Seattle Solidarity Budget (not EFF) will host this event. EFF's Beryl Lipton will participate.
Stop Surveilance City: Teach-in & Panel Discussion
The Mayor is shoving harmful corporate police technologies through a rushed process this month. Learn with us all about how crappy this tech is, how bad it is for communities most impacted by policing and violence, and what we could have instead: violence and harm reduction programs that *actually* keep us safe.
We'll cover all ways you can make your voice heard before it’s too late.
When:
February 26, 2024
7:00 PM PT
Where:
Online (Via Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube)
Cost:
None
Event Requirements:
None
From Seattle Solidarity Budget
Right now, with at least 32% of our city’s general fund going towards criminalization and punishment, the only guarantee is that Seattle’s most marginalized and vulnerable residents lack the resources needed to survive. Our city’s current budget allocations guarantee continued suffering in the form of sweeps of our unhoused neighbors, and repeated arrests, court dates, and nights in the deadly King County Jail for Black and brown communities, queer and trans folks, people with disabilities, and poor people in general. We believe true safety comes from guaranteeing that people’s material needs are met. Every person in Seattle should have what they need to survive and thrive. We reject a system that sorts people into categories of deserving and undeserving and assigns resources accordingly. We reject eligibility requirements for essential goods and services that require people to prove they’re deserving of what they need to live and are used to criminalize and exclude the people most in need. We reject the use of the criminal legal system as an entry point to meeting basic needs. Instead, we call for a city budget that guarantees our collective well-being without conditions. Our budget advocacy will focus on fighting to win the Solidarity Guarantees. We will evaluate any proposed budgets on how much closer they get us to achieving universal, accessible, and decommodified services. We demand the City of Seattle provide the residents of our city with basic guarantees that provide a base standard of living and quality of life for all people in Seattle. The city has prioritized punishment as a means to attempt to mitigate social issues, when services and access to resources are what have been proven to not only mitigate, but remediate circumstances that currently lead to contact with police and the punishment system.
About the Speaker:
Beryl Lipton, Investigative Researcher, focuses her work on government transparency, law enforcement surveillance technology, and other uses of technology by government actors. She has extensive experience using Freedom of Information laws and large-scale public records campaigns in her research.
At EFF, Beryl supports the Atlas of Surveillance, The Foilies, The Catalog of Carceral Surveillance, among other projects. She enjoys teaching others about the strengths and limitations of public records laws and discussing the potential and real harms of the surveillance state.
More about Seattle Solidarity Budget
The Seattle Solidarity Budget is a collective call toward a city budget that centers the needs of the most marginalized and vulnerable Seattle residents, responds with funding that is commensurate with the crises we are facing, and prioritizes collective care and liberation. Our struggles to build a more equitable Seattle are interconnected. The places in our city where inequality cuts most deeply are also the places most heavily policed. At the core of the Solidarity Budget is our refusal to allow our movements to be pitted against each other for funding. Divesting from police, courts, and prosecutors and investing in Black communities goes hand in hand with climate justice work and housing justice work and participatory budgeting.
This event is organized not by EFF, but by Seattle Solidarity Budget.
