Early Survey Results Reveal: Overwhelming Support to Redirect Police Funding to Community Programs
Katia Pérez, mass liberation organizer with the progressive group Reclaim Philadelphia, said the deal didn’t do enough to bring change to a scandal-plagued agency. Her group and other activist organizations have called for stricter disciplinary measures, reducing the size of the force, and reallocating police spending toward other services.
“I see the small wins, but there’s a lot more work to do,” she said.
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On September 14th, the City of Philadelphia and the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) announced that an agreement on a three year contract had been reached. In many ways, this negotiation was a historic first. For the first time in Philadelphia and nationally, public testimony was part of the contract process. This was a critical step towards increased transparency and greater community involvement. It is important that those who are most affected by police violence and misconduct be part of the negotiations.
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“There’s definitely been pushback from the Democratic establishment,” Perez said. “There is a lot of [pressure] to continue to do politics the same way they’ve been done in Philly … but the problem with that is that the system prioritizes ‘How many favors have been done?’ and ‘When do I get my payback for the favors that I’ve done?’”
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"Since 2013, only 2% of community member formal complaints against Philly police have resulted in a guilty finding, and 70% of those guilty verdicts were reduced or overturned after binding arbitration." It's about time arbitrators heard from community members. "We cannot allow the FOP to dictate our future. Let this be the moment where our city negotiates for us. We deserve it, and our lives depend on it."
Read More![Mass Lib Taskforce Leader A'Brianna Morgan featured in Refinery29: “[The murder of George Floyd] so traumatic and I felt heartbroken.”](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ba1c911ee17596840490cd7/1625728160764-AYBDJ01UDK1X1FQZVTW1/Screen+Shot+2021-07-08+at+3.07.43+AM.png)
“There was a lot of anger, people were actively grieving,” A’Brianna Morgan, a 26-year-old mass liberation organizer with Reclaim Philadelphia, tells Refinery29. Morgan, who had been participating in direct actions for months before last summer’s racial justice movement, was focused on getting people released from jails as the COVID-19 pandemic surged nationwide. When the summer of civil unrest began, there was, she said, a surge of energy around the work she had already been doing.
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