Protesters rally against ‘skyrocketing’ police budgets at Surrey City Hall
Posted November 24, 2018 9:44 am.
Last Updated November 25, 2018 10:31 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
SURREY (NEWS 1130) – People critical of what they call “skyrocketing police budgets” rallied in Surrey Saturday afternoon.
The activist group Protesters with Anti-Police Power Surrey – which appears to be affiliated with Alliance Against Displacement – are speaking out against police forces because they say police don’t make them feel safe. They want funding directed elsewhere.
“We’re told the police make us safe, but in our experience, they are a threat to our safety,” Lenée Son, a Surrey resident and member of the group says in a press release. “They surveill (sic) and harass homeless people, enforce the catastrophic war on drugs, and terrorize racialized and Indigenous communities, profiling and brutalizing young people of colour with impunity.”
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Activist Eva Botten says creating a Surrey Policing Force will just mean more costs for taxpayers. The activists are speaking out against funding for police that they would like directed toward community solutions, social programs and resources instead. She adds the $133 million needed to create the force is better off being spent on social housing, mental health services, and addressing homelessness in the city.
“The state of policing in Surrey right now, McCallum being in power, it definitely changes the dynamic in Surrey with how the budget is spent and whether or not we do receive a new police force and whether or not that’s a good idea for Surrey residents,” Botten tells NEWS 1130. “To break the contract is quite a bit of money and a lot of people are saying he’s underestimating that. I don’t think it’ll near to where we’re actually thinking right now.”
The activists accuse police and supporters of “play(ing) on Surrey residents’ fears of gang violence” in order to justify increasing police budgets.
“Violent crime is down, crime overall is down in Surrey. We don’t need to expand its police force. We shouldn’t be spending on breaking the federal contract with the RCMP, we should just reanalyze the state of Surrey right now and move forward from there,” Botten adds.
Another member, Jeff Shantz who teaches criminology at Simon Fraser University, says increasing police won’t help address Surrey’s gang problems.
“This overwhelming police presence does nothing to address the systemic roots of gang involvement: poverty, racism, and drug prohibition,” he says in the release. “Instead, the cops profile and criminalize youth of colour, making the situation worse.”
Scrapping the RCMP was a big election promise from Mayor Doug McCallum and his Safe Surrey Coalition.
McCallum says the city has outgrown the RCMP, and is hoping to have the Surrey Police Department up within two years.
