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From: La Soina <br />To: PublicComment; GRP -City Council; Council -Diane Howard; Council -Shelly Masur; Council -Alicia Aguirre; Council - <br />Ian Bain; Council -Janet Borgens; Council-Giselle Hale; Council -Diana Reddy <br />Subject: Public Comment for 6/22 on Police <br />Date: Monday, June 22, 2020 1:24:20 PM <br />As we discuss prison abolition we must acknowledge that making our oppressor's <br />uncomfortable is a necessary part of this process. Our oppressor's will never happily give <br />away their power and control they have gained over the centuries through force, pillaging <br />and genocide. The people will end up having to free themselves, regardless of whether <br />other members of the community are ready or not. <br />While the black and brown community is reeling from more attacks by police, the council is <br />policing our tone and our outrage. Not once addressing the history of policing, and how it <br />stems from slave patrols in the 18th century. All policing today directly stems from the same <br />racist, imperialist, capitalist, patriarchal institutions that created this city and this nation <br />today. <br />Since the 13th Amendment hadn't fully abolished slavery, but allowed for penal labor, or <br />forced servitude to be a legitimate form of punishment in the carceral system, police have <br />changed and REFORMED with the times, but only to better continue with it's legacy of <br />enforcing slavery. For the past five decades since Jim Crow ended the federal government <br />has made it illegal to use racist regulations, however black and brown people still <br />disproportionately represent those incarcerated, living in poverty, living in food deserts, <br />living in poorly funded neighborhoods and attending poorly funded schools. <br />These protests, demonstrations and riots that occur stem from the historic trauma that <br />policing has inflicted onto low-income, and black and brown people. How is a community <br />suppose to react after centuries of the same discrimination, harassment, and brutality for <br />your identity? After centuries of reform there still exists poverty, homelessness, racism, <br />sexism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, and ableism. How are communities <br />supposed to respond to a city that is constantly serving them crumbs with constant budget <br />cuts. <br />The poorly funded schools. <br />The lack of affordable housing. <br />The lack of affordable healthcare. <br />The lack of trained counselors, social workers, therapists, lawyers and organizations that <br />help meet the needs of the most marginalized. <br />The de facto segregation in our neighborhoods and districts. <br />And our racist militarized police. <br />When Redwood City joined cities across the nation in setting sudden and abrupt curfews <br />after the recent murder of George Floyd Mayor Diana Howard and councilmembers are <br />