Read on Twitter
Today I took part in the #yyccc anti-racism public hearings. Here is the call to action from the end of my statement: Right now, you all have a choice to move our city in a new direction; you also have a choice to repeat old patterns and behaviours.
You can reform, you can tweak, you can trim some fat from the budget, you can continue to fund the “polite managers of inequality.”
I urge all city councillors to be bold and imaginative in reinventing the way our city operates. I urge you to rethink the engrained and taught notions and ideas of what you think it takes to make our community safe.
I urge you to center the experience and voices of those most adversely impacted and ultimately move to defund and dismantle policing in Calgary as we know it and redirect your attention efforts and our money to community alternatives.
The past three days have been extremely frustrating and sad and the process was highly flawed to say the least. I truly hope folks did not voice their trauma, pain and lived experiences for show. I truly hope there is a better future ahead.
This is the article that I quoted in my full statement and where I borrowed the phrase “polite managers of inequality.” https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/how-i-became-police-abolitionist/613540/
