Dear Mayor Taylor, Chief Bertani, City Manager Jerome-Robinson, and Menlo Park City Council Members, My name is Fiona Ralston, and I am a Ladera resident. I am writing to you today to demand that you immediately redirect funding from the Menlo Park Police Department towards BIPOC communities. The senseless killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and countless others have demonstrated the infuriating prevalence of police violence and brutality in communities across America. While these events are devastating, they should not come as a surprise. Since the 1600s, policing has been a tool to enforce the social order — an order that oppresses and brutalizes BIPOC Americans. For too long, policy-makers and law enforcement have upheld a system founded upon racialized fear to brutalize and devastate BIPOC communities. Additionally, most policing reforms (e.g. implicit bias training, diversification, and enhanced accountability) fail to address the root problems inherent to policing, as demonstrated by the implementation (and clear failure) of these programs in the Minneapolis Police Department. Thus, I am demanding that you take the following actions immediately: 1. Defund the Menlo Park Police Department by reinvesting 50% of this budget in BIPOC communities, collaborating with leaders from these communities to identify areas of need (including, but not limited to healthcare, housing, and education). This could mean transforming the role of first responders — for most calls, social workers, mental health experts, and community leaders have the right expertise to solve the problem, as seen in Dallas. 2. Abolish qualified immunity and other legal protections for police officers who have committed acts of violence. Nearly every single officer involved in racialized violence has never faced serious punishment. Hold officers to the same legal standard as the rest of the citizenry and punish these acts of unnecessary violence. 3. Demilitarize the local police force immediately. This includes, but is not limited to, stopping the deployment of excessively militarized police (especially in the ongoing demonstrations), restricting police departments from using federal grant money for military weaponry, returning whatever military equipment has already been received, banning no-knock raids, and restricting the use of SWAT teams. 4. Open investigations into all officers with reports of police abuse and release body counts for all officers. 5. Cut all ties between the Menlo Park Police Department and local public schools. 6. Ban ICE from all protests and gatherings in Menlo Park. These actions are only first steps. Racialized police brutality is a systemic problem that requires federal, state, and local action, and I am demanding that you do your part. Black Lives Matter. Sincerely, Fiona Received on Tue Jun 09 2020 - 18:27:41 PDT
