Opinion: Defund413 Amherst Calls On Public To Speak Up At November Budget Forum

It’s budget season again in Amherst and there’s a lot to get noisy about! Defund413Amherst hopes you’ll speak up for a more just Amherst at the Public Budget Forum on Monday November 21 at 6 p.m. in the Town Room at Town Hall or on Zoom (forum Zoom link).

• CRESS has launched! But it doesn’t have the staff it needs to operate 24/7.
  
• The Amherst Police Department has been mistreating local residents, including omitting and distorting facts after telling Amherst youth they “have no rights” this past July 5th and restraining a cooperative Hampshire student.
  
• There are still no concrete plans for funding many of the Community Safety Working Group’s (CSWG) recommendations (Part A | Part B), including those for creating a BIPOC Cultural Center and Youth Empowerment Center as well as for implementing an extended process of racial healing and visioning for the town.

Not sure what to say?

• Share our demands (below)
• Use our Public Comment Guide, updated for the FY24 budget cycle 

Demands for Amherst’s FY24 Budget:

1. Fund eight more responders for CRESS
2. Maintain CRESS as an independent town body
3. Fund a BIPOC Cultural Center and a Youth Empowerment Center (CSWG Part A, pg 15)
4. Reduce the size and budget of the town’s police force by half
5. Establish a victim’s compensation fund for those who are mistreated by police (Community Safety and Social Justice Committee’s July 29 letter).

Fund an extended process of community racial healing and visioning (CSWG Part B, pg 41).

Defund413 Amherst works to take as much money away from the Amherst Police Department as possible as a step towards the abolition of police and policing.