Santa Cruz NAACP to Raise Money for Local Police

Simba Kenyatta, the current President of the Santa Cruz NACCP, wrote an op-ed piece for the Santa Cruz Sentinel on July 30 praising local sheriffs for being different than the police who murdered unarmed black men in recent incidents in other states: "we wish to highlight the higher social sensitivity of the Santa Cruz County sheriff and applaud his novel tactics".

Simba Kenyatta also made this statement about the killing of unarmed black men by police: "This tragedy should not be allowed to continue because our future matters, all lives matter, blue lives matter and black lives matter!"

This statement from Simba Kenyatta is a clear co-option of the Black Lives Matter message.

It should be noted that the Santa Cruz NAACP was silent after two Santa Cruz Sheriffs shot and murdered 17 year old Cyrus Hurtado in Boulder Creek on July 9, 2015. Hurtado was suffering from a mental health episode when the Santa Cruz Sheriffs murdered him. The Santa Cruz NAACP exerted no influence over the Sheriffs Department to help improve their policies in order to prevent a murder like Cyrus Hurtado's from happening again.

In fiscal year 2012/2013 the budget for the Santa Cruz Sheriffs Department was $31 million for operations, and $68 million total including the budget for corrections.

In 2015 the Santa Cruz Police Department operated on a $25 million budget or 29% of the City of Santa Cruz’s entire General Fund.

The Mission Statement of the NAACP is: "to ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial and hatred discrimination".

The Vision Statement of the NAACP is: "to ensure a society is which all individuals have equal rights and there is no racial hatred or racial discrimination".

Does the Santa Cruz NAACP think it is more important for their organization to raise money for police than raising money for local schools? Or raising money for the homeless? Or for those that are hungry?

The police fundraiser in August is being sponsored by the Santa Cruz chapter of the NAACP to support: Santa Cruz Police Department, Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office, Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) Santa Cruz, and Santa Cruz County Community Coalition to Overcome Racism (SCCCCOR).

A Facebook event post for the fundraiser is requesting the community donate money in advance of the fundraiser by Paypal to: "offset some of the set-up costs".

From the Facebook event post:

Join us for a day of fun and games to raise money to build coalitions between the Santa Cruz community, law enforcement agencies, and organizations committed to racial justice.

The event will feature:

*Bounce houses
*Dunk tank
*Exotic petting zoo by Pet Shop Santa Cruz
*Music by DJ SPARKLE
*Escape room by EXIT Santa Cruz
*Pokemon lures
*Free racial bias awareness training

The Black Lives Matter Movement talks about how much money flows to police departments.

From the Black Lives Matter Demands:

"The federal government should reallocate funding currently dedicated to policing and incarceration and instead invest those funds in long-term safety strategies such as educational, community restorative justice and employment programs that have been shown to improve community safety."

"In the last few decades, the federal government has thrown billions of dollars at state and local governments to fund quickly expanding police forces and jails. Since Sept. 11, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) alone has given between $30 billion and $40 billion in direct grants to state and local law enforcement, as well as other first responders. The federal government doled out an additional $376 million to state and local law enforcement in 2013 through the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Grant program. That was down from more than $1 billion in 1998. And of course there is the estimated $5 billion worth of surplus military equipment that the has gone to local law enforcement, 20 college campuses and over 20 school districts through the Department of Defense’s (DOD)1033 P These funds are given with little or no oversight and there is no accountability mechanism."

"Moreover, there is no evidence that the massive spending on incarceration reduces crime rates or keeps communities safer. Studies do show that jobs and education make communities stronger and keep them safer. Investments in community based drug and mental health treatment, education, universal pre-K, and other social institutions can make communities safer while improving life outcomes for all. Children who do not participate in the preschool programs are 70 percent more likely to be arrested for a violent crime by age 18. And youth who participate in summer job programs in Chicago saw a 43 percent decrease in arrests over a 16-month period. Studies show that jobs and education do not just make communities stronger — they make them safer."

More info:

The Movement for Black Lives Platform
https://policy.m4bl.org/