Caravan for Justice Action Report
Recap of the Hayward Community Coalition's recent action
*You are receiving this publication because you signed up through the Hayward Community Coalition website or the Southern Alameda County Resistance Network.*
On behalf of the Hayward Community Coalition, we would like to send our sincerest gratitude to the community members who made our first official action — The Caravan for Justice — a success.
On July 27, 2020, Hayward community members came together and caravanned to Mayor Barbara Halliday’s house. Our goal was to express our collective disappointment with her and her City Council colleagues’ blatant disregard for the community’s call to defund the police. Upwards of 80 community members attended the event with over 40 cars driving up and down Mission Blvd. Participants peacefully chanted, sang, danced, and made art in the name of justice.
Protests have erupted globally in response to the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. The injustices we witnessed in Minneapolis and Louisville mirrored the systemic violence many of us are familiar with in Hayward, where the lives of several Hayward residents have been taken by the police. Over the last two months, local activists have organized marches, rallies, and protests and Hayward people have shown up by the hundreds to support the Black Lives Matter movement’s call to end police violence. Our community is being moved to action. The message of our protests is clear:
Our police system is NOT working for us.
Activists, organizers, teachers, parents, students, and workers came together and formed the Hayward Community Coalition. We put forward a set of demands that addressed our collective concerns. Among the solutions is a proposal for the city to put 10% of the $78.9 million police budget, which makes up 45% of Hayward’s general fund expenditure, towards underfunded community needs such as mental health services, substance abuse services, housing, and education.
We must rethink what causes crime and how we choose to address it.
Our request is generous to HPD, when cities like Oakland and Seattle have asked for a 50% reduction. When we say “defund the police”, we’re addressing the root causes of crime head on: defunded public resources. Our city has seen an increase in its police budget over the last few years and yet crime continues to rise.
Increased police budgets have not reduced crime.
Despite growing support from community members as evidenced by scores of public comments, phone calls, and emails to Hayward City Council over the past several weeks, the Council has consistently brushed aside our concerns about police brutality. Instead, they’ve decided to throw $74,000 of our taxpayer dollars at outside consultants who aren’t representative of communities affected by police brutality will only delay any meaningful police reform from being achieved. With lives at risk every day, waiting two years for a survey to tell us what we already know is unacceptable. We will continue to insist that our elected officials consult with US.
Again, thank you to everyone who has supported us by boosting our message on social media, calling and writing city officials, and showing up to protests and actions. Please continue to encourage your friends, neighbors, and families to keep up with our actions by signing up at haycocoa.org or following us on instagram and twitter. The HCC is a grassroots movement with some exciting projects in the works. We need all the help we can get!
Together, we can harness the power of our community to push for positive change. We will continue to organize and hold our representatives accountable to us, their constituents. We can build a Hayward for everyone. Let’s Protect the Stack!