Join us to demand that our city lead­er­ship repri­or­i­tize! Put city ser­vices for Black, brown, and work­ing class com­mu­ni­ties above fund­ing for the racist, cor­rupt, high­ly mil­i­ta­rized Philadel­phia police department! 

This protest will attempt to fol­low social dis­tanc­ing mea­sures at all times. Please wear a mask while protest­ing and remain at least 6 feet away from any­one you do not live with.

STARTING LOCATION: 400 N Broad St, the site under devel­op­ment to become the new police headquarters.

——-

May­or Kenney’s bud­get pro­pos­al dras­ti­cal­ly cuts or elim­i­nates near­ly all city ser­vices, while giv­ing the already mas­sive­ly-fund­ed police depart­ment a $19 mil­lion raise. City Coun­cil bud­get hear­ings are occur­ring against the back­drop of the mur­der of George Floyd in Min­neapo­lis and increas­ing­ly vio­lent police respons­es to protests around the country. 

Recent protests are an expres­sion of anger reach­ing a boil­ing point in response to con­tin­ued police vio­lence against Black peo­ple, with­out any mean­ing­ful efforts toward account­abil­i­ty. In Philadel­phia, the poor­est major city in the U.S., com­mu­ni­ties of col­or suf­fer dis­par­i­ties in income, qual­i­ty of life, expe­ri­ences of vio­lence, and pub­lic health, includ­ing being more like­ly to con­tract and die from COVID-19. 

Philadel­phia does not need more police; we need acces­si­ble pub­lic health cen­ters, job and hous­ing assis­tance, libraries, arts pro­grams, and oth­er nec­es­sary and life-affirm­ing ser­vices that this bud­get would cut. We need our city work­ers to keep their jobs and the abil­i­ty to pro­vide these valu­able services. 

We demand that this bud­get be revised and that these ser­vices be fund­ed by remov­ing mil­lions from the police bud­get and by tak­ing the nec­es­sary steps to tax the most wealthy cor­po­ra­tions and indi­vid­u­als in our city. It is past time to insti­tute PILOTS, end the prop­er­ty tax abate­ment, and enact oth­er pro­gres­sive tax­a­tion mea­sures to force wealthy insti­tu­tions to pay their fair share. 

The deep struc­tur­al inequal­i­ty this bud­get reflects demands deep struc­tur­al change, which we can accom­plish only through orga­niz­ing. See you there!

—

Sev­er­al oth­er Black rad­i­cal orga­niz­ers in Philly have request­ed that we uplift their demands and fundrais­ing efforts, and we’re hap­py to do so! Check them out here: m.facebook.com/phillydemandsfreedom/