June 24, 2020 Issue, Page 4 of 8

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Page 4 The Elk City News, Elk City, Oklahoma Wednesday, June 24, 2020 Point: Defunding the Opinion Page “ElkCituNews police makes sense Serving Western Oklahoma since 1901 Spirit of open records law is By Robert Weissman, In- than the city spends on pub- cording to University of recognize their importance sideSources.com lic health, housing, libraries, California law professor and individual and collective Set aside the emotions. city planning, parks and rec- Alexandra Natapoff. Some commitment to protecting Defunding the police - re- reation and emergency med- misdemeanors are serious, important, too communities, we can also ducing the money spent on ical services combined. but most aren’t. So long as policing and reallocating it The massive municipal most police arrests involves see the need for right size to other local priorities - isspending on policing simply misdemeanors, more po- police departments. There’s common sense, whether you crowds out spending on oth- lice means more crime and simply too much money be- The Oklahoman look at the issue from a bud- er priorities, leaving cities a lower quality of life - not ing thrown at police forces, Oklahoma City is following the letter of the law in with- getary, criminal justice or unable to make the invest- just because the numbers are and it’s coming at the ex- holding certain police video footage of recent downtown social point of view. ments they need to include artificially boosted by need- pense of other priorities. protests. It would do well, however, to follow the spirit of From the budgetary point everyone’s quality of life - less arrests for low-level Excessive policing is not re- the law instead. of view, we just spend too by creating more economic offenses but because peo- ducing crime - it’s criminal- The Okahoman recently asked to review footage from much money on policing. opportunity, supporting af- ple who are pulled into the izing black and brown com- pole-mounted cameras carried by police during the pro- Over the last 40 years, state fordable housing, improv- criminal justice system have tests late last month, one at NW 23 and Classen Boulevard and local spending on polic- ing parks and libraries, and narrowed opportunities and munities and making us less ing has almost tripled, rising more. are more likely to be pulled safe. and two others near police headquarters. Police made sev- eral arrests, most on complaints of rioting and disorderly from $42 billion to $115 bil- From a criminal justice back into the criminal justice At this moment of national lion (in 2017 inflation-ad- point of view, more police system again. reckoning, we should be re- conduct, and now the department is investigating use-of- justed dollars). do not give us more pub- From a social point of thinking the criminal justice force incidents. Consider these snapshots lic safety. Black and brown view, we ask the police to do system and shrinking its A police captain says the investigations have not been from Texas: communities know directly things they are not set up to completed and thus the department won’t be releasing the * The Dallas Police that the police are too often do. In too many cases, police footprint - decriminalizing videos. He said their release can be revisited when the re- Department budget _—_is a source of violence, ha- are the de facto case workers low-level offenses, reducing view is finished, but also that the municipal counselor’s $516,967,195 this year. rassment and intimidation - and jails the de facto clin- the prison population and office advised that videos from the pole-mounted camera That’s more than the city that’s what the Black Lives ics for people with mental yes, shrinking police forces are not subject to the state’s Open Records Act. will spend on libraries, parks Matter protests are surfacing illness. Police are often the - while redirecting resources The Open Records Act says this about the records and recreation, public works, so poignantly. frontline social workers for into investments in jobs and that shall be made available for public inspection: housing, planning and zon- The horrific police murder people experiencing home- housing, parks and libraries. “Audio and video recordings from recording equip- ing, and municipal courts of George Floyd was no ex- lessness. Police fill the gaps In doing so, we will improve ment attached to law enforcement vehicles or asso- combined. ception, and stop-and-frisk from missing economic op- public safety and quality of ciated with audio recordings from recording equip- * The city of San An- and similar abuses are per- portunity. We should instead ment on the person of a law enforcement officer.” tonio police budget is be relying on trained profes- life for everyone, especially vasive, not occasional. In the The city’s argument is that unlike body cameras or dash- $479,091,284 this year. peak year of stop and-frisk sionals to perform these and those in black and brown board cameras, pole-mounted cameras are not attached to That’s 37% of the city’s during the New York mayor- other tasks. communities. a person or vehicle. general fund spending _ alty of Michael Bloomberg, Policing is hard work, and Robert Weissman is the Mark Thomas, vice president of the Oklahoma Press As- more than taxpayers spend New York police conducted we all need assurances of president of Public Citizen, on human services, housing, almost 700,000 stops, with public safety. Police must be a nonprofit consumer ad- sociation, is among those who see it differently. Thomas courts, jails, libraries, pub- African Americans and Lati- held accountable for wrong- counters that a pole-mounted camera is attached to a per- lic parks and animal control nos nine times more likely to doing, but we all should also vocacy organization that son and therefore the footage is subject to the open records combined. be stopped than whites. appreciate the good-faith champions the public inter- law. * Austin’s police de- The overwhelming num- and hard work of most po- est in the halls of power. He “Tf they take a body cam off their chest and attach it toa partment’s budget is ber of police arrests are for lice officers. wrote this for InsideSources. pole, and hold it two feet in the air, does that make it con- $440,000,000. That’s more misdemeanors - 80%, ac- At the same time we can com, fidential?” he asks. It’s a good question. Thomas adds this: “If law enforcement feels the need to Counterpoint: Defunding police carry a camera in public and video the public, the public ought to have the right to look at it.” Ultimately, this argument will probably need to be set- will prove black lives don’t matter tled by the Legislature. When he was a state senator, Okla- homa City Mayor David Holt helped to update the open records law, with a goal of enhancing transparency while also protecting citizens’ privacy. By Nadra Enzi, Inside- among departments in deal- take these radical activists at with the rise of Black Lives “Did we think about a guy holding a pole? No, we did Sources.com ing with protesters. CHAZ/ their word, The screaming Matter activism. Less em- not,” Holt says. “There’s always something. You think George Floyd’s murder CHOP insists they are free protesters and slightly less powered and underfunded you thought of everything.” was a horrific crime, and of a police presence, and the shrill elected officials are de- police departments will ef- Oklahoma State University journalism professor Joey it has literally changed the mayor’s office wants only a manding defunding. Safety fectively be set up to fail in Senat, an expert on open records, laments that for “every world. But we need to take limited first-responder pres- citizens need to make it clear underserved low-income, other public record in the state” it is presumed the record a moment to calm ourselves. ence there. we support fully funded and high-crime communities. is open until the Legislature closes it. We must reflect on our goals Whichever side has the empowered police depart- My grassroots security con- But with law enforcement, Senat said, the reverse ap- for fixing law enforcement upper hand, the bottom line ments. Period. And they sulting began in such an plies. problems before letting radi- is that governments are anx- need to know that we also area. I know firsthand that In a tweet, he called Oklahoma City’s interpretation of cal activists take control of ious to avoid the next high- support punishing rogue of- less monied and less em- the law “asinine.” the criminal justice reform profile police use of deadly ficers. powered departments mean agenda. force and rioting thereafter. Both safety citizens and more misery for majority- “Tf police want to be trusted,” he said, “try transparen- That’s because - in the Consider what happened in police critics hoped earlier black communities. cy.” It’s advice worth considering. wake of the memorial ser- Atlanta, which was the lat- community policing poli- These poorly funded de- vices, protests and riots - est city to suffer arson and cies would be the solution to partments already experi- there has been a steady call vandalism after Rayshard long-term tensions between ence personnel shortages for changing the police by Brooks was killed by an of- law enforcement and ur- and lengthy 911 response defunding them. ficer there. ban communities. Its focus times. Residents in the oc- On the June 14 edition of on relationship-building at cupied CHAZ/CHOP are That officer was immedi- “Face the Nation,” an in- ately fired and charged with all levels, however, seems complaining about a lack of terview with Seattle Police murder. to have fallen short of the Chief Carmen Best was Incidents like this will mark. In fact, it appears that first responders. How will matters be made worse by prophetically titled “Polic- only increase demands for relationship-building —_ be- withholding or terminating ing will never be as it was.” defunding. tween police and the public police budgets there and Truer words have yet to be Defunding may actually be gave way to calls for di- across America? written. more of a wish than reality minished police powers and Chief Best appears to be given complex webs of mu- even abolishing the profes- Regardless of whether de- at odds with Seattle Mayor nicipal, state and federal law sion altogether. funding demands are wis! Jenny Durkan over how to in addition to civil service Defunding proposals ful thinking or determined deal with protesters who and police union regulations couldn’t come at worse steps toward an abolition of created CHAZ - the “Capi- to be untangled before what time. Culturally, American the police profession, one tol Hill Autonomous Zone.” is an obviously dangerous law enforcement became in- inescapable conclusion re- Now called CHOP, or “Cap- goal can be attained. While creasingly unpopular since mains: defunding police is to the editor to itol Hill Organized Protest,” there still may be cops, how- the 2014 death of Michael defeating public safety. This this occupation of several ever, they may have to deal Brown in Ferguson, Mo. defeat will be acutely felt in square blocks of the Emer- with significant funding cuts This tipping point birthed the very communities that ald City best shows how the like those already proposed “de-policing,” where offi- screaming that black lives editor@ sides are lining up in this raging debate. While she says there is in Los Angeles and New cers who feel they are un- matter. York City. But people like me - der too much scrutiny cease Nadra Enzi is a member of being proactive for fear of the Project 21 black leader- ecdailynews.com not a “cop-free zone” in the “safety citizens” who value termination or even prosecu- ship network and grassroots city, Best’s decision not to our communities and want tion by state and federal au- security consultant in New forcibly disband the CHAZ/ to work with authorities to thorities. Orleans. He wrote this for CHOP reflects a hesitancy keep them crime-free - must A bitter irony emerges InsideSources.com.