On Tuesday night, the City Council had a budget meeting and 146 people spoke up, making it last for a little over 7 hours. At least 257 people signed up to speak. Concerned Citizens for Justice put into perspective just how many people showed up to speak.

You can watch the meeting here.

The City Council Zoom meeting | NOOGAtoday

Quick glance at the budget

Discussion at the budget meeting was largely centered around defunding the police and reallocating funds into other needs, like health + safety, particularly in black communities. Residents also brought up education, transportation, and recreational resources. One common speaking point was how much of the city budget is for public safety, which takes up $118.86 million dollars (46%). Within “public safety” lies the police department, which takes up $71.93 million dollars (61%).

Youth and family development is allotted $11.13 million (4%) on the budget, and public works — roads, schools, reservoirs, etc. — is allotted $31.23 million (12%).

Allocated funds within the city budget by department | Screenshot

Allocated funds within police department budget | Screenshot

For more information about the city budget, go here.

What “defunding the police” means

Activists are asking the city to defund the police — this does not mean there would not be police officers in the city. Defunding means to divest + invest — to divest money from the police department budget and reinvest it into communities, mental health services, and social service programs.

e.g. There’s a disturbance in your neighborhood — instead of calling a traditional police officer, you would call a mental health worker or community leader to deescalate the situation and find further help for the individual, whether that be rehabilitation or clinical mental assistance.

For a closer look at what many activists want, the city of Camden, NJ is a good example.

Of course there is pushback to this movement as well. Many citizens don’t want to see the city without traditional police officers, and others are asking for changes like more officer training, but not to defund the service.

Quoteworthy

These are comments from area residents who spoke at the meeting.

“By narrowing the scope that police officers have you can not only reduce the harm that they cause but reduce the harm they inflict on themselves” – Vinay Hazare

“I ask that we divest from the police and invest in our communities. I was born and raised in Chattanooga and I’ve seen my city change and evolve but I fail to see that evolution in my community. The change that I’ve seen in my community has been a constant pattern of subtractions even down to our grocery stores. We are getting less than equal resources and we are sick of it … communities of low income and color have been ignored and set on the back burner in Chattanooga.” – Timiney Mott

“If you invest in black and brown communities, if you invested in education and social services and public transportation instead of investing into the police which leads to oppression, your graduation rates will go up, your crime will go down. Your employment rate will go up and your substance abuse will go down, as well as mental health emergencies.” – Anna Jones

“You want to tout Baby University, the mayor loves to use that as a talking point, we need an army of the people who work for Baby University, we need an army of social workers rather than an army of militarized police.” – Nathan King

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