Partners for Dignity & Rights invites you to join us in demanding state and local governments say No to Austerity and Police Budgets, Yes to Democracy and Human Needs.

The fight over priorities in state and city budgeting connects to every area of our work, from housing to healthcare to dignity at work and at school. In collaboration with our partner organizations, we have been fighting and winning campaigns for Counselors Not Cops and to Defund Police and instead to fund human needs. Dignity in Schools Campaign-NY has been taking this struggle to the NYC budget fight.

As state and local governments wrestle with budget shortfalls caused by the pandemic, it’s time to demand our elected representatives pursue budgets that reflect our values. This means budgets with more money -financed by taxes on millionaires and giant corporations – to protect workers, housing, health care, schools, and income guarantees, not for police, prisons, and criminal courts.

Over the last 40 years, state and local governments have tripled the amount they spend on police and corrections – an increase of $134 billion since 1977 – continuing to rise whether crime statistics went up or down. As we have seen, policing and mass incarceration have wreaked havoc on Black and Brown communities. They have been driven by self-serving politicians, prosecutors, and police unions pushing racist “law and order” policies, not by a real commitment to repairing and preventing harm.

As police budgets have expanded and police department’s missions have crept into more areas of society, from school security to mental health services, their involvement has made things worse. Criminalizing students, persons without housing, or those with addictions does not increase public safety. Killing with impunity is not law and order.

We don’t have to go back to the way things were. The future we need is within our reach, and there is enough for all of us. Sign up here to join this fight.