CORRESPONDENCE - 85A - Laserfiche WebLink

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Orozco, Norma From:Melissa Palmerin <palmerinmelissa@yahoo.com> Sent:Thursday, June 18, 2020 8:19 PM To:eComment Subject:item 85A My name is Melissa Palmerin. I live in ward 6. For a moment, I want to address a comment from Councilmember Solorio from Tuesday that relates to my argument, you stated that we finally enforced having all the officers wear body cameras as if that is a win for us. Why did this just occur when we have a history, documented and undocumented, of police brutality and people dying at the hands of the police. As you stated we are still paying off legal fees from previous lawsuits against officers (EMPHASIZE THE WE, THE TAXPAYERS). In regards to SAPD temporarily banning the chokehold- this is not enough. Reforming a corrupt system are not wins. These are empty promises, promises that we have heard yearly. That the police department will keep the community safe, that we need the police or crime rates will increase or as Solorio claimed even when the crimes rate “ are decreasing”, There is still a calling for more police. This is whiteness in action!! The police keep white people safe! They keep corporations thriving as our people die at their mercy. This institution we call the police department can not be reformed and it’s a shame, that even after hearing all those people asking to defund the police, and the stories of harassment and negligence. We still had some council members trying to prove the ways in which the police department has supposedly worked or improved. We have never felt safe with the police and trying to reform the police department or form an oversight committee (WHICH WE KNOW IS NOT WORKING BECAUSE THEY DO NOT HAVE THE POWER TO DO ANYTHING: WE HAVE SEEN THIS IN THE SEATTLE, MINNEAPOLIS) and It will not compensate for a system meant to criminalize our youth and our people. Crime is a byproduct of the environment in which a person is in, in the way a person is labeled and treated. We are not animals, thugs, or ghetto. We are people tired of seeing Black people die every day and our people being criminalized in a system meant to exploit them. You guys are being complicit and therefore perpetuating a system that was created to serve and protect the institution of enslavement and promote white capitalist interests. It is pathetic to propose to research an oversight committee when places like the Minneapolis city council stated it will dismantle the police department, Seattle has the autonomous zone, new york and Los Angeles defunding the police. And if you have done some research on oversight committees they do not have power. Our ultimate goal, as should be yours, is to dismantle the police department and we will continue to fight for this. And lastly, the police system is not individualistic. We are talking about a system that is affecting marginalized people globally. Every police department is an issue. By reforming the police, we are giving them more money. We will not do what costa mesa did, which is investing $1 million dollars in body cameras. We will not just unarm the police officers, as if that is going to solve the issue of systemic racism and police brutality. We already know that those do not work!! Reform does not work! If our solution is not abolishing the police system and creating a new system that does not involve police officers, but rather a system with health care workers, mental health workers, drug addiction workers, therapists, social workers, or mentors, programs meant to get people back into school or help people find employment. If we can’t do that, then what is the point of stating we are for Black Lives. You can’t be the poison in the antidote. 1