“Stay in the streets.”
MORE Resources
DEFUND THE POLICE
HOW DO WE DEFUND THE POLICE?
Reject any proposed expansion to police budgets.
Prohibit private-public innovation schemes that profit from temporary technological fixes to systemic problems of police abuse and violence. These contracts and data-sharing arrangements, however profitable for technologists and reformists, are lethal.
Reduce the power of police unions.
Until the police are fully defunded, make police union contract negotiations public.
Pressure the AFL-CIO to denounce police unions.
Prohibit city candidates taking money from police unions and stop accepting union funds.
Withhold pensions and don’t rehire cops involved in use of excessive force.
Deplatform white supremacist public officials.
Repeal the Law Enforcement Bill of Rights.
Demand the highest budget cuts per year, until they slash police budget to zero.
Slash police salaries across the board until they are zeroed out.
Immediately fire police officers who have any excessive force complaints.
No hiring of new officers or replacement of fired or resigned officers.
Fully cut funding for public relations.
Suspend the use of paid administrative leave for cops under investigation.
No investment in police training.
No investment in police facility renovations.
End all police contracts with social services, care services and government agencies providing care.
Abolish asset forfeiture programs and laws.
Reformist Reforms vs. Abolitionist Steps in Policing
These charts break down the difference between reformist reforms which continue or expand the reach of policing, and abolitionist steps that work to chip away and reduce its overall impact. As we struggle to decrease the power of policing there are also positive and pro-active investments we can make in community health and well-being. [criticalresistance.org]
It Does Happen Here
“I wonder why people say, “it doesn’t happen here” as a way to ignore the very real problems of racism and inequality (...) It happens in Idaho, in America, and in the world, and it needs to change”
Selling Diversity, Promoting Racism: How Universities Pushing a Consumerist form of Diversity Empowers Oppression
How does racism persist and even worsen on college campuses amidst pro-diversity university efforts? From interviewing college students and interrogating university materials, this article argues that public universities’ heightened revenue-generating functions inspire them to sell diversity as an attractive quality, divorced from its association with race and social justice. Because diversity has become a strong discourse, its uncritical university marketing turns it into a commodity at the cutting-edge of cultural capitalism: a consumerist diversity. White students eagerly embrace this university-sponsored version, seeing it everywhere and in everyone. This is a highly individualistic, disposable, and inherently positive diversity that enables students an easy authentic experience of celebrating humanity. Issues of inequality clash against this feel-good understanding, enabling diversity loving white students to regard calls for racial justice as unjust anti-humanist racial attacks. Diversity efforts by the profit-minded university therein empower white students’ colorblind and even color conscious racism.
- Arthur Scarritt
BOISE 2021 BUDGET
As the City of Boise is currently making decisions about the next financial year’s budget, now is the time to let the mayor and our council members know that our community wants to see real change.
We need to speak up and advocate for defunding the police. Defunding the police means refunding social services.
Please show up and put pressure on our local elected officials and demand that they take our community’s needs seriously.
2021 PROPOSED BUDGET
IMPORTANT DATES
June 26th
The recommended fiscal year 2021 budget is released to City Council and the public. SEE THE BUDGET
June 30th
Boise City Council Budget Workshop at 8:30am
Boise City Council Meeting at 6:00pm
July 21st
Boise City Council Meeting at 6:00pm, Budget and Fee Public Hearing
July 28th
Boise City Council Meeting at 6:00pm
August 18th
Boise City Council Meeting at 6:00pm, 1st Reading of Budget
August 25th
Boise City Council Meeting at 6:00pm, 2nd Reading of Budget
September 1st
Boise City Council Meeting at 6:00pm, Reading and Vote on Budget
RESOURCES
• FY2020 Annual Budget + Full Budget Library
• 2019 City of Boise Comprehensive Annual Financial Report + Full CAFR Library
• Use Your Voice: Leave a budget comment online
• Use Your Voice: Email council members and the mayor
RESEARCH
BOISE CITY COUNCIL
MEETINGS GUIDE
All Meetings listed above are located in the Maryanne Jordan Council Chambers at Boise City Hall, 150 N Capitol Blvd. Get Directions.
Free parking is available in the City Hall parking structure (accessed on 6th Street, between Idaho and Main), beginning at 5:30pm.
The City of Boise is currently conducting Hybrid Meetings. 35-40 seats are pre-set in the council chambers, allowing for 6-feet of social distancing between attendees.Because of this limited capacity, virtual attendance is strongly encouraged.
Idahoans in the bottom twenty percent of earners pay ten times more property taxes, as a percentage of their income, than the top one percent of earners
Idaho Property Taxes Fund Critical Services and Could be Improved
