Join us to win back the resources San Francisco needs to survive and thrive!
The cops are ROBBING US.
This year—like every year—San Francisco’s City Government wants to steal millions of dollars from the people & gift it to the SFPD: the most mismanaged & untrustworthy department in the City. They take this money from us: from struggling food banks, from our children’s classrooms, from harm-reduction services & healthcare. And beyond their bloated budget, the SFPD continues to rob us of our lives & our dignity: every year, we grieve loved ones stolen by police shootings.
The cops are ROBBING us by…
➜ …TAKING QTBIPOC LIVES: Through their weapons & neglect, the SFPD keeps killing Black & brown queer youth. Banko Brown, a 24-year old Black trans man, was killed by a Walgreens security guard in April, 2023. 20-year old Jaxon Sales passed away due to an overdose of GHB in March, 2020; the SF Sheriffs told his family no investigation was needed, because he was gay. Banko & Jaxon’s lives mattered, & in remembrance of their lives we will not allow SFPD to receive funding without consequence!
➜ …DISPLACING PEOPLE & ATTACKING UNHOUSED PEOPLE TO PROTECT PROFITS OVER PEOPLE: The San Francisco City government has a well-documented history of street sweeps, displacing unhoused folks to “clean up”, put the city on display, and roll out the red carpet for tourists & politicians. Mayor London Breed’s Safe Shopper Initiative in Union Square similarly prioritizes profits over people. The priorities of the SF City Government are very clear here: Instead of addressing the ongoing housing crisis, the Mayor & City wants to use our funds to destabilize the houseless community of SF & to maximize profits.
➜ …UNTAMED BUDGET GROWTH: Each SF City Department is undergoing a 10% budget cut for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025-2026 budget proposal. We know SFPD will not be beholden to budget reductions. In 2020, when organizers succeeded in defunding & cutting SFPD personnel for FY 2022, overtime pay went well past the budgeted amount of $14.6M to $47.2M! Not only have SFPD & London Breed consistently not honored community demands, but this directly impacts services & other departments. Millions of dollars are proposed to be cut in city programs while the SFPD budget receives increases of $63 million, continuing to worsen & exacerbate our safety concerns.
We demand the Mayor redirect 50% of the SFPD budget towards true solutions for San Francisco residents to survive & thrive.
We demand no budget growth for future fiscal years and an end to increases outside of the budget cycle.
We demand a cap in police overtime and pay that results in increasing gaps between SFPD and non-police City workers.
We demand an end to police programs that protect property over people, like street sweeps and “safe shopping programs.
In a safe city, we take care of EVERYONE.
In a safe city, we house our people; we make sure families have food; we invest in educating our young people; & we respond to our crises with care. Fighting for a safe city means building a compassionate city. Community-based approaches to housing, education, healthcare, & safety continue to prove successful and life-saving, while the police aggravate poverty & violence at every turn.
In a safe city, we take care of EVERYONE because…
➜ …UNHOUSED PEOPLE DESERVE CARE, NOT POLICING: Nobody is disposable. Unhoused people are people. They need food, water, & shelter—all their basic needs met just as we all do. There have been investments of $5.2 million in sober sites, $50 million in street crisis teams, and $6.4 billion for CA CARE Courts to show “care” for San Francisco’s unhoused citizens. However, the City’s forced treatment, unorganized response teams, & the policing and displacement of the unhoused do not solve the root problem at the heart of the city, which is a deep and fundamental lack of care. Having our basic needs met and sharing community with one another are solutions that actually promote care.
➜ …MEETING OUR NEEDS IS THE BEST WAY TO SAFETY: When people need care—which we always do—the police do not provide it. There are police units that are specifically dedicated & funded to respond to domestic violence, drug overdoses, & mental health crises: all of these represent situations where SFPD are not equipped to respond with care, & instead exacerbate the harm that people experience. When we civilianize these positions & put responsibility into the hands of the people, it works!
We demand the Mayor restore $400 million from the SFPD budget to meet the fundamental needs of the people of San Francisco.
Background
Since 2004, Lavender Phoenix has built grassroots transgender and queer Asian and Pacific Islander power in the San Francisco Bay Area.
As systems continue to fail us, our work has ALWAYS been about the safety of our communities. Over the years, we’ve trained hundreds of community members in de-escalation and crisis intervention; set up free mental health counseling networks by-and-for transgender APIs; led contingents for transgender APIs at Trans March to combat rampant isolation; & so much more. And in 2022, Lavender Phoenix joined the Sales family to fight for Justice for Jaxon Sales. With them, we demanded the SF Sheriff’s Department and OCME give his family answers for his untimely death.
However, after distributing hundreds of safety kits & leading a powerful contingent last June during Pride, the people in power voted on yet another budget that funded the same institutions that hurt our people and steal money from our communities. And last year, like every year, that looked like $63 million added to police funding, along with major cuts to services, such as reparations, tenant improvement grants, senior support, and assistance to small businesses. This year, after advocating for ballot measures to strip police accountability and criminalize poor San Francisco families, the Mayor had the audacity to defend herself and maintain that these decisions actively support OUR trans and queer community.
Mayor London Breed and the SFPD continue to invest in policing in OUR name, telling the story that both queer people and API people need MORE police. But we know very intimately the harm that these institutions enact on our communities. In order to build a truly safe city, we are organizing to demand CARE NOT COPS.
Updates
I’m learning to fight with all of me.
I sat at a small desk in my parent’s home in Phoenix, Arizona. Cool desert air floated in through the window, and rays of the…
Building a community rooted in compassion and curiosity.
Apply to the Summer Organizer Program today! I joined the Summer Organizer Program in 2016 when I knew very little about organizing and even less…
2024 Summer Organizer Program – Apply by 2/28!
Do you want to work with trans, non-binary, and queer Asian and Pasifika communities?Do you have a commitment to social justice, liberation, and collective transformation?Are…