City Hall

These citizens who attended the City Council meeting yesterday were, like me, objecting to the proposed city budget. They were objecting to the elimination of programs for people with low incomes. I was objecting to the Mayor's intention to give $6.7 million more to the already-enormous police budget. (Extra is Sue's photo of me, making my statement.) Here's my little 2-minute speech. No need to  read it; I'm just posting it here as a way to keep track of it.

I’m worried about crime in Portland. Systemic crime, by which I mean extreme income inequality, mass incarceration, and white supremacy, impacts me and everyone I know, every day. Increasing the budget for Portland police will not solve this problem.

Portland police harass homeless people in their tents, don riot gear for protests, and kill Black children for being out in the streets at night. Instead of hiring more police, solve the problem of white-collar crime. Support initiatives like the Just Energy Transition, that proposes taking 1% of the profits of the richest corporations to weatherize the homes of the poor, offer job-training and support minority business, and diminish the affects of poverty in Portland.

Corporate CEOs and billionaires are hoarding wealth. From 1973-2016, US productivity went up 74%, but hourly wages only went up 12%. Hoarded wealth is why we don’t have health care and mental health care for all people in America. Hiring more police results in criminalizing the poor for petty crimes. Are police holding CEOs accountable? No. The Portland Police serve the corporate state. They harass and bully the poor. Half the people killed by police have disabilities. The victims of police violence are disproportionately people of color. In the US right now, there are 40.6 million people living below the poverty line. But the 400 wealthiest Americans own more wealth than the bottom 64% of the US population. Who is policing the rich? Nobody. 
 
If you want to do something about crime, tax the rich. Audit them, hold them accountable. Raise the minimum wage. Don’t hire more cops to harass the poor.