Organizers with the Defund SFPD Now campaign denounce rushed vote to approve the City’s renegotiated contract with the racist Police Officers’ Association
Contact: Jamie@415-712-2591
Organizers with the Defund SFPD Now campaign denounce rushed vote to approve the City’s renegotiated contract with the racist Police Officers’ Association
Despite broad opposition from community organisers, social justice advocates, labor leaders, and youth activists, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors just approved the City’s renegotiated contract with the Police Officers’ Association which gives police more raises without any accountability for injustices past and present.
San Francisco, CA -- On Tuesday, December 1, 2020, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 9 -2, without any discussion, to approve the City’s renegotiated Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the SF Police Officers’ Association (POA), the police fraternity with a record of racism, sexism, and homophobia that represents and defends officers in the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD). An earlier vote on November 17, 2020 coincided almost exactly with a police shooting in which SFPD officers and Sheriff deputies shot, bean-bagged, and tazed Antonio Estrada, a man in crisis who sustained life threatening injuries as a result. Time and time again, the Board of Supervisors has shown itself unwilling to fully acknowledge and address the brutal police violence that continues in San Francisco.
At the November 17th meeting, SFPOA president, Tony Montoya, said “...there's no objection to the [DOJ recommendations]. We're willing to sign off on many of them tomorrow if it's put before us to do that.” Supervisors Ronen and Peskin were tasked with drafting a side agreement that the POA could sign alongside the passage of the MOU. The proposed side agreement was meant to prevent the POA from slow-walking the 272 DOJ reforms and Supervisor Ronen’s upcoming transparency legislation. However, at today’s meeting, there was no mention of this side agreement.
“The Supervisors’ failure to even address the lack of a meaningful side agreement raises questions as to whether their calls to end police violence are anything more than performative,” said DefundSFPDNow organizer, Alex Karim.
As organizers and community activists at Defund SFPD Now, the Bar Association of San Francisco, labor leaders, experts, and other groups have been saying for months now, the contract amendment contained in this renegotiated MOU is yet another bad deal for the City and for communities most impacted by police brutality in San Francisco. After cutting the SFPD budget by only 6% this past budget season, this renegotiated MOU gives police more raises over an extended contract period, without any concessions whatsoever on reform, transparency, or abolition.
And yet, in a process marred by inaccuracies and misrepresentations, the Board of Supervisors has chosen to abdicate its duty to ensure City contracts actually serve the interests of San Francisco residents by giving final approval to the renegotiated MOU. In doing so, the Supervisors have once again kicked the can down the road on holding police to account, and also on finding a sustainable solution to the ever-growing budget deficit, which currently sits at over $120 million in this fiscal year alone.
“Once again, our city officials have shown that ‘Black Lives Matter’ is nothing more than a campaign slogan to them. This vote was a display of cowardice and a rejection of anti-racism. Today, the Supervisors sacrificed city workers and BIPOC communities so they could refund the police,” said Karim.
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The Defund SFPD Now campaign is a joint project by the SF Afrosocialists & Socialists of Color Caucus (Afrosoc) and the Justice Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), SF. The SF Afrosocialists & Socialists of Color Caucus is a Black-led organization created in 2020 to center BIPOC voices within socialist spaces. The DSA SF Justice Committee was formed in 2017 and organizes DSA SF’s work fighting for the abolition of policing and prisons.
