George Floyd, Chantel Moore, Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, and Junior Manon.
These are just a few of the names of the black and indigenous people killed at the hands of police in the US and Canada.

The combination of systemic racism and growing budgets have many calling for “police defunding”.

It doesn’t necessarily mean the elimination of the police force.
But it does mean a fundamental change in how we think about police, and a substantial diversion of public money from the police to housing, mental health, transit, and other social goods.

Right here in Nanaimo we spend more on our police force—as a percentage of our total budget—than Vancouver, Victoria, and most other municipalities in BC.
Yet council wants to increase police spending over the next four years!

There are other, better, options than always sending someone with a gun and badge to every emergent need of the community.

Alternatives have worked well in other cities!
Camden, New Jersey⁠—for example⁠—went from the highest murder rate in the US in 2012 to decreasing their crime by 40% and only having 3 excessive force complaints against their police last year.

So if you want council to work with the provincial government to reduce police spending and to put that money into alternative methods of crisis intervention—into more appropriate avenues of first response—then sign this petition!

Let's show the mayor and council that this city cares about justice reform!