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Community Solidarity Response Network Details Defund
Proposal
Sojourner’s Truth Staff
The Community Solidarity
Response Network held a press conference last week to
announce their detailed plan to demand that the City of
Toledo redirect a portion of the police department funding
to other programs designed to improve the lives of city
residents, such as housing, education, transportation and
health care.
CSRN members Julian Mack,
Ruth Leonard and Washington Muhammad, speaking in front of
One Government Center and surrounded by “Defund the Police”
and Black Lives Matter” signs, called on city leaders to
drastically reallocate such funds. “We know that when these
policies are implemented, Toledoans will be better off,”
said Mack.
Noting that the City
spends 31 cents of every tax revenue dollar on the Toledo
Police Department, Mack said “there is no evidence to show
that increased spending on policing brings about a reduction
in crime.”
Mack said that he and his
fellow CSRN colleagues are calling on the City of Toledo to:
“1. Redirect funds towards programs and services that
address basic human needs; 2. Increase public transparency
about police misdeeds and 3. Provide [information] to the
public to hold the Toledo Police Department accountable.”
Specifically, CSRN is
seeking a reallocation of one half of the TPD budget to
programming for affordable housing, job transportation,
education and health care. The group wants to reduce the
size of the police force by half and increase the
malpractice insurance for individual officers. With those
savings, the group anticipates that the City can ensure a
living wage for numerous citizens, improve infrastructure,
establish universal pre-K, eliminate blight, increase
addition services and improve numerous neighborhood
services, such as the availability of grocery stores.
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