June 02, 2020 00:49

The Racial Solidarity Committee of the Sacramento, Democratic Socialists of America stands in solidarity with our comrades fighting for Black liberation across the country and world. We stand in solidarity alongside Sacramento’s Black working class leadership as they organize and demand justice on our streets. We rebel in the name of Stephon Clark, Darrel Richards, Marshall Miles, Tony McDade, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and all victims of police violence, domestic and abroad. Mayor Steinberg would have you believe we’ve made progress. Yet we do not believe the continued targeted policing and murder of Black people constitutes “progress.” As socialists, we understand that capitalism depends on the racialized division of the working class and necessitates state violence to enforce those divisions.

Therefore, we support all those who righteously stand empowered, and demand as a bare minimum:

• The city listens to and enacts all demands listed by our comrades with Decarcerate Sacramento and the Anti-Police Terror Project .
• There be no funding taken from the CARES Act to fund the police in any capacity, and ensure that the CARES Act funds are distributed with a racial equity analysis and justification. ¹
• COVID austerity measures should begin with our city’s largest budget, the police. The 2020 -21 overall police budget should be reduced by at least 20%, not including the restoration of the looted $10 million from the Measure U funding. Furthermore, any lawsuit settlements with the police department should also be deducted from police budgets. ¹
• Mayor Steinberg and Governor Newsom not only call for the charging of all 4 officers involved in George Floyd’s murder, but actively advocate to apply pressure on the Govenor and DA in Minneapolis to bring these charges.
• Tangible policy changes that address the ongoing murder of and violence against Black people, by divesting from the school to prison pipeline, creating affordable housing, investing in mental-health resources, and the active engagement with and empowerment of community by establishing citizen oversight review boards with subpoena power.
• Governor Newsom and the State of California must lift the protections for police officers that unfairly provide them impunity granted under articles such as the Peace Officers Bill of Rights. Impunity Black people are never granted. The police should be accountable to the people they serve.
• Continued demilitarization and defunding of the police. The militarization of police signifies that they are at war with the communities that they purport to protect. By defunding the police we free up money and resources to support institutions, organizations and resources that will truly serve our communities.
• Cancel any funds the city would contribute to bring Major League Soccer to Sacramento

We call on our fellow Sacramentans to get organized, support all Black lives, Black healing, and support Black liberation from this fascist police state. This is not a riot, it’s a rebellion.

In solidarity,

Racial Solidarity Committee, Sacramento DSA

¹ Credit to Dr. Flojaune Cofer.