By Brittney Bush Bollay, Seattle Group Chair
As an environmental organization, it may seem strange for us to be taking a stance on policing issues. Many know the Sierra Club for our work on national parks, clean energy, salmon restoration, and the like. But at the heart of all of these issues is one core drive and mission -- to create a world that is safe and healthy for every living being. To realize this mission is simply impossible without ensuring the safety of Black lives, and ensuring the safety of Black lives requires ending violent, racist policing and replacing it with a positive system of community care and support.
Consider Christian Cooper, the Black birder in Central Park terrorized by a white woman simply because he asked her to follow the rules. The police’s history of anti-Black violence allowed her to use them as a tool to threaten Cooper and make him feel unsafe in an outdoor space meant for ALL. Unfortunately, this is only one entry on a long list of times policing has damaged Black people’s comfort and security in our parks. From the Central Park Five to Black park-goers being harassed or arrested for not wearing masks (while unmasked white people are ignored), our public spaces have repeatedly shown themselves not to be the egalitarian locales we like to imagine.
Consider public transit, another space we hold dear. Despite claims of an unbiased system, Black riders in Seattle face disproportionate amounts and levels of fare enforcement. Frightening interactions with transit police discourage Black riders from using transit, and even low-dollar citations can be the entry point into financial crisis for vulnerable riders.
Consider Capitol Hill, one of the most environmentally friendly areas in Washington thanks to its housing density and richness of transit. When we fight for these neighborhoods, we must also fight for their residents, who were recently tear-gassed in their own homes during a protest for Black lives. Our over-militarized police force robbed entire communities of their health and security when they deployed weapons banned even in war, causing babies in nearby apartments to foam at the mouth and possibly worsening a respiratory pandemic which already disproportionately affects Black people and communities. The long-term effects of this chemical exposure are not fully known.
But consider, most of all, that this is simply the right thing to do. While there have been many attempts at police reform in the past, none has worked. We now know our best shot at true change is to overhaul the system. This requires a two-pronged approach: defund the police and use that money to invest in housing, education, food security, and other programs that prevent crime in the first place. Further, Sierra Club has committed to guiding its work by the Jemez Principles, which call on us to build just relationships and work together in solidarity and mutuality. We believe in using our voices to support and amplify those of our allies, and so we are following the lead of Black- and POC-led organizations in the city of Seattle to make the following demands:
1- Seattle's Mayor and City Council must immediately defund Seattle Police Department (SPD). The city faces a $300 million budget shortfall due to COVID-19. Seattle City Council should propose and vote for a 50% cut from the $363 million already budgeted for SPD.
2- Seattle's Mayor and City Council must protect and expand investments to make our communities safe, prioritizing community-led health and safety strategies. Full access to affordable housing, community-based anti-violence programs, trauma services and treatment, universal childcare, and free public transit are just a few of the non-police solutions to social problems.
3- The Seattle City Attorney must not prosecute protesters, including those arrested violating curfew, and those living in encampments. Protesters took to the streets to call for the end of the murders of Black people by police, and SPD unnecessarily escalated tensions and violence.
Finally, as Sierra Club leader Hop Hopkins said in his recent Sierra Magazine article, Racism is Killing the Planet, “we will never survive the climate crisis without ending white supremacy. Here’s why: You can’t have climate change without sacrifice zones, and you can’t have sacrifice zones without disposable people, and you can't have disposable people without racism.”
Ending violent policing is a start, but the ties between racism and environmental degradation run deep, and there is much more work to do. To save the planet we must declare every day, with every breath, that Black lives matter. Thank you for adding your voice to the chorus.
You can join us in calling for systemic change to how we police our communities.
Click here to learn more about Defunding the Police!
Photo by Cooper Baumgartner on Unsplash