The Recorder – City Council and police funding  | #citycouncil

Last week, Greenfield Police Chief Robert Haigh Jr. made an aggrieved presentation to City Council claiming that he has to cut the night shift because the Council defunded the police, and he said that this would make our town unsafe. But the council’s budget cut came after the chief was found guilty of racial bias in a court of law, and after the mayor refused to discipline him; it was the only tool at their disposal for responding to the verdict. I see the chief’s decision to cut the night shift as just a bullying tactic. When we allow police to hold a monopoly on defining and creating “public safety,” it means they can withhold that so-called “safety” whenever they don’t get everything they want. We should not allow ourselves to be held hostage like this! Please join the effort to move resources away from policing and toward programs and practices that will actually ensure safety for us all, like housing-first initiatives, civilian crisis response teams, and non-punitive addiction treatment and mental health care. I thank the City Council for standing up for all of us against police bullying.

Marianna Ritchey

Greenfield