"LGBTQ Bar Owner Who Was Lending Support To George Floyd Protesters Speaks Out About Being Fired At By Raleigh Police"
Yahoo News
Dear Mayor Baldwin,
Police opened fire on a Raleigh LGBTQ bar because the owner was handing out water to protestors. His business was vandalized with a white supremacist symbol, and the bar’s glass doors and windows were broken. Police shouted, "The game is over!" before they opened fire without warning.
I am a resident of Raleigh, and I urge you and the rest of the City Council to amend or deny the proposed budget for 2021. I would like to redirect money away from RPD and into social service programs that will benefit public health and our own communities, especially communities of color. The proposed budget for 2021 suggests that the largest fraction of the city’s budget should go to policing ($110,650,573), which is over 60% larger than even the second largest allocation of funds, fire ($67,687,901). If this is truly representative of the council’s thoughts on how funds should be allocated in a city in which over 6,000 of my neighbors (Raleigh + Wake County) are currently experiencing homelessness and in which nearly 100,000 of my neighbors (Raleigh + Wake County) are impoverished and at risk of becoming homeless ( www.raleighrescue.org ), I am ashamed of the Raleigh City Council priorities reflected in this budget.
Crime is not random. Crime (except police brutality) usually happens when someone has been unable to meet their basic needs through other means. So, to really “fight crime,” we don’t need more police officers - we need more jobs, more educational opportunities, more arts programs, more community centers, more mental health resources, as well as more of a say in how our own communities function. This is a long transition process but change starts with reallocating this funding!
We don’t need a militarized police force. We need to create a space in which more mental health service providers, social workers, victim/survivor advocates, religious leaders, neighbors, and friends - all of the people who really make up our community - can look out for one another. Mayor Baldwin, will you look out for us all, equally?
Sincerely,
-- M. B. Hardy, statistician, semi-retired
work: Applied Research Associates, S. E. Div.
8537 Six Forks Rd., # 6000 / Raleigh, NC 27615-2963
(919) 582-3329, fax: 582-3301
home: 1020 W. South St. / Raleigh, NC 27603-2162
(919) 834-1245
This happened June 3rd, 2020, in Long Beach: The policeman is pointing a gun that shoots rubber bullets directly at the face of a man while that man's 2 year old son sits on his shoulders. That father was peacefully protesting with his child. Exercising his first amendment rights as an American. A minute earlier those same cops threatened to shoot the 2 year old with tear gas.
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