Dear Bay Area Community, 

We are your neighbors, representing over 100 community, faith, and labor organizations and small businesses who care deeply about Oakland, and we are inviting you to say their names in remembrance with us: 

George Floyd. Breonna Taylor. Tony McDade. 

Rayshard Brooks. Sahleem Tindle. Sean Monterrosa.

Kayla Moore. Steven Taylor. Erik Salgado. Oscar Grant. 

On the streets, in our homes, in the media, the names of murdered Black and Brown people echo, with “Defund Police” and “Defend Black Lives” ringing out in return. 

But school’s out, jobs are scarce, and how are we going to pay our rent next week? For so many of us in this pandemic and recession, the choice is clear: take action to defend Black life and participate in the most transformative social uprising in a generation.

Children in our city deserve lush parks, healthy food, and the education that prepares them to build their dreams. Our teachers, nurses, and bus drivers deserve wages that help their families thrive. Everyone deserves a roof over their heads. Instead, Oakland City Hall prioritizes policing that terrorizes and harms our Black and Brown children and neighborhoods. In fact, right now, the Oakland Police are facing yet another use of force lawsuit for firing tear gas and rubber bullets at youth during the Oakland Tech High School march.

For decades, funding for the Oakland Police has grown to dominate nearly half of our city’s budget, displacing resources from essential programs and vital services for everyday people. And while City Hall will have us believe that there is no alternative, it is clear we have been led astray. 

We, The People of Oakland, proposed a new deal to City Hall that is specific, concrete, and provides immediate relief and community safety, without cages and guns. Remove $150 million from funding for the Oakland Police. Invest that money into life-affirming programs. This is the Black New Deal, and we need it now. 

In an appalling move this week, five city council members rammed through an anti-democratic budget proposal from the self-proclaimed “equity caucus,” without prior notice to their council colleagues nor us, their constituents. Their dishonorable budget pours hundreds of millions of dollars into Oakland Police, while cutting funds from Parks, Recreation, and Youth Development, and dismantling Human Services for the unhoused. This so-called “equity budget” will divert less than 1% of funding from policing and does little to further public safety in Oakland. 

Councilmembers Gallo, Reid, Taylor, McElhaney and Kaplan made a choice to stand on the wrong side of history and betray The People of Oakland. 

Full of false promises, each made a mockery of the last four weeks of protests, thousands of direct advocacy calls and emails, police commission recommendations, hundreds of unanimous public comments, and many years of organizations advocating for a city budget that truly invests in Black and Brown futures. 

But we will not be silenced, and we will not allow democracy to be trumped by a morally vacant City Council incapable of leading the change we need. Our demands will grow louder. 

Join us in declaring to Oakland City Hall, “Your Time is Up!” and let’s fight for a brighter and more just future, together. 

OUR FUTURE IS NOW

In solidarity,

The People of Oakland