A petition to Roanoke City Council to delay the vote to adopt the budget for the 2021 fiscal year:

George Floyd's murder by the Minneapolis Police Department on May 25th has inspired a global outcry, including in all fifty states, to demand racial justice. In Roanoke, multiple groups have peacefully protested, marched, and facilitated important and educational discussions about police brutality and systemic racism in our community. The Black Lives Matter movement has inspired unprecedented political mobilization and unity towards a common goal in Roanoke City and that is to combat systemic racism at its roots.

Mayor Sherman Lea, Vice Mayor Joe Cobb and the City Council have stated just this week that (in Cobb’s words): “We are living (and dying, too many) in two pandemics – one that began six months ago called COVID-19, the coronavirus, and one that has been raging on for four hundred years, racism… This is our moment to work hard and get it right.”

The City Council’s only public hearing on the proposed budget was held on May 28th, just three days following George Floyd’s murder but several days before Roanokers began organizing to study the issues related to the RCPD and the city’s budget. The first peaceful march in Roanoke took place on May 30, 2020 where we were met with violence and aggression by the Roanoke City Police Department. Since then, diverse groups have assembled peacefully in support of combating systemic racism and achieving justice in our community, and we have ideas that we wish to submit for consideration for the 2021FY budget.

For our communities, one solution to systemic racism lies in how Roanoke City Government allocates taxpayer funds to invest in its communities. In light of recent events, your constituents would like the opportunity to review the budget and provide input on how budget changes can better reflect our commitment to safety for all residents as well as to benefit predominantly Black communities in Roanoke.

Examples of this include proposals to divest from the Roanoke City Police Department and invest in under-served communities by putting more into public education as well as job training, social work, rehabilitation and treatment methods rather than policing and punishment.

We, as your constituents, are asking for more time. We are educating ourselves about local policy and uniting like never before, and we request time to formulate informed recommendations that may be presented to the City Council, voted upon, and included in the city budget for the 2021 fiscal year.

We directly ask Mayor Sherman Lea, Council Member Anita Price, Council Member Michelle Davis, Council Member Joseph Cobb, Council Member William Bestpitch, Council Member Djuna Osbourne, and Council Member Patricia White-Boyd to unite with your constituents and use your power to abolish systemic racism in our community and invest in the community members who need us most. The first step is to delay the June 15th budget vote and schedule a public hearing for as soon as possible before the City Council votes on the budget.

Photo Credit: David Hungate, Roanoke Times