisibles, 

The tragic events of the last few weeks have reinvigorated calls to defund
the police. We’re demanding justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony
McDade, Ahmaud Arbery, Jacob Blake and all the lives destroyed by police
violence with more than just reforms -- we support defunding the police.
In this moment of national reckoning over police violence and systemic
racism, we want to make sure your questions are answered about why we’ve
taken this stance in solidarity with Black lives. As active allies, we’ve
treated the last few months as an opportunity to educate ourselves more on
this topic, and we're happy to share what we've learned so far:

1. First and foremost, we have to put this conversation in context to
understand how we got to where we are today. The history of policing in
this country began as a way to preserve the slavery in the South, with
patrols drawing from vigilante groups to surveil, capture, and terrorize
the enslaved Black population. This kind of targeting continued even after
emancipation, rearing its ugly head with the formation of the Ku Klux Klan
and the enactment of Jim Crow laws. And, in more recent history,
politicians of all backgrounds have enabled the policies that have led to
the [ [link removed] ]militarization of police. This history is reflected in what we are
witnessing today, as police officers and vigilantes (like [ [link removed] ]Kyle
Rittenhouse) inflict violence on Black lives on a daily basis. We all want
to feel safe, but in Black and brown communities, police and law
enforcement often represent harm and terror -- not safety.

2. So, what do we mean when we say “defund the police”? The movement to
defund the police is about reallocating the hundreds of millions
(sometimes billions) of dollars currently being spent on police to
directly serve and reinvest in our communities. This opens up funding that
will transform entire communities as we know them. When people have their
basic needs met, they’re less likely to end up in the kind of dangerous
situations police officers are called upon to ‘handle.’ As just one
example, according to [ [link removed] ]a study from the Treatment Advocacy Center, a
person with an untreated mental health issue is 16 times more likely to be
killed by police than other members of the community. 

Instead of funding police to handle situations that don’t require law
enforcement, here's what that funding could be used for instead:

* Crisis intervention specialists
* Social workers
* Behavioral and mental health experts
* Food assistance and clean water
* Housing assistance
* School budgets 

You might be thinking, “How will a mental health expert stay safe during a
potentially dangerous situation? Won’t we need the police instead?” To
that, we point to the fact that even though policing has become more
heavily militarized, [ [link removed] ]more weapons don’t ensure officers are safe.
Furthermore, the force is unevenly brought to bear across communities,
with police disproportionately targeting communities of color. If police
officers enter a community with this kind of militarized mindset instead
of the goal of defusing crises, they are less capable of prioritizing
safety and de-escalation. 

3. Why say “defund” instead of [insert option here]? We hear you. During
such a contentious time in our history, it might seem like we should be
prioritizing strategic language at every turn. The thing is, allyship is
about listening to the people who are most profoundly affected and taking
their position seriously. Defunding the police comes from Black and brown
grassroots organizations, like [ [link removed] ]Movement for Black Lives’s (M4BL), who
are rightfully at the forefront of this fight for justice. The #DefundHate
Coalition, spearheaded by immigration rights organizations at United We
Dream and Detention Watch Network, [ [link removed] ]relates their own mission to cutting
funding for ICE and CBP to defunding the police in solidarity with Black
lives. As a white-led organization, it is not Indivisible's place to make
suggestions about how Black and brown activists are expressing their
demands. We want to participate in the conversation, but it's not our
place to reframe it to be more palatable to the masses to people of
color's lived experiences.

More than taking the lead from Black-led organizations, we’ve found that
the word "defund" is actually a perfect way to describe their intentions.
Conservative Republicans have been comfortable using the word “defund”
when it comes to Planned Parenthood for years. We’re using the word in the
same way. We want to defund the police -- in other words, take funds from
a certain program to free up that money for another purpose. We need to
step back from this broken model of “protection,” and reinvest in a shared
vision of community safety, infrastructure, and recovery that does not
rely on the police.

If you want more information, here are a few resources we recommend: 

* [ [link removed] ]Movement for Black Lives’s (M4BL) Invest-Divest platform
* [ [link removed] ]Read the asks laid out by M4BL with the BREATHE Act before it's
formally introduced in Congress
* [ [link removed] ]A blog post from Seattle Indivisible, one of our local groups, on
why defunding is important, which addresses a lot of frequently asked
questions
* [ [link removed] ]A video you can watch and share about Defunding the Police
* [ [link removed] ]Indivisible’s Resource on Taking Action in Solidarity with Black
Lives Matter

We won’t stop saying Black Lives Matter, and we’ll back it up with a
commitment to anti-racist initiatives that we believe will bring us closer
to a more perfect union. We hope this email has provided useful context
and resources for you to read and share.

In solidarity,
Indivisible Team

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