The Oakland City Council on Thursday voted for the city to transfer $17 million from the city's police department to its department of violence prevention, among other changes, following over four hours of public comment.
Council President Nikki Fortunato-Bas' amended budget, a compromise after Mayor Libby Schaaf's initial plan increased funding to the Oakland Police Department, was approved on a 6-2 vote Thursday night.
Mayor Schaaf said in a statement Thursday night that 50 officers will lose their jobs as a result of the budget.
"I believe that until we have proven alternatives, we cannot destroy Oakland’s current public safety system at a time when we are losing so many to gun violence," the mayor said.
Many of Thursday's over 100 speakers were concerned about the rise in gun violence in the city in the wake of last week’s Juneteenth shooting, including the president of the Police Officer's Association and the city police chief.
The majority of Thursday's speakers agreed with Rachel Beck.
"Housing and jobs are violence prevention," Beck said. "Police are violence reaction."
The Department of Violence Prevention's budget doubled under the approved plan, which didn't include an amendment that would've funded four Oakland Police Academy classes over the next two years.
Barry Donelan, the Oakland Police Officer's Association President, said during Thursday's meeting that "an initiative to reduce our numbers in the face of violent crime ... just doesn't bode for a very good outcome."
The latest deadly shooting was just last weekend at the Lake Merritt Juneteenth celebration. Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong said 60 officers were at the lake. One person was killed during the shooting and seven others were injured.
"The resources that we had out there, we wouldn’t have had those resources six months ago," Armstrong said.
Armstrong claimed the department wouldn’t have had those resources if the cuts that some groups want to the budget come to fruition.
But many speakers on Thursday believed that funding should be redirected towards violence prevention, not beefing up the police department’s numbers.
Becca Sharp, who told the council on Thursday she could see Saturday's shooting from her window, was among them.
"Everybody's just like, 'Oh, more funds have been granted to OPD,' " Sharp said. "Yet they have continued to overspend their budget, and violent crime continues to increase and so has violence in other forms. Like, poverty is violence. Hunger is violence."
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