Police Budget Opposition Activists Plan Grassroots ATL Weekend

ATLANTA — Activists opposing the proposed increase for the Atlanta Police Department budget are planning weekend activities to promote redirecting police dollars.

Calling itself Defund APD, Refund Community (DARC), the group will canvas Atlanta neighborhoods on Saturday to forward its “Not Our Budget” agenda of demilitarizing the police, trimming funding for jails and redirecting police dollars to other community initiatives, and on Sunday film testimonials of residents who share common goals for police reform.

DARC 19 has amassed a coalition of residents and community organizations calling for the $230 million city leaders have budgeted for the police to be reduced so other services can benefit.

“Given the budget’s failures to appropriately and adequately fund community needs and services, such as real affordable housing, services for Atlanta’s houseless community, food accessibility, public and mental health services, and real, safe alternatives to policing, among other services, this group demands that City Council amend the FY22 budget to reallocate money from policing and incarceration to community services,” a letter from DARC to media said.

The budget — which has been bolstered by $178 million in federal dollars from President Joe Biden’s Rescue America Plan — reflects an effort by the city to stave off spiking crime by hiring 250 more officers, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

But DARC envisions a 30-percent cut to that budget to be offset by other uses for such money.
As demands to “defund police” rose in the past year following the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Rayshard Brooks at the hands of police (and a summer of social unrest), the tradeoff is more focus on community building, as DARC points to in its five-point proposal.

Meeting those demands just got tougher, as Gov. Brian Kemp last week signed into law a House Bill 258 prohibiting police in the state from cutting their budgets by more than 5 percent in one year or over a five-year period, according to the AJC.

Nonetheless, DARC will proceed with its plans to push for reallocation of police funding.

Not Our Budget Events

Canvasing
When: 10 a.m., Saturday, June 5
Where: Perkerson Park, 770 Deckner Ave., SW, Atlanta
Film Screening
When: 4 p.m., Sunday, June 6
Where: Noni’s, 357 Edgewood Ave., Atlanta