ALRIGHT FOLKS LET’S KICK THIS OFF

You could watch the city council meeting online but if you can’t we’ll update you here

There are only 25 people allowed inside bc of COVID but of course that means we apparently need 5 armed cops to watch over us?

Pledge of Allegiance is the first act.

Only some stand.

A majority of the public stay seated in solidarity.

@karenkgoh presents July as the Recreation and Parks month in Bakersfield but.......this is the portion of the budget they get

Yet again reinforcing the meaningless platitudes they give the community while not doing any actual action

Public statements are next up. @karenkgoh says she’s “very concerned about our issue” but we’re not here for conversation for conversation’s sake.

We expect DIRECT ACTION.

But apparently only 15 minutes are allowed but the gracious @karenkgoh is allowing 30 minutes to hear the public speak.

Right outside the city council chambers we ask them, will THEY invest in our future? Or will the answer ONLY to the police?

@bakersfieldpd @karenkgoh @andraegonzales @priveraw

The community isn’t asking anything that is radical. We’re asking them to do what they’ve been doing to affordable housing, education, and environmental justice FOR YEARS. So we literally SHOWED them what the police have done to communities. Will they listen?

The first public speakers (6/28 speakers) will go to things other than the budget. 22 speakers will now begin to talk about the FY20-21 budget.

Daulton James, an organizer with Faith in the Valley, representing the People’s Budget will go first.

He starts off by stating the the @bakersfieldpd is the deadliest police force in the nation.

He discusses measure N because a measure that was believed to go to the people but the majority is now going to the police.

He discusses how they have reached out to the City Council but have received nothing but platitudes.

He discusses the lynchings that have happened across the nation and how @andraegonzales has consistently gaslighted organizers here in Kern County while not committing to any actions.

He finishes by asking City Council not to adopt the budget given here today. He finishes to hear the crowd outside the chambers cheer for him to which @karenkgoh says is not respectful.

Tanyyah Hood is next and als speaks about Measure N and the lies to the public that the community would be given the money. She tells @karenkgoh that while they say they want to hear the community they have been trying for FOUR YEARS.

She finishes by asking them to defund @bakersfieldpd to make way for better education systems, affordable housing, mental health services to be responded with by cheers again by the crowd outside that can be heard inside the chambers.

@karenkgoh responds to this by????? SENDING A POLICE OFFICER TO QUIET THE CROWD THAT ISN’T EVEN IN THE CHAMBERS

Next up is former police officer Jerry Pettiford to talk about police and its history. It’s history as being slave catchers and how it was built on racism and still is. He talks about how police cannot be and should not be told to be social workers and mental health workers.

He says the money should be disinvested from the police to invest in the community.

Faheemah Salahud-Din Floyd is the final speaker on behalf of the people’s budget. She talks about how this is a LONG TIME COMING. How they have been organizing for years.

She says that it’s past time for police reform, especially for an institution rotten to its core.

She says “Your silence is complacency, it is consent.” She also finishes to the sound of cheers from the crowd. She says that the community in this chamber may be from different orgs and may just be community members but are demanding the SAME thing.

It has become VERY clear that @karenkgoh cares more about protocol than Black lives as she so boldly proclaims in tweets and statements.

Patrick Jackson, from the NAACP, says there has been lip service and photo ops, but no action. He says that the community wants the money to go to things like mental healthcare services.

Nikki from Thee Next Steps goes up. She says she sees no one that resembles us so how could they make decisions for her? “They value property hens and property over our lives.” She wants to discuss the line they use “I have no power” just so they can’t be held accountable

She says if they don’t comply, they should feel afraid and they can’t possibly feel they do their job right if they need the community to tell people to invest in education and marginalized communities.

She says “your time is up, we no longer accept what you want to give us”

The next speaker says talks about racism that is VERY prevalent in Bakersfield. The fear of going to Oildale. She talks about an experience with her daughter where a man yells racial slurs at them.

Next up is Jared who talks about why disinvesting in the police is so important. He says how tired he is of seeing the response to homelessness and mental health illnesses being criminalization.

Next up is Elizabeth Spavento who lives in Ward 2. She talked about the survey from The People’s Budget that says OVERWHELMINGLY the community wants to #disinvest2invest in the community for the first time.

She talks about the 5 part series from the @guardian that lists BPD as the deadliest police force in the nation. She says city council has failed, and she stands with not just the communities in Bakersfield but the communities GLOBALLY that are standing against systemic racism.

She talks about the systemic racism that is more than JUST police brutality. She talks about poverty here being roughly 1 in 5. She talks about finally doing restorative justice.

Andrea Guvera says that it shouldn’t be the community’s job to educate the city council. She talks about where the money can go when disinvesting from police and they should not be on the wrong side of history.

Next up a speaker talks about the police murders that have happened here. She says that if they decide to continue with appropriating money to the police, the community will show up.

Next up Aneri Patel asks the city council to look in her eyes as she demands they answer why the City Council continued to ignore the community.

The next speaker Anokhi Patel asks them to just LEAVE AND RESIGN if they can’t answer the community when we ask them to defund @bakersfieldpd and invest in our communities.

The next speaker is Adrien who talks about his MULTIPLE experiences with police brutality.

The next speaker is a first-gen Filipino woman from CSUB who states the comments ACLU has made of @bakersfieldpd

She then states which specific services the money should be put in when you #disinvest2invest including education and mental health services

The next speaker, David Abassi, keeps it concise and says “support @pplsbudgetbako and defund @bakersfieldpd”

Terry Maxwell, the former City Councilmember has the AUDACITY to say that we should have hired AT LEAST 100 more police officers, so it’s safe to say Ward 2 hasn’t been represented by the community for a long time

As the crowd boos him out of the chamber and the crowd interrupts with “No justice no peace. Fuck these racist ass police.” what you assume happens happens

Extra police officers enter to escalate a peaceful exercise of free speech

If you look closely the officer on the right who killed Francisco Serna is apparently still employed

After MULTIPLE intermissions, we assume because they would hope we would leave (we have not) we are finally on the budget.

The city manager says that from what he’s heard from the community he thinks the budget is fine. Even though the community is LITERALLY standing outside.

The city manager continues to talk about how more funding to the police will help with community outreach.

However, the COMMUNITY thinks that’s fucking bullshit.

Because we don’t need them to build better relationships, we need money for our schools, housing & mental health.

The city manager talks about other budgets (county, state and federal) but as many mothers would say: we can ALL do our part

City Council is time and time again failing to do theirs

they said they already gave “some” money for other services but compared to police, it is scraps

After a protestor coughed, police officers swarmed the crowd and have now LOCKED community members out of the city council meeting

8 cops went after one protester while the community members swarmed her to protect her

They stepped on another young girl’s foot and then proceeded to harass her while she tried to get her shoe and was just standing there

The city manager continues to say “we can think about refund communities as we go forward”

WE DO NOT NEED YOU TO THINK, WE NEED DIRECT ACTION RIGHT NOW

Andrae Gonzales says “the ability to interact with community was limited”

But that is false, he had every opportunity to reach out. The people’s budget dropped 10 days ago and we’ve interacted with almost 2,000 members.

Why are we doing the job of City Coucil?

This city council meeting has now been in session for FOUR HOURS.

They are virtually filibustering the community so we will leave.

A crowd is STILL here, the community will NOT back down anymore. If you are unfit to do your job, RESIGN.

I don’t think the ignorant city councilmembers realize that when they bring up body cameras, shots potter and “cOmMuNiTy pOLiCiNg” they are INCREASING THE POLICE BUDGET!

We are an abolitionist movement. BPD! We, the people, want your funding GONE. #TooLaterFor8cantWait

Once again, City Council has failed the community. They have voted to approve THEIR budget, NOT the community’s budget.

Next steps will be coming soon. Stay safe y’all.