SLO protesters want to shift money from law enforcement to social services and housing
After a week of protests throughout San Luis Obispo County over the police killing of George Floyd, San Luis Obispo protesters on Monday gathered outside county budget hearings to demand that some local law enforcement funding be spent elsewhere.
In a “last-minute” demonstration that included about 200 peaceful protesters late Monday afternoon, participants demanded that departments such as the Sheriff’s Office, county Probation, and the District Attorney’s Office not receive requested budget increases but rather send that funding to the Department of Social Services and the Public Defender’s Office, among others.
The protest was held as some activists across the country have called for the dismantling of troubled local law enforcement agencies.
But San Luis Obispo County organizers say that isn’t the case here.
“We’re not looking to de-fund or disband police departments, we are looking to re-prioritize where our county’s standards and mission lay,” Katie Grainger, spokeswoman for Monday’s event, told The Tribune. “We spend about five times as much on the Sheriff’s Office and probation than we do on mental health services. That has to change. “
The “Call To Action” was co-organized by R.A.C.E. Matters SLO and local young black leadership, and coincided with the county’s first of likely several days of Board of Supervisors hearings regarding the proposed 2020-21 county budget.
In that draft budget, the Sheriff’s Office is requesting a budget of roughly $52 million, an increase of about $2.5 million from Fiscal Year 2019-20.
Organizers gathered in front of the County Government Center beginning at about 4:30 p.m.
Following a brief introduction by one of the event’s youth leaders, Tianna Arata, R.A.C.E. Matters SLO County’s Grainger told the crowd the proposed budget is heavy on funding for incarceration but leaves far less for social safety nets.
“We’ve reviewed the county’s proposed budget for next fiscal year, a 577-page document, and we are here to say that this budget as proposed needs some reform,” Grainger said to cheers.
Grainger said that in an area where housing is unaffordable for many, the county’s proposal is “unacceptable.”
“This is systemic. It starts locally. It starts now,” Grainger said. “ We need to divert funds, and we’re calling on our Board of Supervisors to reallocate some of these funds. We need to invest in social services, in housing.”
Grainger, who formerly worked with San Luis Obispo County’s Administrative Services, said she saw firsthand the consequences of a lack of mental health and social services funding and how it affects individuals and their families.
“I would tell families (with loved ones in the criminal justice system seeking behavioral health treatment), ‘I’m sorry, we don’t have the funds,’” she said. “Well, we do have the funds. We need to prioritize them.”
Arata thanked demonstrators for attending, noting that the event was “last-minute.” Arata and several other youth leaders who have spoken at other recent rallies then led the crowd down Higuera Street for a march that wrapped around downtown and ended up back at the government center for a second rally.
Marchers took to the street chanting, “What do we want? Justice. When do we want it? Now,” and “Whose streets? Our streets.”
The march continued onto Santa Rosa Street.
Grainger later told The Tribune that the group does not have specific dollar figures they want to see cut from various departments, but she noted that the county is lacking certain services and does not have a local mental health residential treatment facility, for example. Such a facility could have prevented recent deaths of County Jail inmates such as Andrew Holland, she said.
Holland, who suffered from schizophrenia, died in January 2017 after sheriff’s deputies and behavioral health physicians left him tied to a restraint chair for 46 hours.
She said another systematic inequity that needs to be addressed in the upcoming budget is the financial disparity between the District Attorney’s Office and the county Public Defender. This fiscal year, the prosecutors’ office received $11.5 million in general fund support versus the Public Defender’s Office’s $6.7 million.
The proposed 2020-21 budget would widen that gap even further to $12.7 million and $6.9 million, respectively. If adopted as proposed, the DA’s budget would increase by more than 11%, while the public defender would increase by a little over 2%.
In contrast, the Sheriff’s Office budget was $50.2 million in 2019-20. It would rise 5.1% to $52.2 million next year. It is by far the county’s largest department.
The group is urging residents to demand the Board of Supervisors adopt a budget that has less funding for law enforcement by calling their local supervisor’s office or submitting public comment on the budget hearings
R.A.C.E. Matters SLO also encourages people to sign a Change.org petition that has been created and lists several demands that include increased oversight and transparency of law enforcement.
The group, as well as the local chapter of the NAACP, have pledged to continue local protests at least monthly. Organizing is happening rapidly, Grainger said, and there is yet to be one cohesive schedule of planned events. But interested participants are encouraged to check the R.A.C.E. Matters SLO County Facebook page for upcoming events.
Another Facebook page, SLO County Protest Watch, has also recently been created and features upcoming events across the county.
Protesters across the country are leading marches and rallies for the second week after the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes.
