Defund and Disarm the Police
In the OPS 2020 Draft Budget book, the 3% increase in the police budget (approved by City Council), is justified, in part, by a commitment to “addressing the root causes of crime and social disorder” in marginalized neighbourhoods through the creation of Neighbourhood Resource Teams (NRTs). Yet there is no explanation of precisely what these resource teams are equipped to do, outside of providing increased police presence.
The notion that police are in any way equipped to address "root causes" is absolutely asinine. Police exist for the sole purpose of criminalizing social struggles. If the City were really committed to addressing social issues, it would not be trying to justify spending more on policing than on public health and affordable housing combined. We have over 10,000 households on the centralized social housing registry waitlist, yet Ottawa invested a meagre $15 million in new affordable housing for 2020. Our residents are waiting months, if not years, to access essential social supports that are not adequately funded. And then, when those who are chronically under-resourced experience a mental health crisis, they run the risk of being killed by police on a "wellness check." Instead of supporting and uplifting communities, our municipal government continues to invest a disproportionate amount of funding into a service that cards, intimidates, harasses, and physically harms those who are already oppressed by a myriad of social and political systems.
As residents, we want better, and we deserve better. We must defund the police and redirect public dollars into programs that will actually contribute to the health, well-being, and autonomy of our communities. At the same time, so long as police services exist, we must disarm them of the lethal equipment that they use to escalate encounters with civilians, often with devastating results. If cops in the UK do not need guns, neither do cops in Canada. Guns and other lethal weapons serve no purpose in community "safety" initiatives.