The cry is still to defund versus defend police budgets. Recently, local organizers hung signs displaying some of the names of 191 unhoused people who have died during the Harrell administration. Mutual aid workers from Stop the Sweeps, wearing tags that read “SPD,” “Harrell Admin,” and “City Council” used brooms to brush red paint over the names to illustrate that sweeps kill. The group came together to protest blindly funding the police budget and homeless camp sweeps.
The city reportedly used salary savings to fund cop bonuses, and they justified the incentives as being budget-neutral, one resident said. For that reason, the Solidarity Budget reportedly said that it would rather avoid salary savings in the first place.
Last week, organizers held two demonstrations at City Hall to pressure city council members to adopt budget demands that would fund social services with money Mayor Bruce Harrell proposed to fill unfillable positions in the Seattle Police Department (SPD) and to expand the City’s efforts to sweep unhoused people.
Organizations got creative with the project. Organizers from the Solidarity Budget, which is the name of the coalition of activists who led the demonstrations, “haunted” City Hall dressed as “Ghostbusters” in yellow hazard suits and as “ghost cops” in bed sheets, police hats, and Groucho disguise.
Seattle’s left leaning residents were asked to continue working outside of the system but also to challenge incumbents in the 2023 election. A newly proposed amendment does not ensure sweeps will slow, but organizers at the rally on Thursday hoped their demonstration would pressure her to gut funding for removals in her balancing package, or else for other council members to take up their cause in negotiations.
