“Phoenix police is a problem, they take it too far, they killed Dion Johnson for sleeping in a car,” chanted hundreds of people gathered outside the Phoenix City Council Chambers Wednesday afternoon.
The protesters were not only chanting for the council to defund the Phoenix Police Department by 25%, but they were chanting for justice.
They were demanding justice for George Floyd, Dion Johnson, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade and several other black Americans who have been killed by police officers in recent weeks.
The Phoenix City Council was scheduled to vote on the $1.3 billion annual budget Wednesday evening, but instead decided to continue the discussion in a special meeting on Monday at 11 a.m.
The protesters are demanding the council to add $2.5 million to the Office of Accountability and Transparency, by cutting the proposed fund of $745 million for the Police Department.
The protest began at 1:30 p.m. and was peaceful. After protesting for nearly six hours during an excessive heat warning, the crowd left around the 8 p.m. curfew, with no conclusion from the council.
A group who organized the rally, Poder in Action, demands that the council defund the Phoenix Police Department and invest that money in programs that create, “safe and healthy communities.”
“Defund the police by 25% and move that money into programs that create safe and healthy communities, pass a budget that prioritizes community health and not police pay raises, pass a budget that supports police accountability, to end collaboration between Phoenix Police,” Poder in Action said in a statement.
Denisse Cazares, 17, said she has been a member of Poder in Action since she was a sophomore in high school.
“They’ve been working on the police budget for years, they want to make our community safe, so we can walk around and not have to worry about the people that are supposed to be protecting us,” Cazares said.
An investigative study by the Arizona Republic shows that in 2018, the Phoenix Police fired more shots at people than any other U.S city.
“The first step to make this problem better is defunding the police, especially Phoenix police, because they are one of the deadliest police departments in the country,” Cazares said.
While some chanted at the doors of the Phoenix City Council Chambers, others passed out water, food, hand sanitizer and face masks.
Rebecca Mchood, a community activist, wheeled a cart filled with ice buckets, water, gatorade, snacks and a sign that read, “heat relief.”
Mchood said she came to the protest because she knew people were going to suffer from heat exhaustion and wanted to help assist in keeping the protesters feeling well.
“If you believe in the Constitution, now’s the time to show it. If you thought you would march with Martin Luther King Jr., get down here and show it,” Mchood said.
Jason Odhner, a volunteer nurse, said that the medical volunteers dealt with many people who collapsed from heat exhaustion and that those planning to protest should bring plenty of water, a hat and anything to keep them cool.
“It’s not safe for people to be out in this heat, but the Phoenix PD is far more deadly than the weather we are experiencing,” said Odhner.
Contact the reporter at imartill@asu.edu.
