Seattle DSA stands in solidarity with Black lives and the demands laid out by the coalition led by the Covid19 Mutual Aid Seattle. We are organizing a phone zap to put pressure on local officials to meet our demands below. What do we mean by phone zap? You will NOT just be told to call into a central number and leave a voicemail. We will be calling a selected list of phone numbers, from both the Mayor's office and certain city council representatives, in shifts. Each shift will be led by a call leader. We will attempt to tie up more than 10 phone lines for as long as possible.

This will put pressure on the Mayor and other local officials, and force them to acknowledge the demands of the movement.  

We invite you to stand in solidarity with the movement led by black people, indigenous people, and people of color, and sign up for a shift making calls on Tuesday, June 9th and Wednesday, June 10th. When you sign up, your call leader will contact you and send you the zap script and a list of numbers to call.

As laid out by Covid19 Mutual Aid Seattle here https://tinyurl.com/defundspd, our demands are:

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.