1/8 Since @projetmontreal released their proposed 2021 city budget, they’ve been repeatedly asked to justify their proposed increases to the police budget when 60% of Montrealers want to #defundthepolice. They have provided three justifications, all of which are invalid.

2/8 First, @projetmontreal claimed that the city can't reduce the police budget because, under the Quebec Loi sur la police, Montreal has to maintain a specific police service level and a specific number of police officers.

3/8 It’s true that Montreal, like all cities in Canada, is required by provincial law to provide certain police services, but nowhere in the Quebec law – or any other provincial law – does it say that a certain number of police officers are required.

4/8 Second, @Val_Plante claimed that it would be unwise to reduce the police budget because there has recently been an increase in crime. There is no data to support this. When I asked her office about this, they said she was referring to “recent incidents involving gun crime.”

5/8 The police are certainly mediatizing incidents involving guns to mobilize public sympathy, but we have no crime data (including gun crime data) since 2019 and the overall crime rate is likely down. Since the pandemic began, crime is down in every US city where data exist.

6/8 Beyond this, the police anti-gun squad mostly targets Black people who *don't* have guns and police can't, in any case, prevent violence. If gun violence is the concern, then defunding the police and investing in community supports for people vulnerable to violence is needed.

7/8 Finally, @Val_Plante claims that defunding the police can't be done in haste. "Not now, we need time" seems to be @projetmontreal's SOP on police issues. Action on racial profiling needed to wait; data were needed. When the data came, we got a useless policy on street checks.

8/8 And yet, @projetmontreal felt comfortable cutting $35M in spending on non-police employees in 2021. This is a recurring pattern: since 2014, hiring freezes have been instituted repeatedly on all city employees except the police. It's time to reverse this and #defundthepolice.